The other day my Dad sent me a video of his heat pump making a loud noise and vibrating after a snow storm. The video is about why your heat pump can be loud or just making a strange noise in the winter time. This is due to a build up of ice on your fan blades and can cause serious damage to your heat pump. It is best to turn the unit off and run your emergency heat such as a furnace until the ice has melted off the outdoor fan. Your heat pump also has a defrost mode and we explain how the defrost mode works and why it is a problem if the defrost mode is not working properly.
What is happening when the heat pump is noisy
If your heat pump is noisy after a winter snow, the likely cause is due to an accumulation of ice on the fan blade outside. Much like when the wheel on your car makes a noise and vibrates when it is even a little bit out of balance. When there is ice on your fan blade, you will also notice your heat pump cabinet vibrating.
Noisy heat pump example
Here is an example of what it looks like and sounds like when a heat pump has an accumulation of ice on the fan blade outside: Example of an actual Heat Pump with ice on the fan blade.
What to do when your heat pump has ice on the fan:
Turn off heat pump when it makes a loud noise in cold weather.
Sometimes the noise from your heat pump can be subtle, but ice on your fan blade is extremely hard on your motor. You can lose and completely tear up your fan blade because of the extreme build up of ice.
So, turn off the heat pump to let it thaw. Use emergency heat instead. This should run your supplemental heat such as a gas furnace.
What is defrost mode on the heat pump?
Defrost mode is a normal cycle that the heat pump will go into. Every 60-90 minutes the heat pump will ask itself “do I have ice?” If it does, it will basically put itself into emergency heat mode on the inside of your home and turn the air conditioner mode on the unit outside.
You will hear a whoosh sound when it is defrost mode.
You may feel a bit of a cool draft since the air conditioner is actually turning on for a few minutes before going back to heat mode.
Is it normal to have frost on your heat pump?
It is normal to occasionally have a little bit of frost on your heat pump, but not an extreme accumulation of frost, snow or ice.
Watch the video below for the full explanation about what to do when you have a noisy heat pump in the winter:
For more information on heating problems in the winter, we hope you enjoy this article: Quick and Easy Checks To Fix Heating Problems During Snow
