Question for anyone who has lived with a heat pump for a few years.

[soumitss]

Question for anyone who has lived with a heat pump for a few years. Ours is about eight years old and lately it runs constantly in cold weather without really keeping up. It's not dead, the air coming out is just lukewarm and the backup heat seems to kick in way more than it used to. Is this the beginning of the end or is it something that gets fixed? Trying to figure out if I should be budgeting for a replacement. For context we're in a two story place, the system was installed by the previous owner and I have no service history for it at all. Nobody has touched it since we moved in three years ago, which I realize is probably part of the problem here.

[hydrogenn]

Lukewarm air plus heavy backup use usually points at refrigerant charge or a defrost control issue, and neither one means the system is finished. Eight years is young for these. Before you budget for a replacement, get someone to actually measure the charge and check the defrost cycle rather than eyeballing it. We had almost the same symptoms and had Product Air out for Heat Pump Repair in Seattle; it turned out to be a failed sensor and a slow leak at a fitting. Fixed for a fraction of a new system. One caveat, if they find a leak in the coil itself, the math changes fast and replacement becomes the honest answer.