Why Your Ductless System Isn’t Heating or Cooling Your Home Right

Why Your Ductless System Isn’t Heating or Cooling Your Home Right

We’re at the time of year when you may need to have cooling power and heating power from your HVAC system during the same day. The weather remains warm through most of the year in Southern California, so air conditioners don’t get much of a break in winter. But our desert nights can get quite cool at this time of year, so having a heater ready to go is a necessity.

Having a ductless mini split heat pump is great for our climate because it can work as both a heater or air conditioner (just as with other heat pumps) and it only needs to run in occupied rooms, helping to save power. If it’s a cool night, you can just turn on the blower unit of the ductless system in a few rooms, or maybe even one, and not have to worry about the rest of the home.

But what if your ductless heating and cooling system isn’t doing what it’s supposed to? Are the units refusing to switch out of either heating or cooling mode, or is the air coming from the blower simply room temperature? There are a couple of possible causes for this.

First, check the batteries on the remote controls

Each wall-mounted blower unit has a remote control used to operate it. After all, it would be too much of a pain to have to find a step ladder and climb up to the unit each time you needed to adjust it! The remotes run on batteries, and if you find you can’t get one of the units to change its settings, try changing the batteries in the remote.

Check the central thermostat

Most ductless mini split systems are connected to a central control thermostat that can be used to operate the different blower units around the house. Look over this to see if a program isn’t overriding the settings elsewhere.

Broken reversing valve

If the above checks don’t solve the problem, there’s probably a more serious issue in the system. If none of the blower units will change over from heating to cooling mode (or vice versa), it’s likely there is a broken reversing valve in the outdoor unit. This valve is what allows the heat pump to change from cooling to heating. The valve controls the direction the refrigerant flows to each of the units, and this determines if the refrigerant coil in the unit either releases or absorbs heat. It takes professionals to either repair a stuck valve or replace it entirely.

Broken components of individual units

If only one of the blower units is behaving oddly and not providing the cooling/heating you want, the issue is probably mechanical trouble with the blower. You might want to tinker around with it yourself, but please don’t attempt this! These units are more complicated than they look. The good news is that it’s simply for a professional to replace an individual blower or replace it entirely without having to interfere with the rest of the system. (Yet another advantage of having a ductless system in the first place!)

For any repairs or other services you may need for ductless cooling or heating in Indio, CA, you can reach us 24 hours of the days.

Russell’s Heating & Air Conditioning serves the Yucaipa and Palm Desert areas.