{"id":1622,"date":"2014-12-03T10:35:01","date_gmt":"2014-12-03T15:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.boehmerheating.com\/blog\/?p=1622"},"modified":"2025-06-03T14:58:33","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T18:58:33","slug":"what-can-happen-if-your-heat-pump-loses-refrigerant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.boehmerheating.com\/blog\/heating\/what-can-happen-if-your-heat-pump-loses-refrigerant\/","title":{"rendered":"What Can Happen if Your Heat Pump Loses Refrigerant"},"content":{"rendered":"

The heat pump is one of the most efficient types of home comfort systems available for both heating and cooling. More and more, people are making the switch to heat pumps since they require little energy to run and may last longer than many other types of AC systems. However, like any type of electro-mechanical unit, a heat pump requires maintenance<\/a> in order to run properly and offer the best performance. And one of the key steps of heat pump maintenance involves checking the refrigerant levels. To keep your system running smoothly year-round, review<\/span> how to maintain your heat pump<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The term \u201cheat pump\u201d is a bit confusing as it leads many people to believe these are mostly used for heating purposes. However, the design of a heat pump is much closer to that of a standard home air conditioner. Heat pumps use refrigerant to cycle throughout the major components of the system in order to carry out heat exchange. In the summer, a heat pump uses refrigerant to absorb heat from the air in your home and move it outdoors. In the winter, it uses refrigerant to absorb heat form outside, even in very cool weather, to bring into the home.<\/p>\n

As you can see, refrigerant, a chemical blend with the ability to convert easily from gas to liquid state and vice versa, is vital in heat pump operation. When refrigerant leaks, you simply cannot get the heating and cooling power that you need as the heat exchange process is jeopardized. But sometimes, the diminishing heating or cooling power is still tolerable, which leads many to believe they can continue to run their system on low refrigerant. For a deeper understanding of how refrigerant issues can affect performance, especially in challenging climates, read more about the<\/span> pros and cons of heat pumps in cold weather<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, you should keep in mind that this is simply not an option. If you continue to run your heat pump at all with leaking refrigerant, you can damage a couple of key components. For one, you may force the indoor coil to freeze over during the evaporation process. But more importantly, you could damage the compressor, one of the most important (and costly) parts of your whole unit.<\/p>\n

Only a trained and certified professional can work with refrigerant safely. Call Boehmer Heating & Cooling<\/a> whenever you experience problems with your heat pump in Brentwood. We know how risky it is to wait for repairs so we\u2019ll get the job done quickly and professionally. If your heat pump is stuck or not transitioning between modes properly, it might be due to refrigerant issues\u2014here\u2019s<\/span> how to get a heat pump unstuck from cooling mode<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The heat pump is one of the most efficient types of home comfort systems available for both heating and cooling. More and more, people are making the switch to heat pumps since they require little energy to run and may last longer than many other types of AC systems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[98,156],"class_list":["post-1622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-heating","tag-brentwood","tag-heat-pump"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boehmerheating.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boehmerheating.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boehmerheating.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boehmerheating.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boehmerheating.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1622"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.boehmerheating.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3493,"href":"https:\/\/www.boehmerheating.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1622\/revisions\/3493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boehmerheating.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boehmerheating.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boehmerheating.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}