3 Symptoms of a Refrigerant Leak in Your Heat Pump

The heat pump that heats and cools your Brookhaven, GA, home depends on refrigerant to function. Therefore, knowing how to spot a refrigerant leak is essential. Here are three telltale signs that your heat pump is leaking refrigerant:

Reduced Heating and Cooling Output

When you turn on your heat pump, its compressor activates to pressurize its refrigerant. That’s how a heat pump controls the temperature of its refrigerant, allowing it to move heat from place to place. In cooling mode, it carries heat out of your home, and in heating mode, it does the opposite.

Due to its dependence on refrigerant, your system will experience reduced heating and cooling output as refrigerant levels drop. Eventually, if the levels drop low enough, your heat pump will be unable to cool or heat your home.

Hissing or Gurgling Sounds

Your heat pump’s refrigerant runs through a closed and pressurized system. A leak somewhere in that system will often produce some predictable noises. If you hear a hissing sound coming from your heat pump, it means that there’s a leak from a high-pressure refrigerant line.

If you hear a gurgling sound, it may point to the presence of air bubbles in your refrigerant line. Ordinarily, there’s no way for air to enter those lines, so gurgling almost always results from a leak.

Frozen Coils

Paradoxically, your heat pump will run at abnormally low temperatures when refrigerant leaks occur. That can lead to a frozen indoor coil in cooling mode or a frozen outdoor coil in heating mode. It may cause your heat pump to enter defrost mode more often while heating and block airflow during cooling.

If you suspect that there’s a refrigerant leak in your heat pump in Brookhaven, GA, turn it off immediately. Then, call Ful-Bro Heating and Air Conditioning Inc. for a heat pump repair appointment.

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