We have a 13 year old UltraTemp 120 heat pump (came with the house we moved to 3 years ago).
We had an issue 2 years ago where the capacitor needed to be replaced -- it was just starting up and cycling repeatedly, but a local HVAC / Pentair repair company was able to replace it, and it started working again.
A few days ago, we ran into a new issue for the first time. After running fine for a few days, it stopped with a "Low Refrig" alarm. I noticed the fan did not spin when it was starting up before stopping with the alarm. Having read about the possible causes of this, we assumed we'd need a service call. I decided to flip the breaker and then power it back on. Surprisingly, it started up again without an issue and ran for another day or two seemingly fine. It then ended up on the "Low Refrig" status again.
Today I tried cycling the power again, but noticed the fan again not spinning when start up. I gave the fan a nudge with a long stick through the top grate, and then it actually did start spinning and has been running for an hour or more so far.
A few questions:
* Does this description of being able to get it working by nudging the fan suggest a particular reason for the alarm?
* Is it safe to run it like this, if I can get it working by manually starting the fan?
* Any idea how much a typical repair for something like this would cost? (For reference, the capacitor replacement a couple years ago was $300).
* Is it worth trying to repair this at all?
Thanks!
We had an issue 2 years ago where the capacitor needed to be replaced -- it was just starting up and cycling repeatedly, but a local HVAC / Pentair repair company was able to replace it, and it started working again.
A few days ago, we ran into a new issue for the first time. After running fine for a few days, it stopped with a "Low Refrig" alarm. I noticed the fan did not spin when it was starting up before stopping with the alarm. Having read about the possible causes of this, we assumed we'd need a service call. I decided to flip the breaker and then power it back on. Surprisingly, it started up again without an issue and ran for another day or two seemingly fine. It then ended up on the "Low Refrig" status again.
Today I tried cycling the power again, but noticed the fan again not spinning when start up. I gave the fan a nudge with a long stick through the top grate, and then it actually did start spinning and has been running for an hour or more so far.
A few questions:
* Does this description of being able to get it working by nudging the fan suggest a particular reason for the alarm?
* Is it safe to run it like this, if I can get it working by manually starting the fan?
* Any idea how much a typical repair for something like this would cost? (For reference, the capacitor replacement a couple years ago was $300).
* Is it worth trying to repair this at all?
Thanks!