Heating Repair in Ocala, FL
Marion County heats with heat pumps and heat strips, not furnaces. When the first January cold snap finds the problem, we fix it.
Marion County does not have a heating season so much as a heating fortnight: a handful of mornings between December and February when it drops into the 20s and 30s and every heat pump in the county gets asked to do the one thing it has not done since March. That is when the reversing valve that has been sticking, the defrost board that has been marginal, and the heat strips that quietly burned out two winters ago all show up at once.
Almost every home here heats with a heat pump, with electric resistance strips for backup, or with strips alone on an older straight-cool system. Gas furnaces are rare. We repair all of it, and the first thing we tell you on a heating call is whether the system is actually broken or just doing what heat pumps do on a cold morning, which is a real distinction that saves a lot of people a service call.
Broken, or just a heat pump in the cold?
Air from the vents feels cool. A heat pump delivers air around 90 to 100 degrees, which feels cool against skin that is 98. That is normal. If the house is holding temperature, nothing is wrong.
Steam and a pause on a frosty morning. That is the defrost cycle: the outdoor coil ices up below about 40 degrees and the system briefly runs in reverse to melt it, sometimes with a whoosh and a cloud of vapor. Normal. If it never comes out of defrost, or the outdoor unit is a block of ice, that is a call.
"Aux heat" or "emergency heat" on the thermostat. The strips kicking in during a cold snap or a big setpoint jump is normal. The strips running all the time, and a power bill that doubled, is not; the heat pump side has usually failed and the strips are carrying the house at several times the cost.
No heat, fan blowing cold. Reversing valve stuck in cooling, a failed defrost control, low charge, or a tripped high-limit on the strip heater. That is a diagnosis, and the same instrument-first, price-before-work visit as a cooling repair.
The heating check we do in the fall
Part of a twice-a-year maintenance plan, or on its own before the first freeze.
- Force a heating cycle and a defrost Verify the reversing valve shifts, the defrost board initiates and terminates, and the outdoor sensor reads correctly.
- Heat strips under load Amp draw on each stage against its rating. A strip that reads open has been dead since last winter and nobody knew.
- Sequencers, relays, high-limit The controls that stage the strips and shut them off if airflow drops.
- Thermostat staging Confirm the thermostat is calling the heat pump first and the strips second, with a sensible lockout. A miswired or badly configured thermostat runs the strips every morning of the winter.
Usually goes with
Related services
AC Maintenance
A Florida system runs nine months a year. A real tune-up with measured readings, a cleared drain and a written report keeps it alive longer.
AC maintenance in OcalaHeat Pumps & Mini-Splits
For the garage, the lanai, the addition, the tack room. Ductless zones that cool one space without touching the rest of the house.
Heat pump and mini-split installation in OcalaAC Repair
Not cooling, blowing warm, tripping the breaker, water at the air handler. Diagnosed first, priced before we touch it, fixed at the cause.
AC repair in OcalaQuestions we get asked
Heating Repair questions
Why is my heat pump blowing cold air?
Do I need a furnace in Florida?
My electric bill jumped in January. Is that the heat?
Furnace repair in Ocala: do you do gas?
Where we work
Heating repair across Marion County
Free quotes
Tell us what the system is doing
We call you back to set a time, come look at it with you, and you get the price before any work starts. Free, and no obligation either way.