- 60 Hartsdale Rd, Rochester NY 14622
- 7am to 7pm · 7 days a week
- Call an owner: 585 454 8422
In Webster, a lot of winter heat pump calls start outside. Lake snow drifts over the outdoor unit, ice drops off the roof onto the fan, or defrost water freezes solid underneath it. Sometimes that is all it is. Sometimes the snow is hiding a real fault. We tell you which, and we fix it.
No heat in winter, no cool in a heat wave, busted lines. We answer the phone day or night, weekends included.
Webster sits right on Lake Ontario and Irondequoit Bay, and when the wind comes off the water, lake effect bands can drop a lot of snow fast and drift it against the side of the house. That is exactly where most outdoor heat pump units sit. When snow closes off the coil, the unit cannot pull heat out of the air, it ices over, and the backup heat quietly takes over.
New York Clean Heat installation standards call for the outdoor unit to sit on a stand or wall bracket 6 to 18 inches up, depending on the spot, and to stay out of the roof drip line. Plenty of units around Webster were set on a pad at ground level or tucked under the eaves, and those are the units that struggle first in a snowy stretch. We fix the fault in front of us, and if the way the unit is set up will keep causing it, we tell you that too.
Justin VanCassele and Colby Baker run AmeriHeat together. Colby is a veteran. Both owners are on jobs every week across Rochester and Monroe, Wayne and Ontario Counties.
Give them a call. They actually pick up.
Three things you can safely check yourself, and three that need us.
Wind off the lake piles snow against the house, often right over the outdoor unit. A heat pump needs air moving across the coil, so a buried unit ices up and the backup heat takes over. Clear the snow by hand with a soft brush, never a shovel edge, and keep the top and sides open.
A unit under the eaves takes falling ice and roof drip all winter. Drip freezes on top of the fan grille and can lock the fan. Look up before you look down. If the roof line is right above it, that is the cause, and it is worth fixing for good.
Every defrost cycle sends meltwater out of the bottom of the unit. With no gravel bed or stand, that water refreezes into a block that grows until it reaches the coil. A unit sitting in its own ice needs to be raised, not just chipped out.
Lake storms knock the power out. Some manufacturers say that after an outage longer than 30 minutes you should run emergency heat for a few hours first, so the compressor can warm up. If it still will not run, or trips the breaker, stop resetting it and call.
The aux light coming on in a cold snap is normal. Aux heat running all night on a mild evening means the heat pump is not doing its share and electric strips are heating the house instead. You usually see it on the electric bill first.
If the outdoor fan will not spin once the ice is gone, or you hear grinding or a loud hum, switch it off. That points to a seized fan motor, a failed capacitor, or a compressor problem, and running it longer makes the repair bigger.
First, look at the outdoor unit. If it is buried or caked in ice, clear the snow by hand and give it time. Do not chip at the ice. If the house is getting cold, switch the thermostat to emergency heat to keep warm tonight. That runs the backup heat and leaves the outdoor unit alone. It is a stopgap, not a fix, and it costs more to run, so call us if the heat pump does not recover on its own.
Three things not to do. Do not cover the outdoor unit for winter, because it needs airflow to work. Do not pour boiling water on the coil, because the sudden heat can damage it. And do not hit or scrape the fins. They are thin aluminum around the refrigerant lines, and one puncture turns a snow problem into a major repair.
A furnace does not care how much snow is in the yard. A heat pump does, because its heat comes from the outdoor air passing over the coil. Lake effect bands can drop a lot of snow in a short time, and wind off the water drifts it into corners and against walls. A unit that sat fine all fall can be half buried by morning. That is why the height of the stand and the spot it sits in matter more in Webster than in most of the county.
The diagnostic is $99 and it is real work. We find the actual fault and give you a straight price before we touch anything. And if the problem is snow, ice, or placement rather than a broken part, we will say so.
Webster grew fast from the 1960s through the 2000s, from about 16,000 people to over 42,000. A lot of those homes started with a furnace and added a heat pump later, or added a ductless unit for a sunroom, an addition, or a lake cottage conversion. When the two systems share a thermostat, a heat pump fault can hide behind the furnace for weeks. The house stays warm and the bill climbs. We check how the two are set to hand off, not just the outdoor unit.
Not sure if it is snow or a real fault? Call 585 454 8422 or request service. Tell us what it is doing and we will tell you straight.
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Call the owners directly. If it is a real fault we will find it. If it is snow or ice, we will tell you how to clear it safely instead of booking a visit.
Call, email, or send the form. Not a call center. Describe what your heat pump is doing and we will tell you honestly whether it needs a visit.
