In this podcast, John Maher and Jesse Corso from N.E.T.R., Inc. discuss essential maintenance and troubleshooting for ductless heat pumps. They cover routine tasks such as filter cleaning, annual maintenance checks, and advanced hydro cleaning, which helps keep systems efficient and reliable. Jesse also shares troubleshooting tips, common issues like clogged drains, refrigerant leaks, and what homeowners can do on their own to maintain system performance.
John Maher: Hi. I am, John Maher, and I’m here today with, Jesse Corso, Comfort Consultant with N.E.T.R., Inc., a heating and cooling company in Massachusetts for the focus on ductless heating and cooling products. Today we’re talking about ductless heat pump maintenance and troubleshooting. Welcome, Jesse.
Jesse Corso: Hi John.
What Type of Maintenance is Recommended for Ductless Heat Pumps?
John: So, what are some of the recommended maintenance practices for a ductless heat pump system?
Jesse: So, we would definitely recommend at least one maintenance probably per year for ductless system if you’re using it year round, maybe even two maintenances a year from us, from our service department. And that would involve coming out, washing the indoor air filters, washing the outside condenser coil, blowing out drain lines, checking refrigerant levels, checking electrical connections and electrical consumption. Just really putting the system through its paces, making sure that you’re good to go for the upcoming heating or cooling season.
What Should Maintenance Take Place on Ductless Heat Pump Systems?
John: And when do you recommend that people do those maintenance tasks?
Jesse: So, if you’re using the system mainly as an air conditioner, then we would probably recommend in the springtime having us come out and do an AC maintenance. If you’re using it mainly as heat for the winter coming out maybe in the fall before heating season to check the unit then. If you’re using it 100% for both seasons, then once in the spring, once in the fall would be ideal. Just basically call us out to have an inspection done right before you think you about to start using that system a lot.
What Other Type of System Cleaning Is Offered?
John: Are there any other types of cleaning that you guys offer that if I really want to make sure that my system is cleaned and maintained as well as possible?
Jesse: So, aside from just the standard ductless maintenance that we perform, we also, N.E.T.R. also offers what’s called a hydro cleaning where we can take the cover off that indoor unit that’s mounted to, the wall-mounted indoor unit, we can pull the cover right off that and really just take a… Basically it’s a mini pressure washer and we can wash that thing down completely and thoroughly, catch all the dirt and debris in a bucket and dump that out outside or down the drain. That’s called a hydro clean. We probably recommend that maybe every three to five years or so doing that type of cleaning on each individual indoor head. You’d be surprised at the stuff that comes out of those things.
What Does Hydro Cleaning Do?
John: Yeah, I was going to say, what does that do beyond just the normal cleaning that you do when you clean your filters?
Jesse: It cleans the actual coil that’s behind those filters and it also cleans out the blower wheel. So there’s a little fan wheel in there that’s constantly turning and they tend to get gunked up with dirt a lot. So that’ll clean not only the coil but the fan wheel. We’ll pull the filters out before we do the hydro clean, we’ll clean those separately.
Are There Any Troubleshooting Tips for Ductless Heat Pumps?
John: Okay. And then are there any other common troubleshooting issues that might arise with ductless heat pumps in terms of mechanical failures or anything like that?
Jesse: So, they’re pretty reliable systems. We really don’t have too much… we don’t have many issues, but I guess what I would say is you get the occasional drain clog, which we’re blowing out on the maintenance anyway, so often we don’t see that, but occasionally you get the drain clog. Sometimes you get a… these things are run off refrigerant, there’s no gas, there’s no natural gas or oil for these systems, it’s all refrigerant related. So you get the occasional refrigerant leak in these systems, which we’ll come out, leak check, diagnose, repair, all that. That’s another troubleshooting issue we come across.
John: So as long as you’re getting that regular maintenance, you’re checking for things like leaks and clogged drain pipes and things like that so you’re probably taking care of those things when you’re coming out for a maintenance.
Jesse: Yup. We’re blowing up drains. We’re running the system to identify any possible refrigerant level issues that we may or may not have, but we’re putting the system through its paces in order to find out if it’s a problem.
What Should Homeowners Do For Their Ductless Heat Pump System?
John: And then what should homeowners be doing on their own in order to make sure that their system is as clean and maintained as possible?
Jesse: Really for a homeowner, the best thing to do is to periodically check and clean those indoor air filters. There are small little washable filters that can be removed from the unit, rinsed off in the sink or rinsed off with the hose outside and popped right back in. Pretty easy task would go a long way, but that’s about it. Changing the batteries in the remote, that’s a big thing to do too. They got two AAA batteries in those remotes, so keeping those batteries, maybe changing those once a year or so and washing those air filters.
How Often Should Heat Pump Filters be Cleaned?
John: How often should the air filters be cleaned?
Jesse: It depends on how much you’re using that system. If you’re using it for really only air conditioning, I would check it at the beginning of the season, check it midway through the AC season. So give a look at those, potential cleaning for those twice a year, fusing it for heating and cooling every quarter or so check them and clean them four times a year.
John: And you’d probably be able to tell too, if you’re going in and cleaning it and it’s completely full of dust, then maybe you’re not cleaning it as often as you need to be because a lot of it probably depends on how much dust is in your home and that might vary from home to home.
Jesse: How much dust is in your home, how much runtime that particular unit is seeing. If it’s in a room that’s unoccupied a lot and it’s off a lot, probably the filter is probably not going to get too dirty, but you’ll get a good sense of it when you pull them out. If you can’t see light through them, you’ll know you got to clean them more often. If there’s absolutely nothing coming off of those filters when you wash them, then you could probably go a little bit longer than usual.
John: All right. Well, that’s really great information, Jesse. Thanks again for speaking with me today.
Jesse: Thanks for having me, John.
Information About N.E.T.R.
John: For more information, you can visit the N.E.T.R website at netrinc.com or call (781) 933-NETR, that’s (781) 933-6387.
