I have a RHEEM 4 ton central heat/air unit I belive to be around 6 or 7 years old, (thats what th eprevious owner told me). Well all summer the AC would run NON STOP and the house night get down to 75deg if I was lucky. I had it checked out and the guy cleaned it and checked the pressures and said everything was fine its just really hot out.... Well everyone else I know if there air runs ALL DAY even on a 100 deg day the house will be 60 deg inside.

Anyways, its now cold outside (only about 40-45 at night) and the house will not get above 70deg at night. The heat runs NON stop at night and the AUX heat(im guessing that stants for auxiliary) will come on and stay on for quite a while and when it does come on it makes a awfull sound outsude at the unit for about 2 seconds.
It will blow heat for a while then the air will turn cool, then it will blow heat then cool ect.

Very sorry for the long post just trying to describe this problem. Thanks alot

 

ok I just looked outside and there was frost everywere.
Its 26 DEg outside! and my house wont get above 65!!!!
its only 1200sq ft

 

Is your AUX heat even working? These would usually be electric strips. Im no expert but this is what I gathered from my reading over the past few months.

What you need to do is call in a pro, maybe not the same company as last time though. Your call there.

 

[QUOT). Well all summer the AC would run NON STOP and the house night get down to 75deg if I was lucky. I had it checked out and the guy cleaned it and checked the pressures and said everything was fine its just really hot out.... E][/QUOTE]
First I think Id call another tech to check it out. IT dont sound like it cooled the home and now it dont heat the home. All that frost is right . But it should go into a defrost and get it off then. At this time it might look that you see smoke come from the condenser. Its just steam. now anytime the H/P cant warm the home and the tstat drops another 2 o the strip heaters should turn on to help. When the unit is running in heat. The big copper line should be hot.

This could be low freon or outdoor unit not on??????

 

If your thermostat has an "EM HEAT" setting, switch it to that setting and bump the temperature control up to a higher setting.. This will by-pass the AUX or condenser unit and you should get steady heat blowing from the air handler. This will be costly, but at least you will warm the house. Then get someone to service what sounds to be a heat pump related issue.

 

If your thermostat has an "EM HEAT" setting, switch it to that setting and bump the temperature control up to a higher setting.. This will by-pass the AUX or condenser unit and you should get steady heat blowing from the air handler. This will be costly, but at least you will warm the house. Then get someone to service what sounds to be a heat pump related issue.

 

The fact that it didn't cool and not doesn't heat tells me that. Get a new tech.

Try Bob's suggestion, it should work from what you've said but the dial on your electric meter will spin at hyper speed.

AUXiliary heat and Emergency heat are the same component in your system. Aux heat is to help the heatpump get to the set temp. If the temp is 2 degrees or so below the set temp aux heat should come on to help the heat pump get to the set temp faster and save some run time.

Aux heat also comes on when the heatpump defrosts. Basically the heatpump tells the airhandler (indoor unit) that it is switching to a/c to remove all the frost on the coil. As Ed said, you may see steam.

The two seconds of loud noise from the outdoor unit is probably (99.999% sure) the unit going into defrost. The outdoor unit doesn't stop. At the same time it tells the indoor unit to turn on electric heat (you feel more heat coming out in your current situation) and switches the refrigerant flow to a/c mode.

In a nutshell, in a/c mode the unit tries to take heat from inside and disharge heat outside. In heat mode we are trying to heat the outside and cool the outside. The cooler it is outside the less capacity you heatpump has. And vice versa in a/c.

So my friend back to my beginning (and you thought your post was long) I think you are low on charge.

Try Bob's suggestion and use Emergency. Call another tech and have the charge checked. Rheem usually has both cooling and heating charge curve one the access panel.

Don't forget to ask about dye if your are low on refrigerant and a leak is not found.

Whew. My wife is looking at me funny for typing so much.

Happy Thanksgiving.

 

haha, thanks alot guys.
Its about 10 deg warmer now so hopefully it will keep it warmer till I can get someone out here.

thanks very much

 

I tried running the emergency heat and it doesnt seem to help a bit. Still blows maybe 3-5 deg warmer air out the vents than in the house.
Why wouldnt the emergency heat work?

 

Call a tech to look at it. From first post could be low freon. last post are all the electric elements on when you call for heat. Filter clean coil clean????

 

I would assume the heating elements were on I have never turned them off. the little red light came on on the thermostat when I turned Emergency heat on.
I just payied a little closer attention to it,
it will run in normal mode for about 3-5 mins, then AUX will kick on and it will actually put out heat, then aux will kick off befor it reaches the tempurature I have set on the T stat and it will cool back down and AUX will come back on. It never stops, just runs like that now that it is 25 deg outside.

 

Turn the EMG. heat on and look at you power meter, it should really be spinning. Actually look before and after to see the diff. If little or no diff. then the strips are unhooked, bad, bad contactor or no voltage to contactor. If your unit has an outdoor sensor the HP may not come on @ 25 deg.