A heat pump is the one system in your house that never gets a break. It cools you in July and heats you in January, so when it quits, it quits at the worst possible time. Novus Mechanical repairs heat pumps across Freehold and Monmouth County, and we start every call the same way: we find out what actually broke before we touch a single part.
Most heat pump trouble looks scary and turns out to be one bad component. The trick is knowing which one. A bad guess means a part you didn't need and a system that still doesn't work. So we measure first.
The most common heat pump problems are a system that runs but won't warm the house, one that runs nonstop and won't cool, an iced-over outdoor coil, strange noises or smells, and short-cycling, and each one points to a different part of the system. Your heat pump runs but the house won't warm up, or the air blowing out feels cool when it should feel hot: that's the most common call we get in winter across Monmouth County. In summer it flips. The system runs nonstop and the house still climbs past the setpoint, and the list of likely faults overlaps a lot between the two seasons.
| Symptom | Likely cause | What Novus measures |
|---|---|---|
| Runs but house won't warm up | Refrigerant problem, a stuck reversing valve, or a defrost cycle not doing its job | Refrigerant charge, reversing valve operation, defrost cycle |
| Runs nonstop but won't cool | Low refrigerant from a slow leak, a weak compressor, or a dirty outdoor coil | Refrigerant charge, compressor performance, coil airflow |
| Solid ice on the outdoor coil | Low refrigerant or a failed defrost cycle (light frost in cold weather is normal) | Defrost cycle timing, refrigerant charge |
| Grinding, screeching, or a burning smell | A failing motor, fan, or an electrical fault | Motor and fan condition, electrical components |
| Short-cycling on and off | A control fault, or the system isn't reaching temperature before shutting off | Control board, refrigerant charge, airflow |
You can find more general guidance on how a heat pump should run from ENERGY STAR, but a frozen coil or a burning smell is a call, not a DIY fix.
Novus diagnoses a heat pump in order, because the symptom you see is often three steps downstream from the real fault, and we don't swap parts and hope. Here is the sequence we run on every call:
That process is the same diagnostic-first work our technicians do on every job. Our team holds the NCI Residential HVAC System Performance Technician certification (#25-142-01) and the NCI Residential Air Balancer certification (#25-143-01), plus EPA certification (#P165BDDE28EAD0701) for handling refrigerant the right way.
Whether to repair or replace comes down to the unit's age and how many separate things are wrong with it, and Novus will tell you straight which side of the line yours falls on. A newer system with a single failed part is an easy repair. An older unit that needs a compressor, leaks refrigerant in more than one spot, or has already cost you a few repairs is a different conversation.
When replacement starts to make more sense, we walk you through the numbers instead of pushing you into a new system. If you do end up replacing it, that work lives on our heat pump installation page, and every install gets sized to your home, not matched to the old box. If your home runs on a gas furnace for heat, the repair side of that is covered on our furnace repair page.
Most heat pump failures Novus fixes were avoidable: a coil that nobody cleaned, a filter left in for a year, a low refrigerant charge that crept lower every season until the system finally gave out. A system checked twice a year, once before cooling season and once before heat, catches those problems while they're cheap. Our maintenance plan covers both visits. For more cooling help, start at our air conditioning and cooling hub.
When your heat pump is acting up, you can schedule an appointment online or call (848) 288-1133. We serve Freehold, Marlboro, Manalapan, and the rest of Monmouth County, and we'll find the real problem on the first visit.
We measure your home, explain what we find, and hand you one clear price. Book a consultation in Freehold or Monmouth County.
Updated August 2026 by Novus Mechanical, Freehold, NJ
