Heat Pump Repair in Valrico, FL

A census-designated place is a named, settled community that is not legally incorporated under state law. Valrico is one, and the University of Florida's community report for it lists no city jurisdiction, only Hillsborough County. There is no Valrico building department to call.

The county's Development Services department covers permitting and building inspection for all of unincorporated Hillsborough County. Its permit process runs through the HillsGovHub portal, and its permit-exemption questions go to (813) 272-5600.

The county's exemption page is clear about equipment. It lists the replacement or relocation of mechanical equipment among repairs that are not minor and do require a permit. The county's residential exemption under HB 803 also stops short of this work. The county says that exemption does not apply when the work includes mechanical work, or when the property sits partly or entirely in a flood hazard area.

Emergencies get a short grace period. If equipment has to be replaced in an emergency, the county says the permit application can be submitted within the next working business day. After a declared disaster, applications can be postponed for up to 30 working days under conditions the county lists.

The county says a hired contractor will obtain the necessary permits. It also advises checking that the contractor holds a valid license and is insured to work in Hillsborough County. Our page on the Florida HVAC permit process walks through the steps.

The University of Florida GeoPlan Center's report on Valrico tracks housing from 1990 onward. The community had 5,406 housing units in 1990 and 9,091 in 2000. The count reached 13,366 in 2010 and 14,581 in the 2017-2021 American Community Survey. That is more than 9,000 units added in about three decades.

Single-family homes make up most of that stock, at 12,111 units in the latest survey. Owner-occupied homes number 10,932. The same report counts 1,975 mobile home units. It lists mobile home parks including Strawberry Ridge and Featherock Mobile Home Park, both with State Road 60 addresses, and Oakhill Village on Oakhill Ridge Road.

With homes from so many building periods, there is no single typical system to describe. If you are not sure what you have, our guide on how to tell if you have a heat pump helps. When you call, mention the kind of home and where the indoor unit sits.

The climate normals below come from NOAA's Plant City, Florida station, about 9 miles northeast of Valrico. These are 1991-2020 normals for that station, not readings taken in Valrico itself.

The January normal low there is 50.0°F, and the December normal low is 53.3°F. A normal year brings about 18 nights at or below 40°F. Only about 3 nights a year fall to 32°F or colder.

Heating degree days at Plant City normal about 436 a year. Cooling degree days normal about 3,848, almost nine times as many.

For a heat pump, those figures mean a long cooling season and only a handful of genuinely cold nights. The heating side can sit unused through the summer months, when normal lows from June through September stay above 71°F. A problem with it may not show until the first cool evening of the season.

Unlike a furnace or boiler, which generates heat, a heat pump moves heat from one place to another. In summer it reverses direction and works like an air conditioner. Refrigerant, the fluid sealed inside the system, absorbs heat and carries it.

The reversing valve

Carrier describes the reversing valve as the part that switches a heat pump between heating and cooling. One sign of trouble is a heat pump that works in one mode but not the other. Carrier says a unit that cools normally but fails to heat can have a stuck or malfunctioning reversing valve. It also says homeowners should not try to remove or replace the valve themselves.

Defrost on a cold morning

Lennox explains that the outdoor coil can get cold enough for moisture in the air to freeze onto it. The defrost cycle melts that frost by briefly reversing operation and sending heat to the outdoor coil. Warm air pauses for a short time, and you may hear a whoosh or see steam rising outside. Lennox says the whole process usually lasts between 5 and 15 minutes. Lennox says a heat pump that seems to enter defrost too often or run for unusually long periods may have a problem, and if frequent defrosting persists, it advises calling a professional. Our page on heat pump defrost mode covers what normal looks like.

Backup heat strips

Trane says electric heat strips installed in the indoor air handler serve as a heat pump's backup heat. The thermostat can bring them on when it is below 40 degrees outside, and during defrost. Plant City normally sees about 18 days a year with a low of 40°F or below. Trane says auxiliary heat that comes on and stays on above 40 degrees points to a problem worth a service call.

Three checks are safe for a homeowner. If any step feels unsafe, stop there.

1. Filter. ENERGY STAR advises inspecting, cleaning or changing the air filter once a month on a heat pump. A clogged filter, it warns, can damage the equipment and cause it to fail early. Our guide to HVAC air filters explains sizes and ratings.
2. Thermostat settings. Confirm the mode is Heat or Cool as intended and the setpoint is where you want it. Trane says emergency heat is a setting to use only in a true emergency, so do not switch to it to test the system. See our page on thermostat settings.
3. Vents, returns and the outdoor unit. Move furniture, rugs and storage off supply vents and return grilles. Pull leaves and yard debris away from the outdoor unit by hand. The University of Maryland Extension lists keeping clearance around equipment as basic upkeep.

If a breaker has tripped, leave it off and call a licensed contractor. Do not open any panel on the indoor or outdoor unit. Refrigerant work belongs with a licensed contractor; the EPA requires certification for technicians who service or repair equipment that could release certain refrigerants.

Blume Mechanical Service, LLC is a Class A licensed Florida air conditioning contractor (license CAC-1822618) and is fully insured. We are brand-agnostic and work on equipment from all major manufacturers. Our technicians are EPA Section 608 certified technicians, the federal refrigerant-handling credential.

Before any work starts, you get a written, upfront price. Where both make sense, we show repair and replacement numbers side by side. If replacement is the answer, we size the new heat pump with an ACCA Manual J load calculation and Manual S selection. Our guide on when to replace a heat pump covers that decision.

Our office is at 2840 West Bay Drive #114, Belleair Bluffs, FL 33770. Our core service area is Pinellas, Hillsborough and Pasco counties, and Valrico is in Hillsborough County. For the wider picture of HVAC service here, see our Valrico HVAC page.