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Pueblo County saw 552 severe weather events between 2015 and 2024, including 209 damaging wind events and 157 hail events. An outdoor heat pump unit sits outside through all of it, exposed to whatever hits the yard.
Hail can bend the fins on the outdoor coil and wind can drive debris into the cabinet without stopping the unit from turning on. If a storm came through recently, that's a reason to have the unit looked at even if you haven't noticed a problem yet.
NOAA nClimDiv, 1991–2020 normals
October is when heat pumps here switch over to heating after sitting idle since spring.
A weak part that made it through summer without much strain can give out once the system starts working to heat the house.
Electricity here runs 18.29 cents per kilowatt-hour, higher than most of the country pays. A heat pump that's struggling, low on refrigerant, fighting a bad capacitor, icing up, has to run longer to do the same job. That extra runtime shows up on the bill before it shows up as a breakdown. At this rate, a problem that costs a little more to run each month adds up fast if it sits unrepaired through a Pueblo winter.
If hail or wind came through recently, get the outdoor unit checked before you assume it's fine. A heat pump can keep running with bent fins or debris inside the cabinet, and that damage doesn't always announce itself right away.
Find a contractorIf a storm came through this year, don't wait for the unit to tell you something's wrong. Have it checked and let whoever services it know what the unit has been through since it was last looked at. That gives them a reason to check the coil fins and the cabinet for damage instead of just the part that's acting up now. This county logged 209 damaging wind events and 157 hail events between 2015 and 2024, and a unit that sat outside through that has had plenty of chances to pick up damage nobody noticed yet.
A heat pump low on refrigerant still runs. The compressor keeps trying to move a full load with less refrigerant than it needs, and that makes it run hotter than it's built to. Left alone, that heat can break down the oil that lubricates the compressor and wear out the parts inside it. A leak that would have been a simple repair turns into a compressor replacement.
Once ice starts building on the outdoor coil, the system can't pull heat through it the way it needs to. Running the unit harder to compensate doesn't melt that ice, it just makes the compressor work against a coil that can't do its job. Shutting the system down and letting it come to someone's attention early is what keeps a coil problem from turning into a compressor problem.
A few checks are worth doing before anyone comes out. Look at the thermostat first. Make sure it's set to heat, not fan only, and that the set temperature is actually above room temperature. Check the breaker for the outdoor unit and the one for the air handler, since a tripped breaker on either side will stop the system cold. Walk outside and look at the unit itself. If the outdoor coil is caked in ice or snow is packed into the cabinet, turn the system off at the thermostat and let it thaw rather than running it harder. Check the air filter while you're at it. A filter clogged with dust chokes off airflow and can cause the exact icing problem you're looking at outside. None of this fixes a bad capacitor or a refrigerant leak, but it rules out the simple stuff before someone drives out to look at the complicated stuff.
A heat pump that's struggling now will keep costing more every day it's left alone, and power here isn't cheap. Waiting a month to get it looked at is a month of paying that extra cost on top of whatever the repair runs. Winter is about to ask more of this system, not less, and a part that's already weak won't hold up better under more load. Getting it checked now is what stops the bill from climbing while the problem sits there.
