I am having constant problems with my Ducane heat pump. For the last few months the outside unit might come on and it might not--does this on both heat and cooling. Over the past few weeks it seemed to be working better then last week it quit coming on again--in fact now the only way to get it to come on is to reset the main breaker on the house and then it would work the rest of day until yeterday... yesterday it wouldn't come on, so I flipped the breaker, then turned the air on and the outside unit ran for 3-5 minutes and quit. I flipped the breaker again... same result... any idea?

Does the whole thing quit, or is it just the compressor, or the fan outside that shuts off? Or does everything shut down at once like there is no power?

The fan outside quits. I took the panel on the inside unit off last night and watched it very closely--here is exactly what happens:

-Turn the thermostat to cool and set temp--the therm click once and the fan on inside unit comes on. 2 or 3 minutes later the therm clicks again and outside unit normally comes on--nothing happens.

-Go to garage and flip main breaker off and back on--go back to thermostat--switch to off and then back to cool. The therm clicks and fan on the inside unit comes on-2-3 minutes therm clicks again and outside unit comes on.

-Go to garage and look at inside unit--A-Coil--the copper tubing on the very bottom (it does not spread any higher than the bottom row of the copper but it happens on both sides amd also covers the really thin copper tubing that comes from outside to the a-coil) starts to get a thin layer of frost on it like it is freezing up. After about 30 seconds the ice/frost completely disappears.

-Go outside and the outside unit is not on anymore.

Thank you for your time!

When the ice/frost disappears and I go outside to the outside unit--the inside unit fan is still blowing and will continue to blow until I switch the therm to off or adjust the temp high enough to make it turn off.

Sounds like you may be low on freon and your unit might have a low pressure lockout. Ice will build on the insiide from lack of charge with freon, or low air flow. How is your air filter?

Air filter is clean. Finally broke down and called a repair guy. He added some freon and that fixed the problem till this morning it is doing it again. Called again and he said checked for leaks yesterday and couldn't find any--said leak most likely in A-Coil and be best to just replace the whole unit. I have read a lot of talk about inside and outside units not matching--mine doesn't--my oustide is a Ducane and my inside is a janitol-which looks kind of older. He said this also could be causing me a big problem--it is a split level house that I have lived in for almost a year-during the summer last year the upstairs never dropped below 75 degree and the air ran constantly--I also had the freon checked and added last summer. Do you think the repair guy is on track or just looking for a sale? Also, will I have to replace the outside and inside unit both to get a matching set? The outside unit appears to only be a few years old.

Well, that depends on if a few yrs old means older then 3 yrs? 3 yrs ago the government made us change the efficiency of the units so you may have to get both to work right. Also if he charged it right there is no way that it should have leaked out that fast. If it did then he should be able to find that leak. Also ducane heatpumps are famous for leaking at the low pressure control outside. You can put some liquid soap on it and see if it is where it is leaking. All you need is 2 crescent wrenches to tighten it up.