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Home heating, cooling and controls
Repairs, replacements, ducts and thermostats for houses in Federal Way, Auburn, Kent and Des Moines.
The system most houses here run on
A heat pump heats and cools with the same equipment, which makes it efficient and makes it easy to set up badly. The three settings that matter are when the backup heat is allowed to come on, how the defrost cycle behaves, and whether the thermostat knows it is driving a heat pump at all.
Where a system runs constantly, costs more than it should, or blows cool air in winter, one of those three is usually the reason — and none of them is a new system.
What we check, in order
- Controls firstA surprising share of "broken" systems are wired or configured wrongly. It costs nothing to rule out and it is quick.
- Airflow secondFilters, returns and static pressure. Almost every other symptom looks different once airflow is right.
- Refrigerant thirdCharge is measured, not topped up by feel. A system that needs refrigerant has a leak, and the leak is the job.
- Equipment lastReplacement is a decision made with numbers — age, repair cost and what the ducts can carry — not a reflex.
Crawlspaces, and what happens down there
A lot of south King County houses have their ducts in a crawlspace, where insulation falls off, flex sags and joints come apart at the collars. The system keeps running; the far bedroom never warms up.
We measure airflow at the rooms and static pressure at the equipment, then repair and seal what is actually wrong rather than replacing duct wholesale.
Worth knowing before you buy one
- The C wireMost modern thermostats need constant power. Without one there are adapters, and there are systems where the honest answer is a different thermostat.
- Heat pump stagingA thermostat set up as a furnace will run the backup heat far more than it should, which is expensive and invisible.
- Dual fuelHeat pump plus gas furnace needs a changeover setting. Out of the box it rarely suits the house.
- ZoningA zone panel is the brain, not the thermostat. Replacing the wall unit alone changes very little.
