When you set your North Royalton home’s thermostat for a certain temperature, you expect that your heat pump will either heat or cool it to that temperature, right? When you want 72 degrees, you don’t expect to have the temperature stay stuck at 70 degrees while your heat pump struggles futilely.

Sometimes heat pumps have trouble maintaining the right temperature, especially in heating mode. It’s not uncommon, and it has a number of potential causes. Run through this checklist to see if it is something you can fix yourself:

• The outdoor unit is iced up. Running a defrost cycle can usually fix this.
• A snow drift in encroaching on the outdoor unit, making the unit too cold to work properly. Shovel it away and see if that fixes the problem.
• The outdoor unit is not running at all. Sometimes this is simple enough to fix on your own. Read the manufacturer’s instructions to troubleshoot the problem.
• Too much cold air is getting in the house for the heat pump to keep up. Make sure your doors and windows are closed to keep that valuable heat inside.
• Your vents are closed. It may seem obviou, but problems like this can sometimes be attributed to user error. Make sure your vents are open to allow heat in.

This is by no means an all-inclusive list, and it covers just those causes that you could potentially fix yourself. There are many other possible culprits out there that could be more sinister and require professional service to be properly repaired.

Some of these include:

• The compressor is not running.
• A compressor valve or reversing valve is faulty.
• The thermostat is malfunctioning or needs to be recalibrated.
• The refrigerant level is low or there is a problem with the flow of the refrigerant.
• The heat pump needs routine maintenance.

If your North Royalton heat pump is not working properly for several days, especially after you have tried some of the DIY solutions above, call Pompeii’s Plumbing & Heating Inc. right away. Your heat pump may need repairs before a bigger problem develops.