Heat Pump Repair in Nanaimo & Vancouver Island
P3 Mechanical & Electrical repairs ducted and ductless heat pumps for homes across Nanaimo and central Vancouver Island — no heat, cool air at the vents, an outdoor unit frozen over, a fault code, or a system that never shuts off. Every repair starts with a diagnosis rather than a parts guess, and the price is agreed in writing before anything is replaced. Where the fault is a large one, we price the repair against a replacement system so the comparison is yours.
The faults we get called out for
The calls fall into a handful of patterns. A system that runs but makes no heat, or blows air that feels cool at the vents. An outdoor unit that ices over and stays iced. A machine that has grown louder over a season. A unit that shuts down on a fault code and comes back only once the power is cycled. A system that runs without ever reaching the temperature set. Water pooling under an indoor head. Each points somewhere different inside the machine.
Where a heat pump lives on the Island decides much of what goes wrong with it. Salt-laden air off the Strait works on the aluminium fins of an outdoor coil and into the cabinet behind them, and a unit within reach of spray loses its coil long before its compressor is finished. Long, wet winters keep that coil damp, so it frosts and clears far more often than it would inland, and a defrost fault shows up here first. Units under a fir canopy pack their fins with needle drop and lose airflow quietly.
One thing is worth knowing before anyone quotes you: refrigerant is not a consumable. A working system does not use it up, so a system low on refrigerant has a leak somewhere, and topping it up without finding that leak buys a few months and nothing more. Finding it is slower work than adding gas, which is why the recharge is the common shortcut and the common reason the same fault returns the following winter. We look for the leak first, and say what repairing it involves before any refrigerant goes in.
Worth two minutes before you call
Some no-heat calls turn out not to need a repair, and the usual causes are faster to check than to book. A filter gone grey chokes enough airflow to make a system blow cool and frost its own coil. A breaker can trip. A thermostat can be left in cool, auto, or fan-only mode after a power cut. An outdoor unit can end up packed around with leaves, snow, or stored gear. If none of those four explains it, the fault is real.
When replacing beats repairing
A repair stops being the sensible answer at a fairly predictable point. Past the fifteen-year mark, failures start arriving together rather than one at a time, and the compressor — the single part whose replacement costs a real fraction of a new system — is often the one that goes. Older equipment charged with R-22 carries a second problem: that refrigerant has not been manufactured in or imported into Canada since 2020, so a system leaking it is being kept running on reclaimed stock. When either applies, we price the repair and a replacement system together and say which we would choose, rather than steering you quietly toward the larger job.
What's included
- Diagnosis of no-heat, cool-air, short-cycling, and fault-code faults
- Refrigerant pressure testing and leak detection, not a top-up that hides the leak
- Defrost cycle, reversing valve, and outdoor sensor testing on a unit that ices over
- Blower, outdoor fan, and control board faults traced to the failed part
- Condensate drain and pan clearing where a head or air handler is leaking water
- Coil cleaning and a fresh-water rinse on outdoor units living in salt air
Pricing & what's covered
Free estimate
We price the job after an in-home visit, once someone has seen what's there.
- One-year warranty on our labour. Equipment and parts are covered separately, under the supplier's or manufacturer's own warranty.
- Licensed in BC: Refrigeration licence LBP0210874. We install and service Mitsubishi Electric, Daikin, Fujitsu, Carrier, Keeprite, Goodman, and Trane equipment.
How it works
Diagnosis — we run the system, read any stored fault codes, and test the side of it your symptom points at.
Written price — the repair priced before anything is replaced, and a replacement priced beside it where the fault is a large one.
Repair — parts fitted, the system run through a full heating and cooling cycle, pressures checked afterwards.
What caused it — what failed, and what would keep it from returning: a filter habit, a coil rinse, or a service schedule.
Frequently asked questions
My heat pump is blowing cold air — what is going on?
Three causes, in rising order of seriousness. The thermostat may be in cooling or fan-only mode. The system may be in its defrost cycle, which blows cool briefly and clears itself. Or the reversing valve, the part that switches a system between heating and cooling, has stuck — that one needs a technician.
There is ice on the outdoor unit. Is that normal?
A light frost that clears within a cycle is normal — the defrost cycle is how a heat pump sheds it. Ice that builds through the day or returns within minutes is a fault: a defrost sensor, a blocked coil, or low refrigerant. Do not chip it off, because the fins puncture easily.
How much does a heat pump repair cost in Nanaimo?
We do not publish figures, because the same symptom can be a sensor or a compressor and those are not the same job. What is fixed is the order: the fault is diagnosed, the price goes in writing, and the work starts once you have agreed to it.
Is it worth repairing an older heat pump, or should I replace it?
It depends on the part and the age. A capacitor, a sensor, or a fan motor is worth fixing on almost any system; a failed compressor on a fifteen-year-old machine usually is not. Rather than decide that for you, we price the repair and a replacement together and tell you which we would choose.
My heat pump runs constantly and never shuts off — is that a fault?
Not necessarily. Inverter systems are built to run continuously at low output, which is more efficient than starting and stopping. It becomes a symptom when the house stops reaching the temperature you set — a dirty coil, a refrigerant leak, or a system sized for less house than it is heating.
Do you repair heat pumps another company installed?
Yes, and most repair calls are exactly that. It makes no difference to how we quote the work. We service Mitsubishi Electric, Daikin, Fujitsu, Carrier, Keeprite, Goodman, and Trane, and the make and model matter mainly because they decide which parts we can get.
Ready to get it fixed?
Call now, or send us the details online and we'll follow up.