I have a GrandAire and the aircon works fine; when I turned the heat on, it seems to work fine (warms the house), but the fan in the outside unit is not spinning when the heat is on...is this a problem? (It spins just fine when I switch over to aircon). Thank you.

did you try to set to maximum heat? (suspect the thermostat is defective)

Hummm. A bit difficult to solve this problem. Seems like the condenser outside is not working, I mean the fan of the condenser. Looks like you have a wall A/C and a wall A/C always have condensers outside the house and near the A/C. Have you checked if the fan is spinning? I don't think the compressor is at fault but check it anyway. You should be able to hear the compressor running either in the wall unit or in the outside condenser housing. The only heat you should feel is from the condenser itself. If you blows warm air, that means the fan is working, if not that means the fan is not working. But don't be confused with the fan not working because in winter time sometimes the fan is not working and some times it does. As I said, it's a difficult problem to solve but at least start with checking the situation with the fan in the condenser.

Sorry to read about your problem, I hope this helps you out.

Sounds like you may a defective, reverse heat pump switch. If you were in Denver,Co I would be glad to work on it for you. They are no different than large units to work on.

and no, you cant work on the unit.....takes special tools


Just keep calling around for a person who will work on the unit..

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If the fan is not working, is the compressor? Check the circuit breaker/fuse that supplies power to the outside unit. If that is ok, call a good A/C repair company..

You should also check the outside unit to make sure the coil is not clogged with dirt or grass clippings and the fan is working. The reversing valve that switches it from cool to heat could also be a problem. If it isn't shifting it will not switch between heat and cool.

Does this problem happen when the temperature is below 30 degrees? When it gets about that cold outside, the air outside is too cold for the heat pump to "steal" heat from. On the thermostat you'll find a switch labeled aux or emergency heat. Turning this switch on will operate a traditional coil heater inside the system, providing you with heat. The only downfall to this is that it uses more energy to heat this way. Try turning the fan switch from "auto" to "on". If the fan comes on, then we can rule that out. If the aux heat switch is NOT on, set the thermostat such that the system will try to heat. If the outside unit is running, the problem is either it being too cold like I said earlier, or there's a problem with the heat pump's mechanical system that needs to be serviced by a professional. If the outside unit doesn't run but it should be, check it's breakers at the panel, the breaker inside the electrical box that feeds it, and look to see if there's a reset button on the unit itself. Finally, check the air handler (part of the system inside with the fan in it) to see if there's any circuit breakers or fuses on this unit. Make sure they're not tripped/blown. If none of this helps, you definitely want to get a pro to work on your system.

check capacitor on outside unit,or gas is leaking.
try to reset(small black button in inside unit under the cover)

Do you have the Economy button on? If so, and you have a large space to heat or the outside temp is very cold the unit may not be able to keep up. If this is the case the stove runs forever, trying to reduce the temp by 2 degrees every 30 minutes. This may not work for your space and outside temp.

Your ideas about the intake and exhaust are not quit right. There is a fan that pulls air from outside over the outside of the exhaust pipe (to preheat it). This fan actually pushed the combustion gasses all the way out the exhaust. The exhaust exiting should be a little hot. In very cold temps, frost can build up around the air intake, which is right around the exhaust pipe. If you see this you will need to keep it clean. It is a good idea to look at the exhaust everyday when it really cold.

Good luck,

Tom Hawkins
Bethel, Alaska
[email protected]

Does the air handler take a minute or two to start, this would be normal so that it doesn't blow cool air into the house before the unit is warmed up. If not could be the fan relay is weak and needs replacing. As far as the outside unit it sounds like you need to check the refrigerant. In cooling they are 70/150 psi. This should be checked in cooling mode, once you turn it to heating mode the pressures switch bring heat inside the house instead of out. I hope this helps.

Sounds like a bad start run capacitor. The exhaust fan motor may be bad too. Be careful, this unit delivers 220volts of electricity.