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Polar Express HVAC & Refrigeration

Heating

A heat pump is an air conditioner that knows how to run backward.

Polar Express installs and repairs heat pumps in homes across the San Antonio metro, with 24/7 emergency dispatch and same-day service on most repair calls. One flat-rate price is approved in writing before work begins for defrost, controls, and backup heat, with a free in-home replacement estimate. TDLR license TACLA00127982C.

Mild winters are the conditions this equipment was designed around, which makes San Antonio one of the better places in the country to own one.

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  • Licensed TACLA00127982C
  • Since 2023
  • 4.9 Google rating

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A heat pump is the piece of equipment San Antonio should have been arguing about for years. Mechanically it is an air conditioner that can run in either direction. In summer it moves heat from inside the house to the outdoors, and in winter it reverses and moves heat out of the outdoor air into the house. Nothing is burned and no element glows, and moving heat takes less energy than making it, which is why the advantage is largest in exactly the mild conditions this region spends most of its winter in. A furnace paired with an air conditioner is two machines with two failure lists sharing one indoor blower. A heat pump is a single machine working all year, which changes the maintenance conversation and the replacement math at the same time. Polar Express repairs and installs residential heat pumps across the metro, on equipment we put in and equipment we inherited from somebody else.

What we handle

Heat Pumps covers more than one failure.

The complaint that gets called in is rarely the whole job. These are the things a technician is actually looking at on this equipment.

  • Heat pump repair, both seasons

    Reversing valves, defrost boards and sensors, outdoor thermistors, contactors, and the control faults that leave a heat pump cooling a house that asked to be heated.

  • Defrost cycles and frost on the coil

    Frost on an outdoor unit in winter is normal and defrost clears it. A unit that stays iced, or one that never defrosts at all, has a control problem hiding behind something people blame on the weather.

  • Auxiliary and emergency heat

    Strip heaters, sequencers, and the staging that decides whether backup heat helps on a cold morning or quietly runs all winter at full price.

  • Sizing for a cooling-dominated climate

    Here the cooling load sets the equipment and the heating side gets checked against it, which is the reverse of the way sizing is taught in most of the country.

  • Installation and system conversion

    New installations, straight replacements, and conversions from a furnace and air conditioner pair, including what the electrical panel and the existing ductwork have to support.

  • Ratings without the alphabet soup

    SEER2 rates the cooling side and HSPF2 rates the heating side. We explain what each one measures for your particular house rather than handing over a spec sheet and a smile.

Signs and causes

What you are seeing, and what usually causes it.

Read these before you call. Knowing which one matches gets the right parts on the truck, and a couple of them are worth acting on in the next ten minutes.

  • The outdoor unit is steaming on a cold morning

    That is a defrost cycle finishing, and it is the most common reason people call convinced their heat pump is on fire. Frost builds on the outdoor coil in cold damp weather, the system briefly runs backward to melt it off, and the steam rising afterward is that ice leaving.

  • The air at the vents feels cool with the heat on

    Heat pump supply air is warm rather than hot, and it genuinely sits below body temperature, so it can feel cool against a hand at the register while it is heating the house perfectly well. It is worth knowing before somebody replaces equipment that is behaving exactly as designed.

  • Emergency heat has been switched on since December

    Emergency heat bypasses the heat pump entirely and runs the backup elements alone, which is the most expensive way a house can be warmed. It exists for a failed compressor rather than as a winter setting, and finding it left on is a common and costly discovery.

  • The outdoor unit is a solid block of ice

    Light frost is expected and a coil encased in ice is not. Failed defrost boards, bad sensors, a low charge, and a blocked outdoor coil all end in the same picture, and running the system in that condition pushes the compressor somewhere it should not go.

  • There is a clunk or a hiss when it changes modes

    A heat pump makes noises a furnace never made, and most of them are the reversing valve doing its job. A new noise arriving alongside a drop in performance is a different story, and a valve failing to shift fully leaves a system heating weakly or not at all.

What it costs

You approve the price before the work starts.

Heat pump work splits into two conversations with almost nothing in common, so we price them separately. A repair gets diagnosed on site and quoted as one flat rate you approve before the work starts, the same as any other repair here. An installation starts with a visit, a load calculation, a look at the electrical panel and the ductwork, and a written proposal carrying the equipment and the entire scope. Financing options are available on installations and the estimator explains how they work in person. What we will not do is quote either one over the phone, because the questions that decide the number cannot be answered without seeing the house.

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What moves the number

  • Whether the visit is a repair or an installation, which are different jobs entirely
  • Which side failed: the refrigeration circuit, the defrost controls, or the backup heat
  • Whether the existing electrical service and circuit can carry the equipment proposed
  • The condition of the ductwork, since a heat pump moves more air at a lower temperature
  • Single-stage equipment against two-stage or variable-speed
  • Whether an existing gas furnace stays on as dual-fuel backup or comes out with the changeover

How the job runs

What happens between your call and a working system.

  1. Step 1

    Find out which season the complaint belongs to

    A heat pump that cools well and heats badly is a different investigation from one struggling in both directions, because the reversing valve, the defrost control, and the backup heat only exist on the heating side.

  2. Step 2

    Measure in the mode that is failing

    Pressures, temperature split, amp draw, and defrost operation, all taken while the system runs in the mode you are complaining about. Testing a heating fault in cooling proves nothing whatsoever.

  3. Step 3

    Repair flat rate, or design a replacement

    Small faults get quoted and fixed on the visit. When the equipment is genuinely past saving, the conversation moves to sizing and a written proposal instead of another repair on a compressor that is finished.

  4. Step 4

    Set the controls, because most of them are wrong

    Thermostat equipment type, auxiliary heat lockouts, staging, and the balance point all have to match the system underneath. A heat pump on a thermostat that thinks it is running a furnace will bring on strip heat constantly and nobody notices until the bill.

Questions

Straight answers, before you call.

Still not covered here? The person who answers the phone can usually settle it in a sentence, day or night.

Call (210) 376-0781

A heat pump is one outdoor unit that both cools and heats, while a furnace and air conditioner are two separate heat sources sharing an indoor blower. In winter the heat pump reverses its refrigerant flow and moves heat from outdoor air into the house rather than burning gas or energizing elements to create it. Moving heat takes less energy than making it, and that difference is where the lower operating cost comes from.

Yes, and San Antonio is close to the ideal case for them, because output falls as the outdoor temperature drops and this region simply does not spend much of the year down there. Every heat pump has backup heat for the coldest hours, whether that is electric strip heat or a gas furnace in a dual-fuel arrangement. The system is sized and configured so the backup covers a handful of freeze nights instead of the whole season.

Because heat pump supply air is warm rather than hot, typically well under the temperature a gas furnace delivers, and anything below skin temperature feels cool to the touch even while it is warming the room. The trade is deliberate: longer, gentler cycles hold a steadier house and cost less to run than short blasts of very hot air. Genuine underperformance shows up as a house that never reaches setpoint, not as air that feels cool at a register.

Emergency heat shuts the heat pump off and runs the backup heating on its own, and it is meant for a failed compressor or outdoor unit rather than for a cold week. Using it as a comfort setting means paying full price for every bit of warmth while the most efficient part of the system sits idle. If somebody switched it on in January and forgot about it, the power bill will find it before you do.

It is worth pricing honestly, particularly when the house is already all-electric or when both pieces of equipment reach the end of their lives around the same time. A heat pump replaces two systems with one, runs on the ductwork already in place, and spends the long San Antonio cooling season doing exactly what the air conditioner was doing anyway. The deciding factors are usually the electrical service, the duct condition, and whether you want to keep a gas furnace as dual-fuel backup.

Polar Express provides one written flat-rate price for heat pump work in San Antonio, approved before repair or installation begins. Repair cost depends on whether the fault involves refrigeration, defrost controls, or backup heat. Installation cost depends on equipment staging, electrical capacity, and duct condition, and a free replacement estimate defines that scope.

Polar Express offers same-day service on most heat pump repair calls across San Antonio and 24/7 emergency dispatch for loss of heating or cooling. The person answering the phone provides a real arrival window and asks which operating mode failed, whether the outdoor unit is iced, and whether backup heat is working.

Related services

The work that usually comes with this one.

Nearby

We run this service across the San Antonio metro. These are three of the areas we cover, and the full list lives on the service areas page.

One call, day or night.

Licensed, locally owned, and answering the phone around the clock. You get the diagnosis in plain language and the price before the work starts.

Call 24/7 · (210) 376-0781Book Service