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As the owner of a ductless mini split system, the words “short cycling” are two you never want to hear. Today’s post will explain what short cycling is, why it’s detrimental to your mini split, and how to prevent it.

What Is Mini Split Short Cycling?

Short cycling is not a phenomenon exclusive to ductless mini split systems. Any central air conditioner can also short cycle.

On average, a cooling cycle is supposed to last about 10 minutes. At that point, your mini split will turn off, including the indoor air-handling unit and the compressor in your backyard.

When short cycling occurs, the average cooling cycle duration is lessened. It’s not even close to 10 minutes.

Short cycling has many causes.

If your mini split is too large for your home, then short cycling can occur. The reason is that the mini split has too much cooling power, so it cools the room so fast that it can shut down in well under 10 minutes.

Ductless mini splits are amazing for a lot of things, like efficiently cooling and heating your home, saving money on your utility bills, operating quieter than traditional HVAC, and being better for our planet.

Yet one thing they don’t do is actively tell you how much refrigerant is left in the unit. Usually, it’s not until a ductless mini split begins having problems that most people realize that something might be wrong with the level of coolant.

Before it gets to that point, here are some symptoms to keep an eye out for that indicate you’re running out of refrigerant.

Liquid Is Leaking

Drip, drip, drip. What is that liquid you can hear coming out of the compressor outside that has formed a puddle around the concrete slab the compressor is on?

That would be liquid air.

Wait, what? Allow us to explain.

You see, when a mini split has low refrigerant levels, the compressor’s air supply is a lot likelie

A well-maintained mini split usually doesn’t succumb to many issues, but when and if it does, it’s often one of the problems we’ll discuss today.

The good news is that all these issues are incredibly common and thus easily diagnosed and repaired by your mini split technicians and their team.

Let’s take a look!

Bad Wiring

If your mini split remote works only sporadically even when you’re aiming it right at the unit, this comes down to more than a low-quality signal. The mini split and remote can’t communicate well, and that’s a wiring issue.

You might want to bring out your mini split team to double-check that all the wiring was connected properly during installation. If not, there is no better time than the present to tighten everything up!

The Mini Split Won’t Power On

Your mini split system wa

When you first invested in a ductless mini split system, you weren’t sure if it would be a much more efficient option than your traditional HVAC you were using like a furnace or air conditioner.

Now, many months later, you can’t imagine going back to your old, outdated HVAC units.

The only problem is, when you got ductless mini splits installed, you didn’t add that many indoor air-handling units. You kind of want more. How do you add extra mini splits to your home?

The first thing you should do is measure out the square footage of the space that you’d like to be cooled or heated.

You might only want a couple of hundred additional square feet of heating or cooling or several thousand feet. That depends on the size of your home or building.

Next, you need to divide the square footage into zones. Remember, a zone doesn’t have to be an entire room, but simply a part of your home or commercial building with unique heating and cooling needs.

Based

When planning for a ductless mini split system, one of the considerations to keep in mind is size. That’s especially paramount if you don’t necessarily have the biggest backyard or a lot of space in your home or commercial building.

Naturally, you have to ask, how long is a ductless mini split?

Well, a mini split system is comprised of various parts.

One of these is the compressor, which is sometimes known as the condenser. This is the outdoor unit that’s connected to the various indoor units via a series of wires.

The compressor contains coolant, coils, and other components that allow it to convert the air pumping through the system from hot to cold or vice-versa.

A compressor is fairly sizable, with an average depth of a foot and a width of two and a half feet.

You have to know the precise measurements of your compressor before the mini split technicians arrive to install your system, as you’ll need to pour or purchase a concrete pad for

You’re getting a new ductless mini split system installed in your home soon. You can’t wait for more concentrated heating and cooling without the high energy bill costs.

You’d love to begin using your mini split as soon as it’s all set up and wired. Does a mini split come pre-charged?

Yes, indeed, most mini splits on the market these days arrive at your doorstep pre-charged.

By the way, if you don’t know what we’re referring to when we say a mini split is (or isn’t) pre-charged, this is a type of more expedient mini split setup.

You see, when installing units like a ductless mini split, a technician and their team have to attach the necessary refrigerant lines. Then they have to charge the system to ensure optimal performance once you turn the mini split on.

Pre-charging skips all that. All the parts that need to plug in connect seamlessly, t

Your mini split has frozen solid.

You might find this more plausible if it was the middle of winter, but it isn’t. It’s summertime and quite hot outside, so why is your mini split system a block of ice?

There are several reasons why a mini split will freeze up like this, actually. In today’s post, we’ll go over them all.

Slowed Airflow

How fast is the air moving through your ductless mini split system?

If it’s not speedy enough, then your mini split can freeze up.

What happens is the evaporator in cooling mode, within the mini split will decrease in temperature to such a degree that they’ll freeze.

Typically, a mini split’s coils are suspended in a state that’s about freezing but not quite. That’s because the coils consistently receive air that crosses over them whenever your mini split is operating.

At that t

When your mini split suddenly stops working, it can naturally cause you to panic.

As efficient as mini splits are, they can only handle temperature extremes to a degree one way or the other.

Should the temps push the mini split further than it can go, then the mini split is either going to reduce operating efficiency[AE1]  and capacity or even stop working altogether.

So how cold is too cold for a mini split and how hot is too hot?

Well, that depends on the model.

As with phones, computers, and video game systems, ductless mini splits get better and better as technology evolves and newer models are introduced.

Shortly, we’ll present some of the most extraordinary mini splits that can handle high heat and low, cold temperatures.

On average though, a mini split typically works at temperatures as cold as five degrees Fahrenheit (which is -15 degrees Celsius) and up to 115 degrees Fahrenheit (which is 46 degrees Celsius).

A bad snowstorm is in the forecast, and you have to admit, you’re quite nervous. You’ve already run out and bought supplies, and you’ve since battened down all the hatches to wait out the storm.

You don’t want to go without hot air during what will surely be some of the coldest days of the winter, but you also don’t want your ductless mini split system to get overburdened and possibly stop working.

Should you turn off your mini split in a snowstorm?

Not necessarily, but there are other things you should do instead. Here’s what we recommend.

Turn On Defrost Mode

Most mini splits include a defrost mode, which may or may not be activated by default.

Defrost mode is designed to prevent the accumulation of ice on the coils and other internal components of the mini split system.

How does this work? The mini split has a thermostat that monitors the temperature. If the temps are too close to freezing and thus th

This is going to be your first winter with a ductless mini split system, and you honestly couldn’t be more excited. You know how costly it can be to run a traditional HVAC heating system like a furnace or a heater, which is part of why you made the switch.

However, you’re not sure how often you need to operate your mini split system come the wintertime. Does it need to be on all the time? Only some of the time?

You don’t want to push your mini split too far in the first year, but you don’t want to be left shivering either. So what’s appropriate?

You should not turn off your mini split in the winter, that’s for certain. Doing so will make your house a frosty ice palace in a hurry.

Rather, you should run the mini split about as often as you normally do, maybe somewhat more frequently if it’s an especially freezing cold winter.

Here are some more