How much does heat pump repair cost?

$150 to $650 for a minor repair such as a contactor, capacitor, expansion valve or condensate pump, and $650 to $2,500 or more for major sealed-system work such as a compressor or coil replacement out of warranty. Our diagnostic trip charge is $89.99 and is refunded as company credit if you accept the repair bid.

When does repair stop making sense?

When the repair quote approaches half the cost of replacement on a system past about twelve years, or when the sealed system has already leaked twice. Replacement in Bellingham runs $4,000 to $8,000 for a ducted system, and on a qualifying ducted change-out PSE’s upgrade rebate of $1,500, or $2,400 with Efficiency Boost, only applies to the new equipment.

Do you answer calls after hours?

Regular hours are Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM, and emergency calls are answered 24/7. Call (360) 592-3824. Answering the phone and arriving when we said we would is most of what people actually want from a heating contractor.

Is a rebate available for a repair?

No. Every incentive we have verified for Whatcom County — PSE, the Community Energy Challenge, Opportunity Council, Washington State HEAR — pays for new qualifying equipment, not for fixing existing equipment. The one exception in the county is Opportunity Council’s LIHEAP furnace repair and replacement programme, which is income-qualified and furnace-specific.

My heat pump is blowing cool air. Is it broken?

Not necessarily; a heat pump in defrost blows cool air on purpose for a few minutes, and its normal supply air is cooler than a furnace’s. Check whether the outdoor unit is iced over and whether the thermostat is calling for emergency heat before booking a visit. If it is running constantly and the house is still losing temperature, that is worth a diagnostic.

Can you service refrigeration equipment as well as heat pumps?

Yes, and it is a genuinely scarce skill in Whatcom County. Our technicians are certified in refrigeration, which is why we also handle commercial refrigeration work that most residential HVAC shops here refer out. The same sealed-system diagnostics apply to your heat pump.

Installed price · verified 2026-09-04

Heat pump repair cost

$150–$2,500 Deliberately bimodal, and no single typical is honest here. Minor repairs — condensate pump, expansion valve, contactor, capacitor — run $150–$650. Major component work such as a compressor, condenser or evaporator coil out of warranty runs $650–$2,500 and up. Routine maintenance, which is not a repair, is published at $70–$200 per visit., before rebates. Here is what decides where in that range your house lands.

Call (360) 592-3824 Get a free estimate or text us

Heat Pump Repair Cost — What Whatcom County Repairs Run in Bellingham

Deliberately bimodal, and no single typical is honest here. Minor repairs — condensate pump, expansion valve, contactor, capacitor — run $150–$650. Major component work such as a compressor, condenser or evaporator coil out of warranty runs $650–$2,500 and up. Routine maintenance, which is not a repair, is published at $70–$200 per visit.

Simple job: $150
Complex job: $2,500

Installed price before rebates — equipment, labour, materials, permit and startup. The federal §25C tax credit contributes $0 in 2026: it terminated for anything placed in service after December 31, 2025.

Range benchmarked 2026-09-04 against published local pricing. Your quote is fixed before work starts — no hourly surprises.

WA L&I #BELLIHC808NM Active registration — verify it with the state
$30,000 bonded Surety bond on file with L&I
$1,000,000 insured General liability coverage
Local since 2020 Owner-operated in Whatcom County
We pull the permit City of Bellingham or Whatcom County, and we meet the inspector

What moves your number

Most impactful first. These are the questions we ask on the phone, and they are the reason a range exists at all.

Which component failed: a $150 contactor versus a $2,500 compressor is the entire spread; Electrical components on the outside of the sealed system are cheap and quick: contactors, capacitors, control boards, sensors and condensate pumps land in the $150 to $650 band. Anything inside the refrigerant circuit means recovery, brazing, a new drier, evacuation and recharge, which is why compressors and coils sit at $650 to $2,500 and up. The diagnosis, not the guess, decides which conversation you are having.
Warranty status: a covered part can turn a $2,000 repair into labour only; Most residential heat pumps carry a manufacturer parts warranty measured in years, often longer if the equipment was registered at install. That covers the part and not the labour, the refrigerant or the drier. We check the model and serial against the manufacturer’s records before quoting, because a homeowner who assumes the warranty expired sometimes pays for a compressor they already own.
Refrigerant type and how much has been lost: older refrigerants cost significantly more per pound than current ones; A leak repair on a system running an older refrigerant can cost more in refrigerant than in labour, and topping up a system without finding the leak is both bad practice and illegal venting waiting to happen. Federal rules require certified handling of refrigerants, explained at epa.gov. On a system that has already lost a full charge twice, replacement usually wins on arithmetic.
Access to the failed part: crawlspace and attic air handlers add labour hours to the same repair; Whatcom County houses hide indoor units in tight crawlspaces, low attics and closets built around them. Replacing a blower motor you can stand next to is a different job from replacing the same motor lying in eighteen inches of clearance under a 1950s rambler. The part costs the same; the hours do not.
Whether the real problem is refrigeration or controls: a misdiagnosis costs the price of the wrong part plus a second visit; Symptoms overlap: a system that will not heat can be low on charge, stuck in defrost, locked out by a control setting, or fine while a thermostat lies to it. Our technicians are certified in refrigeration, which in this county is genuinely uncommon, and that is the skill that separates measuring a superheat and subcooling from swapping parts until it runs.

What appears on a real quote

Line by line, the way we scope it. If a quote you are holding is a single lump sum, this is the list to ask them to break out.

Heat Pump Repair Cost — What Whatcom County Repairs Run quote line items and typical ranges in Bellingham, WA
Line item	Typical range	What it is
Diagnostic trip charge	$89.99, refunded as company credit if you accept the repair bid	—
Contactor, capacitor or relay replacement	within the $150–$650 minor-repair band	HomeGuide.
Defrost board or control sensor	within the $150–$650 minor-repair band	—
Condensate pump replacement	within the $150–$650 minor-repair band	—
Blower motor or fan motor	part plus labour; access drives the labour hours	—
Leak search, repair, evacuation and recharge	labour plus refrigerant by the pound	—
Evaporator or condenser coil replacement	$650–$2,500+ out of warranty	HomeGuide.
Compressor replacement	$650–$2,500+ out of warranty	HomeGuide. Warranty coverage, where it applies, changes this to labour and materials only.
Maintenance visit, for comparison	$70–$200	HomeGuide. Not a repair, and the cheapest way to avoid one.

Line items are quoted against your house, not averaged. Your written quote is fixed before work starts.

Three worked examples

Same work, three different houses. The arithmetic runs from the installed price, through the programs that apply, to what you write a cheque for.

No heat on a January morning; the outdoor fan runs, the compressor does not start

Installed price: $89.99 diagnostic plus a repair in the $150–$650 minor band if it is the start components
Rebates applied: No rebate programme covers heat pump repair
You pay: $240–$740, with the diagnostic refunded as credit if you accept the bid

The most common winter call and usually the cheapest outcome. Repairs are not rebate-eligible under any PSE, CEC or Opportunity Council programme we have verified.

Twelve-year-old ducted heat pump, compressor failed, out of warranty

Installed price: $650–$2,500+ for the compressor repair, against $4,000–$8,000 for a full replacement
Rebates applied: On replacement instead: PSE heat pump to heat pump upgrade rebate $1,500, or $2,400 with Efficiency Boost, for a qualifying ducted system out of original warranty
Federal §25C: $0
You pay: Repair $650–$2,500+; replacement nets to roughly $2,500–$6,500 after the PSE upgrade rebate

This is where we lay both numbers side by side. A $2,300 compressor in a twelve-year-old cabinet buys a repaired old system; the same money toward replacement buys a new one with a warranty, and the rebate only exists on the replacement path.

Ductless head dripping water down the wall in August

Installed price: $89.99 diagnostic plus a condensate repair in the $150–$650 band
Rebates applied: None — condensate repairs are not rebate-eligible
You pay: $240–$740, diagnostic refunded as credit against an accepted bid

Usually a blocked drain or a failed lift pump rather than a refrigeration fault, and worth catching early because the damage is to your drywall, not to the equipment.

No example includes a federal tax credit, because there is none to include for a 2026 install. The largest single line in most of these is Puget Sound Energy's $1,500 electric-resistance conversion rebate, which is contractor-gated — PSE requires the installer to be inside its network, so ask us to confirm status for your project before you count on it.

Rebates that come off this price

Heat Pump to Heat Pump Upgrade

Puget Sound Energy

$1,500
Available now

$2,400 with Efficiency Boost. Ducted systems only — ductless is not eligible.

Paperwork:

We file it

Deadline:

No published end date — tariffed and subject to change

Verified:

2026-09-04 · source
Electric Resistance to Air-Source Heat Pump Conversion

Puget Sound Energy

$1,500
Available now

$2,400 with PSE Efficiency Boost for income-qualified households.

Paperwork:

We file it

Deadline:

No published end date — tariffed and subject to change

Verified:

2026-09-04 · source
Efficiency Boost (income-qualified multiplier)

Puget Sound Energy

Raises other PSE rebates
Income-qualified

Heat pump $1,500 → $2,400 · heat pump water heater $1,000 → $1,100 · smart thermostat $75 → $175.

Paperwork:

We file it

Deadline:

Ongoing

Verified:

2026-09-04 · source

Every Bellingham rebate, with the source and the date we checked it →

Run your own numbers

A range, not a quote — and the arithmetic is shown so you can check it. Every band below is a published installed price, linked at the bottom.

Sources, all checked 2026-09-04: ductless by zone, ducted in Bellingham, local aggregator range, panel upgrade, dedicated circuit, heat pump water heater. Electrical work is performed and permitted by a licensed electrical contractor — we hold a general contractor registration, not an electrical one.

The work itself

Heat Pump Repair

Find out what is actually wrong, in plain language, with the repair price and the replacement price side by side.

See how we do it — process, permits, equipment and timeline →

Talk it through — (360) 592-3824

Heat Pump Repair Cost — What Whatcom County Repairs Run — questions we get asked

How much does heat pump repair cost?: $150 to $650 for a minor repair such as a contactor, capacitor, expansion valve or condensate pump, and $650 to $2,500 or more for major sealed-system work such as a compressor or coil replacement out of warranty. Our diagnostic trip charge is $89.99 and is refunded as company credit if you accept the repair bid.
When does repair stop making sense?: When the repair quote approaches half the cost of replacement on a system past about twelve years, or when the sealed system has already leaked twice. Replacement in Bellingham runs $4,000 to $8,000 for a ducted system, and on a qualifying ducted change-out PSE’s upgrade rebate of $1,500, or $2,400 with Efficiency Boost, only applies to the new equipment.
Do you answer calls after hours?: Regular hours are Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:30 PM, and emergency calls are answered 24/7. Call (360) 592-3824. Answering the phone and arriving when we said we would is most of what people actually want from a heating contractor.
Is a rebate available for a repair?: No. Every incentive we have verified for Whatcom County — PSE, the Community Energy Challenge, Opportunity Council, Washington State HEAR — pays for new qualifying equipment, not for fixing existing equipment. The one exception in the county is Opportunity Council’s LIHEAP furnace repair and replacement programme, which is income-qualified and furnace-specific.
My heat pump is blowing cool air. Is it broken?: Not necessarily; a heat pump in defrost blows cool air on purpose for a few minutes, and its normal supply air is cooler than a furnace’s. Check whether the outdoor unit is iced over and whether the thermostat is calling for emergency heat before booking a visit. If it is running constantly and the house is still losing temperature, that is worth a diagnostic.
Can you service refrigeration equipment as well as heat pumps?: Yes, and it is a genuinely scarce skill in Whatcom County. Our technicians are certified in refrigeration, which is why we also handle commercial refrigeration work that most residential HVAC shops here refer out. The same sealed-system diagnostics apply to your heat pump.

Get the number for your house

A range tells you whether to keep reading. Tell us about the house and we will tell you which end of it you are at, what the rebates take off, and what the written quote will say.

Range benchmarked 2026-09-04 against published local pricing · All published cost ranges

Ready for a straight answer on your house?

Tell us what you have now and what you want it to do. We will tell you what fits, what it costs, and which rebates you actually qualify for — before anyone comes out.

Monday–Friday, 8:00 AM – 5:30 PM · Emergency calls answered 24/7

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