AC & heat pump
AC Keeps Tripping the Breaker? Stop Resetting and Read This First
One trip is an event; repeated trips are a message. Weak capacitors, seized fans, dirty coils, shorted compressors and tired breakers, in diagnosis order.
Formerly Adam & Sam Brothers RepairLynnwood, Martha Lake & Alderwood Manor
Heat pump and AC repair for Lynnwood's hottest afternoons
An unofficial reading in Lynnwood reportedly reached 109°F on June 28, 2021, above Sea-Tac's official record. We repair the air conditioners and heat pumps that carry local homes through heat like that, and install new systems when a repair stops making sense.
- Drive time
- Six to eight minutes from our shop to City Center.
- 2021 heat dome
- Lynnwood reportedly reached 109°F on June 28, 2021.
- Electric heat
- About 63% of Lynnwood homes heat with electricity.
- $85 diagnosticBecomes part of the repair price when you say yes. If you pass on the repair, that visit is all you pay.
- Up to $18 offAny repair requested through the online form. The diagnostic itself is never reduced.
- No-charge site visitInstalls are quoted in writing, equipment and installation work in one number.
Lynnwood's population grew 135% during the 1960s and surged again after Alderwood Mall opened in 1979, which is why so many homes here are 1960s and 1970s split-levels and ramblers. Today only about 45% of the city's housing is detached single-family; the rest is townhomes, condos and apartment buildings clustered around City Center, the Highway 99 corridor and the light rail station. Roughly 63% of homes heat with electricity, and the ones that have cooling usually got it later in life, either as a heat pump replacing an electric furnace or as a condenser set beside a gas one.
Head toward Martha Lake and the North Lynnwood area and the housing gets younger: close to half the homes in Martha Lake were built after 2000, and in North Lynnwood about 71% heat with electricity. Many heat pumps we open up in those neighborhoods are original equipment, now somewhere between fifteen and twenty-five years old. That is the age when the parts that work hardest all winter, like defrost controls, reversing valves and compressors, start to give out. Our shop is six to eight minutes from City Center, and Martha Lake is roughly eleven to fourteen. The 2021 heat wave also exposed how many Lynnwood homes had no cooling at all, and plenty of the houses we quote here are getting central air for the first time.
Winter and summer trouble we see in Lynnwood
Outdoor coil buried in hard ice that never melts off
- Likely cause
- Defrost board, coil sensor or a low charge
- What we do
- Trigger a defrost by hand, test the sensor and board, read the pressures
Cooling works, but heat mode blows cool air
- Likely cause
- Reversing valve or its solenoid coil stuck
- What we do
- Check voltage at the coil, then compare line temperatures across the valve
Winter bill spikes and backup heat runs constantly
- Likely cause
- Heat pump not carrying the load, so the strips do
- What we do
- Find the root cause, whether charge, defrost or fan, and fix that before anything else
Hard knock or groan when the compressor starts
- Likely cause
- Compressor wearing out or a failing start component
- What we do
- Measure windings and amp draw, then price the compressor against a new unit
AC quits on the first hot day of the year
- Likely cause
- Capacitor that weakened over the winter
- What we do
- Replace it from van stock, usually on the same visit
Upstairs of a townhome stays hot while the unit runs
- Likely cause
- Dirty coil, low charge or leaky ductwork
- What we do
- Measure supply air temperature and airflow room by room before recommending anything bigger
Split-levels, townhomes and the newer tracts near Martha Lake
The 1960s and 1970s houses around Meadowdale, Cedar Valley and Scriber Lake often still run an electric furnace with ducts sized for it. That is a good starting point for a heat pump: we can add an outdoor unit to the furnace you have, or replace both with an air handler and a variable-speed outdoor unit. Some of those furnaces are original to the house and well past their expected life, which tilts the choice toward a full heat pump system. Older split-levels sometimes have short duct runs to the lower floor and long ones upstairs, so part of our install visit is checking whether the existing ducts can move enough air for cooling. Where crawlspace ducts have come loose or been crushed over fifty years, we point it out, because leaky ducts can waste a good part of what a new heat pump produces.
Closer to City Center, the Lynnwood City Center Link station opened in August 2024 and the blocks around it keep filling with apartments and townhomes. Shared walls, stacked outdoor units and association rules shape what we can do there. We repair what's in place and, when a replacement is needed, put the model, size and pad location in writing so your association can approve it without guesswork. Mid-rise buildings near the station often use a separate heat pump for each unit, mounted on a roof or balcony, so we plan access with the building manager.
Snohomish County PUD supplies Lynnwood's electricity, and because most homes here heat with it, the PUD's heat pump programs often come up during an install conversation. We check which programs or rebates apply to your house and the equipment we're proposing; we don't promise amounts, because they change. Lynnwood also sits squarely in the convergence zone, so winters bring long, damp, near-freezing stretches that make a heat pump defrost again and again. Alderwood Manor, which began as a community of small poultry farms, and the Martha Lake area are on the same PUD power and see the same damp winters.
Lynnwood starting prices for repairs and replacements
Lynnwood heat pump and AC repair starts at $285. Defrost boards for the common brands are often on the van, so that repair can finish in one visit. A reversing valve takes more work, since the refrigerant has to be recovered, the valve brazed in and the system evacuated and recharged, which puts it toward the upper end. When replacement makes more sense, an inverter variable-speed heat pump starts at $6,000. Each figure here is a starting price for the north Seattle area, not your quote; the diagnostic produces a written estimate with the real number, and nothing is done until you approve it. Install prices include the equipment and the installation, and we charge nothing for the site visit or the written install quote.
- AC / heat pump capacitorfrom $285
- Contactorfrom $285
- Heat pump defrost boardfrom $300
- Outdoor fan motorfrom $425
- Refrigerant leak repair and rechargefrom $500
- Heat pump reversing valvefrom $1,100
- Indoor (evaporator) coilfrom $1,500
- Compressor (out of warranty)from $2,200
- Diagnostic visit$85, included in the repair
Starting prices for the north Seattle area, 2026. The $85 diagnostic is included in any repair you approve, and the exact price is in the written estimate before work starts.
System, installed
- Central air conditionerfrom $5,000
- Heat pump outdoor unit onlyfrom $5,250
- Inverter (variable-speed) heat pumpfrom $6,000
- Heat pump with air handlerfrom $7,000
Install prices start here, equipment and installation included, before any utility program. Multi-zone systems are priced after a visit. We do not charge for the site visit or the written quote.
When a fifteen-year-old heat pump is worth fixing
On a heat pump under ten years old, almost every failure is worth repairing, including a reversing valve. The math shifts on the original units in Martha Lake and North Lynnwood homes built in the early 2000s. Many of those run on R-22, and a reversing valve or compressor on a twenty-year-old R-22 system means paying for a major refrigerant repair on equipment that is near the end anyway. In that case we usually show you the repair price next to the price of an inverter heat pump, which idles at low speed through most of a mild Lynnwood winter and leans less on the backup strips. For the 1970s houses with an aging electric furnace, adding a heat pump outdoor unit to a furnace that still works can be the least expensive path to both cooling and a smaller winter bill. Townhome owners have one more factor, since a replacement may need association approval, which adds a step to the timeline. We give you both numbers and let you decide.
Common questions
Do you cover Martha Lake, Alderwood Manor and North Lynnwood?
Yes. All three are part of our regular Lynnwood route. Alderwood Manor is about ten to thirteen minutes from our shop and Martha Lake about eleven to fourteen when traffic is light. Same-day visits are available Monday through Saturday if you reach us in the morning, and the trip carries no distance surcharge.
My heat pump hisses, stops and puffs steam in winter. Is it broken?
Probably not. That is a defrost cycle: the outdoor coil collects frost on damp, cold days, and the heat pump briefly reverses to melt it, often with a whoosh and a cloud of vapor. A thin frost that clears is normal. A thick block of ice that stays is a fault, so switch the thermostat to backup heat if it offers that mode and call us. Please don't chip at the ice.
Is an inverter heat pump worth the higher starting price?
In most Lynnwood homes we think so. A variable-speed unit ramps down to match the mild weather that makes up most of our winter instead of cycling on and off at full output. That usually means steadier temperatures, quieter running and less time on the electric backup strips. On a small condo the gap narrows, and we'll say so in the estimate.
Which utility handles heat pump rebates in Lynnwood?
Electricity in Lynnwood comes from Snohomish County PUD, and natural gas from Puget Sound Energy. Program rules and amounts change, so we don't list figures. When we quote an install, we check which PUD or PSE programs apply to your home and to the specific equipment, and we explain what each one requires.
Our townhome association has rules about outdoor units. Can you work within them?
Yes. Many Lynnwood townhome and condo communities control where condensers sit and how they look. We note the unit's dimensions, sound rating and pad location in the written estimate so the board has what it needs, and we schedule the install once approval comes through.
Talk to Adam & Sam
Call (425) 570-9520 with the error code or the outdoor unit's label close by, or book online and type them into the form. The $85 diagnostic is included once you approve the repair, and online bookings save up to $18 on the repair itself. Install visits and written quotes cost nothing.
From Sam’s repair notes
AC & heat pump
The Small Part That Kills Most ACs in a Heat Wave: Capacitor Failure Explained
Humming outdoor unit, a fan that needs a stick-start, breaker trips, cooling that quits late in the day: the run capacitor's tells, and the right fix.
AC & heat pump
Outdoor AC Fan Not Spinning: Capacitor, Motor or Contactor — the Stick Test Tells
A still fan on a humming condenser points to one of three parts. Why the stick-start trick is a warning, not a fix, and what each repair involves.
Schedule a repair
Request a visit from Adam & Sam
Send the basics and we call you back with an arrival window, most days the same morning.
- $85 diagnostic Becomes part of the repair price when you say yes. If you pass on the repair, that visit is all you pay.
- Up to $18 off Any repair requested through the online form. The diagnostic itself is never reduced.
- $10 off A second appliance’s diagnostic when we check it during the same trip.