Heat pump repair in Victoria: what it costs, and when to replace instead

What a service call costs in Greater Victoria

Four local installers publish a price for coming out. Heat Savers gives $80–$250 for a diagnostic or service call and $120–$300 for a tune-up. Purple Turtle charges $189 for the first hour on site, then $149 an hour. Pacific Heat Pumps lists annual maintenance from $149 for a single zone and from $189 for multi-zone, and Sasquatch about $249 for a one-off visit, or $216 a year on a plan.

Those are prices to find the fault or service the system, not to fix it. Ask on the phone whether the diagnostic fee is credited against the repair if you go ahead, and whether the visit is charged by the hour or as a fixed price.

What common repairs cost

We could not find a Greater Victoria installer that publishes prices for individual repairs. The figures below are from one contractor in Metro Vancouver and are shown so you can judge the scale of a quote, not to tell you what yours should be. The same publisher gives a lower compressor figure on another of its own pages, which is a reminder of how loose published repair prices are.

Check the warranty before you pay

Natural Resources Canada describes the typical warranty as one year on parts and labour, and five to ten years on the compressor for parts only. Manufacturers vary: Mitsubishi Electric Canada states five years on parts and seven on the compressor as its standard terms for ductless systems, with longer terms when one of its certified installers registered the system.

Two practical points follow. The part may be covered when the labour to fit it is not, so ask for both figures. And a longer warranty usually depends on the system having been registered and serviced, so find the installation invoice and any service records before you call.

Repair or replace

No government body or utility publishes a rule for this. What exists are installers' rules of thumb, and they sell replacements, so read them with that in mind. One Victoria installer's version is to consider replacing at 12 to 15 years or more, or when a repair costs more than 30 to 40 per cent of a new system. Natural Resources Canada gives the service life of an air-source heat pump as 15 to 20 years.

A workable way to decide: a cheap part on a system in the first half of its life is a repair. A compressor or a repeated refrigerant leak on a system in the second half is a replacement decision, and at that point a new system may qualify for a rebate that a repair never will. If you are there, get a repair price and a replacement quote from the same visit.

Who can fix it

Start with the company that installed it, because warranty work goes through them. If they have closed or will not come, most installers service systems they did not install. The provincial register lists the installers based in Greater Victoria; our list shows each one with its website and phone number.

Tell them the brand, the model number from the outdoor unit's label, the age, and exactly what it is doing. A description such as the outdoor fan runs but the air indoors is cold gets you a better first visit than it is broken.