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A heat pump repair call in Sanborn County starts with the compressor and the reversing valve, because those are the parts that take the full weight of winter heating. Homes in Sanborn County, SD run heat about eight months a year, from October through May. Cold outdoor air forces the heat pump to work harder to extract usable heat, and the compressor cycles more frequently under that strain than it would in a milder climate. A contractor diagnosing a failed or struggling unit checks those components first, along with the refrigerant charge and the defrost controls, before pricing anything else.
Ductwork and refrigerant lines routed through a house this old carry the record of every system that ran through them before the current one. Half the homes in Sanborn County, South Dakota were built in 1958 or earlier (2020-2024 ACS 5-year). When a contractor opens a heat pump in stock like this, what they find inside reflects that layered history: coils, contacts, and capacitors stressed by conditions the original installation was never matched to. Parts for a unit running in reused infrastructure wear differently than the spec sheet assumes, and what a contractor orders after diagnosis depends on what the opened system actually contains, not on what the permit year suggests.
The Parts of a Heat Pump a Contractor Checks First
The outdoor unit is the piece most homeowners recognize, sitting on a pad beside the house. Inside it, the compressor and the coil do the core work of moving heat, and when either one fails, the whole system stops doing its job. The compressor is usually the first place a contractor looks when a heat pump runs but produces no heating or cooling.
Inside the house, the air handler holds the indoor coil and the blower that pushes conditioned air through the home. The reversing valve, which sits inside the outdoor unit, is what lets a heat pump heat in winter and cool in summer, and a stuck or failing valve is a common reason a system blows the wrong temperature. The refrigerant lines connecting the two units are also on a contractor's checklist when pressures read off.
The drawing shows the general layout of these components, and a licensed contractor determines what applies to the specific system and setup in your house.
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81 severe weather events were recorded in Sanborn County, South Dakota between 2015 and 2024.
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, bulk CSV export, events 2015-01-01 through 2024-12-31.Half the homes in Sanborn County, South Dakota were built in 1958 or earlier (2020-2024 ACS 5-year).
U.S. Census Bureau, 2020-2024 American Community Survey 5-Year EstimatesSanborn County, South Dakota holds 1,168 housing units (2020-2024 ACS 5-year).
U.S. Census Bureau, 2020-2024 American Community Survey 5-Year EstimatesOwners occupy 78.6% of the occupied homes in Sanborn County, South Dakota (2020-2024 ACS 5-year).
U.S. Census Bureau, 2020-2024 American Community Survey 5-Year EstimatesSevere Weather Events in Sanborn County
Extreme weather puts real stress on heat pump systems, which have to work harder and longer when conditions outside swing to either end of the spectrum. Repair demand in Sanborn County follows what the weather does, so the record below is part of understanding what this equipment faces here.
81 severe weather events, 2015–2024. Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database.