Heat Pump Replacement, Explained Straight.
Nobody should buy a heat pump twice in one decade, and the ones that fail early almost always fail for the same reason: sized wrong, installed fast, never commissioned. Replacement done our way starts with honest math about whether you even need one yet, and ends with a system measured, verified, and documented into a fifteen-year service life.
Heating · Burnet & Central Texas
First Question: Do You Actually Need One?
The replacement conversation at this shop starts backwards from most. Before anyone talks equipment, we talk about whether the old machine is really done. A dramatic failure on a twelve-year-old unit is usually the end, but a scary-sounding repair on an eight-year-old system often is not, and a second opinion has saved more than one Burnet homeowner from a five-figure purchase they did not need. You get the repair number and the replacement number side by side, with the efficiency math spelled out, and the recommendation Bryce would give his own family. If that recommendation is keep the old one running, that is the recommendation.
When replacement is the honest answer, sizing is everything, and sizing means a load calculation, never a label-copy. Most contractors read the old unit’s tonnage off the data plate and order the same, which faithfully repeats whatever mistake the last guy made. Houses change: attic insulation gets added, windows get replaced, rooms get converted. We run the actual numbers on the actual house, because an oversized heat pump short-cycles itself to an early death and never dehumidifies properly, and an undersized one runs the backup strips all winter at your expense.
Then the machine choice gets matched to the house and the budget honestly: single-stage workhorses, two-stage comfort, or variable-speed systems that sip electricity and hold temperature within a degree. No brand religion, no commission steering the recommendation, and the quote covers everything, equipment, labor, electrical, permit, commissioning, with no asterisks waiting on the invoice.
Everything about this service gets tuned to where you live. The same failure looks different in a lakefront place at Horseshoe Bay, a nineties ranch house outside Bertram, and a five-year-old build in Leander, because humidity exposure, duct design, and equipment grade differ at each address. Ten years of heat pump replacement calls across Burnet County and the corridor mean we usually know the local pattern before the panel comes off: what the builder-grade systems in the new subdivisions do at year five, what lake air does to outdoor coils, and what a Hill Country attic does to anything asked to work inside it in August.
Heating
What a Correct Replacement Includes
The equipment is half the job. The other half is the list below, and it is the half that decides whether the machine lasts eight years or fifteen.
A real load calculation
Room-by-room math on your actual house, orientation, insulation, windows, ductwork. The size comes from the numbers, never from the old data plate.
Duct evaluation first
A new machine breathing through collapsed or leaking ducts is a wasted upgrade. We test and tell you straight if the ductwork needs attention.
Correct refrigerant practice
Lines flushed or replaced, nitrogen purge while brazing, deep vacuum verified with a micron gauge, charge weighed and trimmed to spec. This is where longevity lives.
Electrical done right
Breakers, whips, and disconnects sized to the new spec, strip heat staged correctly, and every connection torqued rather than guessed.
Full commissioning
Both modes run under load, temperature splits measured, defrost verified, readings documented as your baseline. The startup data lives in your file.
The paperwork finished
Permit closed, warranty registered, thermostat configured for heat pump logic, and a plain-English walkthrough before the truck leaves.
Skip the reading, make the call.
Two minutes on the phone with a real tech beats an hour of internet research. Describe the symptom in your own words and get a straight answer about cause, timing, and cost.
Why Off Duty
Installed Like It Has to Last Fifteen Years
Because it does. The difference between the heat pump that dies at year eight and the one still running at year fifteen is rarely the brand, whatever the brand ads say. It is the install: the vacuum pulled to spec instead of to lunchtime, the charge weighed instead of guessed, the airflow verified instead of assumed, the strips staged so they help on the coldest nights instead of freeloading all winter. Every one of those steps is invisible on day one and decisive by year ten. We photograph and document the work precisely because it is invisible.
Replacement is also when financing and warranty decisions matter most. We walk you through the financing options with real numbers when a full replacement lands unplanned, and we register every warranty properly, including the extended coverage on Mitsubishi equipment that our Diamond Contractor status unlocks on the ductless side. The goal is simple: the next time you think hard about this machine should be sometime in the 2040s.
Every heat pump replacement call runs the same four steps we run on everything. You call (512) 925-3090 and a real person answers, any hour of any day. We diagnose with gauges and meters, never with guesses, until the actual cause is proven. Then we explain it straight: the failure, the fix, and the exact price, in plain English, before any work starts. Finally we do the work to spec and verify it under load before the truck leaves. Temperatures checked, pressures checked, paperwork handled. It is the same process that earned the reviews on our reviews page, and it does not change based on the size of the job.
A straight word on money. We do not print teaser prices on this website and we do not do surprise math on invoices. Call, describe the problem, and we will tell you what the visit costs before a truck rolls. When the diagnosis is in, you get the full repair price out loud, before the work starts, and you decide with the real number in front of you.
Worth saying plainly: this is not a problem that ages well. Systems compensate quietly right up until they cannot, and the failure that finally announces itself usually costs more than the one caught early would have. If your gut says something is off, that instinct is worth one free phone call. The worst case is we tell you everything sounds normal, which is a pretty good worst case.
You will also know exactly who is in your house. This company runs on one standard because it mostly runs on one set of hands: Bryce, second-generation in the trade, with every credential on the about page and every kind of job photographed in the gallery. Small shop, short chain of accountability, no strangers in rotation.
This service runs wherever our trucks do: home base in Burnet, the Highland Lakes from Granite Shoals to Buchanan Dam, down the corridor to Round Rock and Austin, north to Killeen and Temple, and out to the sixteen-county edge at Waco, Boerne, and Fredericksburg. The whole map lives on the service areas page, with drive-time honesty built into every window we quote.
Diamond Contractor
Mitsubishi’s top ductless credential, earned with factory training.
Second Generation
Raised in the trade, ten years on the tools before the name went on a truck.
Warranty Authorized
JB and Mitsubishi warranty work: we file the claim, you skip the fight.
Open 24 Hours
A real person answers the phone at any hour, every day of the year.
The Standard
How This Work Gets Done Here
A job like this is a chain of small decisions nobody watches: which part, which setting, which clearance, which step gets skipped when the attic hits 130 degrees. Our answer to all of them is the same. Do it the way the book says, the way the second generation was taught, the way you would want it done if the address were your own. That means proven diagnosis before parts, correct materials over convenient ones, and procedure followed all the way through the parts of the job that never show.
It also means finishing properly. The system gets verified under working load, the readings get documented, the old components get shown on request, and you get an explanation in plain English rather than trade jargon. The price never moves between the quote and the invoice. If anything about the work ever needs a second look, the phone number on your receipt rings the person who did it. Simple system, kept promises, reviewed in public by the people it was kept to.
Heat Pump Replacement Questions
Asked Before We Roll a Truck
Real questions from real Central Texas customers, answered the same way we answer them on the phone: straight.
How do I know it is time to replace?
Watch for the convergence: age past ten years, repairs arriving closer together, bills creeping up, and comfort slipping in the worst weather. Any one alone can just be a bad month. Two or three together usually means the machine is telling you something. The clean way to decide is data: we inspect it, price the repair honestly, price the replacement honestly, and show you the five-year cost of each path. The answer usually makes itself obvious once the real numbers are on the table.
What size heat pump does my house need?
The only honest answer is the one the load calculation produces, because size is a property of the house, never the brochure. Square footage alone misleads: two identical floor plans need different equipment depending on orientation, shade, insulation, and window quality. Oversizing is the classic Central Texas mistake, it short-cycles the compressor and leaves summer humidity in the air. The calculation takes us a little time and costs you nothing during the quote. Anyone sizing your system without it is guessing with your money.
Are variable-speed systems worth the extra cost?
For a machine that runs year-round in this climate, often yes, and here is the honest version of why. Variable-speed compressors run long, gentle cycles that hold temperature tightly, wring out humidity, and use meaningfully less electricity than start-stop operation. On twelve months of runtime the savings are real. The tradeoffs are real too: higher purchase price and more sophisticated boards to service down the road. We price the tiers side by side with expected operating costs and let the math talk. There is a right answer for your house and budget, and it is findable.
How long does the replacement take?
Most residential heat pump swaps run one full day, occasionally stretching into a second morning when duct corrections, electrical upgrades, or attic logistics demand it. You get the honest schedule with the quote, and the house is never left without a working system overnight in extreme weather without a plan we have agreed on. The day ends with commissioning and a walkthrough, never with a wave from the driveway.
Can you replace just the outdoor unit to save money?
Usually a false economy, and we will tell you exactly when it is. Modern equipment is engineered in matched pairs, and refrigerant changes mean a new condenser bolted to an old coil often loses efficiency, capacity, and warranty coverage all at once. There are narrow cases where a partial swap makes sense, newer systems with a storm-damaged condenser, for instance, and if you are in one we will say so. Otherwise the honest quote is the matched system, and we will show you why with numbers rather than pressure.
Related work: Heat Pump Installation · Heat Pump Repair · HVAC Financing · see real jobs in the gallery
Get the Honest Numbers First
A free look, a real load calculation, and both paths priced straight before you decide anything. Prefer to write it out? Send the form and we call you back.
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