Heat Pump not happy with rain?

[sciroccin]

Hello all, new to the forum. I came across this site while researching an intermittent problem I have been having with my electric heat pump. When it is hot outside, everything works great. Whenever a storm rolls in and some heavy rain comes down with a temperature drop, the outside unit (compressor) does not want to come on. Inside unit is blowing air, but it is not cold. Back to the outside unit - I can hear and see the little black switch popping when I have the cover off. It does this about every 5-10 seconds. Thinking this was the problem I replaced it, but the problem was not resolved. After a couple of hours of this it will usually come back on, sometimes it takes a little longer. I can feel the unit slightly humming if I put my ear to it. It just seems as if there is some switch limiting the unit from starting up? Is there some sort of switch or sensor that might be coming into play here? Would something be getting wet that might be affecting this, pressure switch? Outside air temp change possibly a factor? We have a few big storms rolling in this week, so I figured i would try and get this resolved before they hit. Thanks in advance.

Regards,

-=Rick
Mobile, AL

[HayZee518]

a heat pump is like the reverse of an aircondioner. at one point freon is cycled through the compressor to the condenser, through the evaporator and back to the compressor. during heat pump, the freon lines are reversed - flow is through the evaporator, condenser and back to the compressor. the condenser takes heat from the ground coil and circulates it through the evaporator into the room via a fan blower.
if the outside air warrants the heat pump part to come on there may be a latent air temp detector bulb.

[sciroccin]

Thanks for the follow up. I have some adjustments on the side. One is a dial that says Second Stage, and ranges from -10 to 50, and the other is a switch for Heat Pump ON/OFF. What is the dial for, and would there be a setting here that might be more appropriate? It is currently set at 30. Also, where would the Air Temp Detector Bulb be, and how could I test it? Thanks in advance.