Cold air on the heat setting, a thermostat stuck on EM HEAT, or nothing at all on the first chilly night. Most homes and condos here heat with a heat pump or electric strips, not a gas furnace, and we repair all three. We find what failed and price it in writing before we touch anything.
Pick the closest match. Each one points at a different part, and knowing which one changes what we bring on the truck.
The system will not start, or the air coming out is room temperature. With anyone in the home who is elderly, very young or unwell, or a hard freeze in the forecast, this is a same-day call.
📞 Call (850) 235-8834A heat pump that never shifted into heating mode, a low refrigerant charge, or a defrost cycle that will not end. A few minutes of cool air during defrost is normal; an hour of it is not.
Why it blows cold →Dust that settled on the heat strips over the summer burns off in a few minutes, which is normal. A smell that lingers, smells electrical or trips a breaker is not.
Heat strips explained →The electric strips are doing the work the heat pump should be doing. The home stays warm and the power bill climbs, which is often the only sign anything failed.
What AUX and EM HEAT mean →Light frost that melts off is normal. A unit that stays iced over has a defrost problem, and salt on the coil makes it more likely here. Do not chip at the ice.
Ice and salt air →Closet air handlers with electric strips, thermostats changed by guests, and units that sat empty all summer. We work with owners and property managers on access.
Condo and rental heating →Heat runs here for weeks, not months. That changes what breaks and when.
A Panama City Beach heat pump spends most of the year in cooling mode. The parts that only work in winter, the reversing valve, the heat strips, their sequencers and limit switches, and the heating settings on the thermostat, sit untouched for eight or nine months. The first cold night is the first test they get, which is why heating calls arrive in a burst the morning after a front.
In winter the outdoor coil pulls heat out of cold, damp Gulf air. When salt and corrosion coat the fins, it cannot, so the defrost cycle runs more often and the strips carry more of the load. Rinsing and coil protection are heating maintenance here, not just summer maintenance.
Many condos heat with an air handler in a closet and electric strips, no outdoor heat pump at all. Rentals get thermostats left on EM HEAT by guests. Second homes sit empty with the system off. Each one fails in its own way, and we see all three every winter.
You will know what failed, what it costs and what we recommend before any heating repair starts.
Call Quincy’s and tell us what the heat is doing, and whether it is a house, a condo or a rental. You reach someone at the company, not a call center. We confirm a time and the trip charge on that call. The technician checks the whole heating path: thermostat, reversing valve, heat strips and their controls, refrigerant and electrical, then gives you the price in writing. We run the system in heat mode and check the supply temperature before we leave.
A flat trip charge you know before we come. The same technicians who handle your AC, so there is no separate heating specialist charge. A written labor warranty on every repair: if the same fault returns in the covered period, one call brings us back at no labor charge. And no sales commission, so if a heat strip element is the only problem, that is the only thing we replace.
Carrier, Trane, Lennox, Rheem, Goodman, American Standard, York, Bryant and the rest. The condition of the system matters more than the name on it.
If you are not sure which one you have, say so on the call. It is a normal question.
The standard system across the Beach. One outdoor unit cools in summer and runs in reverse to heat in winter. Reversing valves, defrost controls, charge and airflow.
The backup heat inside the air handler. Elements, sequencers, limit switches and the settings that decide when they are allowed to run.
Closet units with electric strips and no outdoor heat pump, common in Beach condos. Small spaces, specific parts, and access to plan with the building.
Nearly all are heat pumps, so the same head heats the room in winter. Wall heads and ceiling cassettes, including ones we did not install.
Uncommon in coastal construction, but we service the homes that have one: ignitors, flame sensors, pressure switches and blowers.
A thermostat wired or set for a furnace will not run a heat pump properly. It is one of the most common causes of strips running all winter.
We give you both numbers on site. Here is roughly how the decision goes on a Beach system.
Even on an older system
Before you approve the repair
Quincy’s has worked on Panama City Beach systems since 1979 from the same shop on Highway 79. We know which heating parts fail first on this coast because we have replaced them every winter for decades.
Jeff Vaughan, Field Supervisor and Senior Technician, 12 years with Quincy’s
EPA 608 Universal Certified · Certified Comfort Advisor
Pulled live from Google, in the order Google returns them. Nothing here scrolls on its own.
Quincy’s took care of us when our AC went out. Honest folks, on time, fair price. We will use them again every time.
Same day service during the hottest week of the summer. The tech walked me through what was wrong and fixed it on the spot. Did not feel sold to.
Replaced our entire system. Crew showed up when they said they would, were respectful inside the house and cleaned up everything when they left.
4.8 / 5across 199 Google reviews from Panama City, Lynn Haven, Callaway and the Beach.
Mild winters, salt air and a lot of homes nobody lives in full time.
The Beach sees fewer cold nights than inland Bay County, so heating parts go months without running. When they fail, they fail on the first cold night, all across town at once. A fall maintenance visit tests them while it is still warm.
Gulf air coats outdoor coils with salt. In summer that costs cooling; in winter it costs heating capacity and makes the defrost cycle work harder. Units closest to the water feel it most.
A lot of Beach property is condos with closet air handlers, rentals with changing guests, and second homes that sit empty. We arrange access with owners and managers and keep visits around guest stays.
The faults behind most Panama City Beach heating calls, roughly in the order we find them.
A heat pump heats by running its refrigerant cycle backwards. The reversing valve does the switching, and on the Beach it may not have moved since last winter. When it sticks, or its solenoid coil fails, the system runs, the fan blows, and the air is cool.
This is a repair, not a replacement, in most cases. A failed coil is a modest part; a valve that has physically stuck needs the refrigerant recovered and the valve replaced, which is a larger job. Our heat pump repair page covers it in more depth.
Electric heat strips are coils of resistance wire in the air handler. They back up the heat pump on cold nights, and in many condos they are the only heat. A sequencer turns them on in stages; a limit switch shuts them off if they overheat.
Dust burning off the elements the first time they run smells for a few minutes and is normal. An element that has broken, a sequencer that never closes, or a limit switch that keeps tripping because of a dirty filter or weak airflow are the real faults. All are common and all are repairable.
AUX on the thermostat means the strips are helping the heat pump. EM HEAT means the strips are doing all of it and the heat pump is locked out. Strips cost two to three times as much to run as a working heat pump, so a heat pump that quietly fails can double a January bill while the home stays perfectly warm.
Guests in rentals switch to EM HEAT more often than people expect. If the thermostat says EM HEAT and nobody chose it, switch it back to HEAT or AUTO. If the home then stops warming, the heat pump has failed and the strips were covering for it.
On a cold, damp night the outdoor coil frosts over. The system is designed to notice, switch briefly into cooling mode to melt it, and switch back. A unit that stays encased in ice has a failed defrost board, a bad sensor, or a low charge.
Salt and corrosion on the fins make the coil collect frost faster and shed it slower, so Beach units defrost more often and are harder on the controls. Switch to EM HEAT to keep the home warm, do not chip at the ice, and call.
Condo heating is usually an indoor air handler in a closet with electric strips and no outdoor heat pump, or a small heat pump with its outdoor unit on a balcony or roof. Access, noise rules and the building’s schedule all shape the visit.
For rentals and second homes, tell us whether the unit is occupied and how we get in. Most no-heat calls in empty units turn out to be a thermostat set to cool or off, a tripped breaker, or a strip that failed while nobody was there.
A smaller number of Beach homes have a gas furnace, usually older homes with gas service. The fault list is different: ignitors, flame sensors, pressure switches, draft inducers and heat exchangers.
We take the safety side seriously. A furnace that short-cycles on a limit switch, leaves soot around the burners or shows a cracked heat exchanger gets shut down, not nursed along. If you have gas heat, tell us on the call so we bring the right parts.
Quincy’s Heating & Air is based at 128 FL-79 in Panama City Beach and has served the Beach and Bay County since 1979. Heat pump, heat strip and furnace repair for homes, condos and rentals across 32407, 32408 and 32413.
The ones we hear most once the first cold front comes through, answered the way we would on the phone.
Not sure what you have? Tell us what the system is doing and whether it is a house, a condo or a rental. We will tell you what it is likely to be.
📞 Call (850) 235-8834Both. It is the same call, the same truck and the same technicians. Most Panama City Beach homes heat with a heat pump running in reverse or with electric heat strips, and we repair all of it, plus the smaller number of homes that have a gas furnace.
If one outdoor unit runs in both summer and winter, it is a heat pump, which is by far the most common setup here. A gas furnace is a separate indoor appliance with a flue and a gas line, and it is uncommon in coastal Bay County construction. Condos usually have an indoor air handler with electric heat strips.
Usually because the reversing valve has not shifted into heating mode, the refrigerant charge is low, or the outdoor unit is in a defrost cycle. A defrost cycle lasts a few minutes and is normal. Cold air that does not stop is a fault and needs a technician with gauges. Our heat pump repair page goes deeper.
A faint dusty smell for the first few minutes is normal. Heat strips and air handlers collect dust over a long cooling season and it burns off. A smell that keeps going, smells electrical or comes with a tripped breaker is not normal: turn the system off at the thermostat and call.
Emergency heat runs the electric heat strips only and locks the heat pump out. It is meant for when the heat pump has failed. Left on by mistake, it heats the home the most expensive way there is, so switch it back to HEAT or AUTO and call us if the house stops warming.
Every call starts with a flat trip charge, quoted on the phone before anyone is sent. After the diagnosis you get the repair price in writing before any work starts. A thermostat or sequencer is a small repair; a reversing valve or a compressor is a much larger one, and we will put a replacement number next to it on an older system.
Yes, with access arranged in advance. Property managers and owners usually give us a lockbox code or meet us there. Tell us whether guests are in the unit so we can plan the visit around them.
Yes, for genuine no-heat situations, including weekends. After-hours service costs more than a weekday call, so if the home is warm and the problem is a noise or a slow recovery, we will tell you it can wait.
Twice a year: once before summer and once in the fall, before the first cold front. Our plan is two visits a year for $292 on a single-system home, with coil cleaning, drain treatment, a written report and 10 percent off any repair.
For almost every Beach home, a heat pump. Winters here are short and mild, the same outdoor unit does the cooling, and a working heat pump heats for a third to half of what electric heat strips cost to run. A gas furnace makes sense mainly where gas service and a sound flue are already in place, and some owners pair the two as dual fuel. If you have the choice, we price both.
Usually, on the Beach. A furnace replacement normally means replacing the AC alongside it anyway, and a heat pump does both jobs with one outdoor unit. Keep gas if the line and flue are in good shape and you want the hotter air a furnace delivers. The trade-offs are laid out in our furnace vs heat pump guide.
Heating is one part of what we do here. Same crew, same pricing approach, same written warranty.
Quincy’s is based in Panama City Beach and covers the surrounding Bay County communities. Heating, cooling, installation and maintenance from one local crew.
Serving all of Panama City Beach, from the west end through Thomas Drive and along Front Beach Road. Not sure whether you are inside the area? Call and ask.
