Let’s make something clear right from the get-go: It’s perfectly normal for your outdoor heat pump to be covered in a small amount of frost during winter. Your heat pump actually comes equipped with a “defrost mode”, which periodically melts away any frost buildup on the unit.
What’s not normal is if that frost has covered your heat pump for a while (2 hours or so) and/or has since turned into ice. If you notice that the frost has not melted and has since turned into ice, you may have one of the following complications: