Start with the ducts you have
Most Memphis houses already have ductwork, in a crawlspace, an attic or both. That alone usually tips the whole-house decision toward a ducted heat pump.
Bluffline Memphis Heat Pumps installs ducted heat pumps. Ductless mini splits are a different trade, and we say so when a room calls for one.
The two systems in a sentence each
- Ducted heat pump: one outdoor unit and one indoor air handler or furnace coil, with ducts carrying air to every room.
- Ductless mini split: an outdoor unit feeding one or more indoor heads mounted in individual rooms, with no ducts.
Side by side
How the two compare for a Memphis house:
| Ducted heat pump | Ductless mini split | |
|---|---|---|
| Uses existing ducts | Yes | No |
| Indoor equipment visible | Grilles only | A head on the wall or ceiling of each room |
| Whole-house evenness | Good with sound ducts | Room by room; closed doors limit it |
| Efficiency ratings | Good; lost partly to leaky ducts | Often higher; no duct losses |
| Filtration | One central filter | A filter in each head |
| Dehumidification | Whole house through one coil | Each head treats its own room |
| Best fit | Houses with ducts | Rooms or houses without ducts |
When ducted wins
The house has ducts
Reusing existing ducts avoids putting equipment in every room. If the ducts leak or the return is small, fixing them is usually cheaper than adding several ductless heads. The crawl space ductwork guide covers the fixes.
Whole-house humidity
In a Memphis summer, a central system pulls water from the whole house’s air through one coil. With good sizing and airflow, it keeps every room drier, including closets and bathrooms that ductless heads don’t reach. The humidity guide explains why.
Looks and filtration
Only grilles show in the rooms, and one filter serves the house.
When ductless wins
A room the ducts don’t reach
A sunroom, a converted garage, a bonus room or an addition that was never tied into the ducts. Running a new duct may be impractical; a single ductless head serves the room directly.
A house with no ducts
Older houses heated by floor furnaces, wall units or window ACs may have no ducts at all. Building a full duct system in a house with no attic or crawlspace access can cost more than a multi-room ductless setup.
Zoned control room by room
Each ductless head has its own control, which suits rooms used at different times.
Ducted with a ductless helper
Many houses use both: a central ducted heat pump for the house and one ductless unit for the room the ducts serve poorly. It avoids oversizing the central system to push air into one far room.
A Millington ranch with a den added in the 1980s is a typical example.
Efficiency and duct losses
Mini splits often carry higher SEER2 ratings than ducted systems, partly because they lose nothing to ducts. A ducted system’s rating assumes ducts in reasonable shape. Leaky ducts in a hot attic or a humid crawlspace can waste a real share of the system’s output.
Closing the gap
Sealing seams, fixing the return and insulating ducts recovers much of that loss. A static pressure reading before and after shows the result. Heat pump ductwork describes the work.
Maintenance compared
Both need regular care, but in different places.
Ducted
- One filter at the air handler or return grille, changed every one to three months.
- One indoor coil and drain, with a secondary pan and float switch on attic units.
- One outdoor unit to keep clear.
Ductless
- A washable filter in every head, cleaned often, since dust collects fast on the small coils.
- A drain line from every head, each of which can clog.
- Blower wheels inside the heads that can gather mold in humid climates if filters are neglected.
In a humid Memphis summer, the ductless heads’ small coils and blower wheels need attention to stay clean. A ducted system concentrates that care in one place.
Noise inside
A ducted system’s blower sits in a closet, attic or crawlspace, so rooms hear only air at the grilles. A ductless head has its fan in the room. Modern heads are quiet at low speed but noticeable at high speed, which matters most in bedrooms.
Air quality and fresh air
A central system pulls air from the whole house through one filter, so a better filter, sized for the return so it doesn’t choke airflow, improves the whole house at once.
Ductless heads filter only their own room’s air, through fine mesh filters that catch larger particles. Neither brings in fresh outdoor air on its own; that takes a separate ventilation path in either case. Upgrading the filter rack is covered on our air handler page.
Cost
A ducted heat pump replacing an existing system reuses the ducts, which keeps the cost down. Bluffline’s typical range for a whole-home ducted system is $8,000 to $16,000, and duct repair done with an install runs $800 to $3,500.
Your written estimate after the visit sets the price.
Ductless costs
A multi-room ductless system is priced per head and per outdoor unit, and in a house that already has ducts it usually costs more than reusing them. Ductless isn’t our trade, so we don’t price it.
Questions that settle it
Four questions decide most cases:
- Does the house have ducts, and can they be made sound? If yes, ducted is usually the answer.
- Is there a room the ducts can’t reach well? A ductless head may be the right helper for that room alone.
- Is there attic or crawlspace access for new ducts? Without it, extending ducts gets hard.
- How do you feel about wall-mounted heads? Some owners don’t mind them; others want only grilles.
Memphis houses and their ducts
Memphis housing makes the ducted case strong for most homes.
Ranches with crawlspaces
Most mid-century ranches have a crawlspace trunk with branches to floor registers. The ducts may need sealing, rewrapping and a bigger return, but the paths exist.
Slab houses with attic ducts
Slab ranches and many newer houses run flex ducts through the attic. Sagging runs and small returns are the usual problems, and they’re fixable.
Two-story houses
Two-story houses often have attic ducts for the upper floor and either a crawlspace or slab for the lower. Upstairs comfort usually comes down to returns, sealed attic runs and sizing, not a different kind of system. The Collierville page covers the usual fixes.
Houses without ducts
Older houses with floor furnaces or wall heaters, and some additions, have no ducts. There, ductless or a new duct system are the options.
Sizing either way
Both should be sized from a load calculation. For ducted systems that sets the equipment and the duct airflow; for ductless it sets each head. The sizing guide explains the method.
The short answer
If the house has ducts, start with a ducted heat pump and fix the ducts. If a room has no duct, a ductless unit can serve it.
The Memphis buying guide covers the rest of the decision, and the replacement page explains what a ducted replacement includes.