New Heat Pump

Macdaddy4738

Macdaddy4738

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2005
Reckon it's time I look at a new one. I noticed the current one wasn't cooling too well during this last heat wave. It took freaking 9 pounds of R22 to fill it. Seems like I'm at a point of diminishing returns now. They system was installed in December of 2004 so I think it's outlasted it's normal lifespan anyway.

Has anyone installed a new system lately? Has HVAC stuff followed suit with other construction material (IE skyrocketing prices)? What are the "good" brands now? The current unit is a Goodman but I've heard that right around the time mine was installed, their quality really diminished. I suspect all told this will be about a 7k job. The only way to actually access the air handler to remove the old and install the new is through the return vent. The crawlspace is really low and I see no way to get it in otherwise.
 
My units have recently gone up in price about 20%. I typically use Goodman on all my properties because they, IMHO, have the best bang for the $. I also replaced a 4 year old problematic Trane unit on my personal house with a Goodman with no issues 6 years ago
 
I haven't seen 20% but they are a little higher than last year. I used to be pretty exclusively goodman but lately have been using payne which is carrier and they are a fair amount nicer for the same money.
Hard to say how much it will cost you for a replacement but if you were to stick with Goodman i can say the equipment itself will probably be around $2300 assuming 2.5 ton. You'd probably be looking at double that at least total.

Also i have houses still running 30 year old goodman stuff, they are going to suggest getting rid of r22 equipment but you don't have to... has anyone tried finding the leak? Usually a leak that big is fairly easy to spot.
 
I went mini-split and will never go back.

The old house we had the unit replaced right before we sold it and it was a Rheem (not top of the line) that was $5k…

Never again.
 
braxton357 said:
I haven't seen 20% but they are a little higher than last year.
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It's coming I'm afraid. I got the Mueller and Cerro numbers from wholesalers first of May..and expected the same for June thru August. Supposed to flatten in the fall, but I imagine these costs will hit MFG's very soon. Most HVAC bids are coming in 40% higher than this time last year due to rising material and anticipated MFG price hikes.
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ponykilr said:
I went mini-split and will never go back.

The old house we had the unit replaced right before we sold it and it was a Rheem (not top of the line) that was $5k…

Never again.
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I installed a mini split in our living room last summer. It was always too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. Poorly laid out hvac. 2 small vents for a large room, one wall that's all glass facing west and a 14' ceiling. Anywho, it was probably my best purchase ever. I plan on adding a 1 ton mini split every year and eventually do away with the heat pump. 4 minis will easily take care of my whole house with the added luxury of zone control for a hell of a lot less than a ducted system.
 
willness33 said:
I installed a mini split in our living room last summer. It was always too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. Poorly laid out hvac. 2 small vents for a large room, one wall that's all glass facing west and a 14' ceiling. Anywho, it was probably my best purchase ever. I plan on adding a 1 ton mini split every year and eventually do away with the heat pump. 4 minis will easily take care of my whole house with the added luxury of zone control for a hell of a lot less than a ducted system.
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Yeah they are the way to go. Our new house will have them. Separate outdoor units too so lines are shorter and if one goes down you aren’t sweating.

The inverter technology and super high SEER makes them very efficient. No duct losses either.
 
braxton357 said:
Also i have houses still running 30 year old goodman stuff, they are going to suggest getting rid of r22 equipment but you don't have to... has anyone tried finding the leak? Usually a leak that big is fairly easy to spot.
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Interesting. Maybe I'll go that route with it then. They suspect the leak is in the coil somewhere. Quoted roughly 1k to replace it (although it was an offhand remark by the tech that came out). The leak was previously small amounting to about 2 pounds every two years. It's obviously gotten a lot worse.

I suppose if I go the route of a new coil, I'll just wait until it bleeds off again. I thought about waiting a month and calling them back out to see how much it's dropped.
 
Macdaddy4738 said:
They suspect the leak is in the coil somewhere.
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This is what all large HVAC companies will say. They will tell you its in the coil, and it'll be 2k to fix it with no warranty. Or......they'll put a whole new system in for 6-7k with a 10 year warranty.

We went through this with my sister in laws house a couple years ago. Unit was completely out of freon, tech came, filled it up and said the leak was in the coil. Of course within 4 hours it was completely out of freon again (charged her almost 400$ for the r22 and service call). I came over and filled it with nitrogen and could hear the leak though the floor! Went under the house and the liquid line was sitting in the dirt! Replaced the section of line, got it out of the dirt, refilled it and its been fine for 2 years!
 
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Our old church had 2 25 year old units in the gym that had not been cooling well. Guy came out, didn’t even go in to see the air handler and quoted 25k to replace them. These units were old but were only ran on occasion, not constantly.

Had another local guy come who leak checked it well, cleaned it all and added a little R22. It’s been working fine for a year now.
 
My dad did commercial refrigeration for decades, and his customers loved him because he would actually find and fix the problem instead of just throwing parts at it or replacing everything.
 
as convenient as the mini splits are I thought they were complete junk. maybe just my experience but in our old rental every time we turned around there was some issue with one or the other units. I got sick of it and installed window units (as ugly as they may be) but haven't had a issue with them at all
 
DonYukon said:
as convenient as the mini splits are I thought they were complete junk. maybe just my experience but in our old rental every time we turned around there was some issue with one or the other units. I got sick of it and installed window units (as ugly as they may be) but haven't had a issue with them at all
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Interesting, what brand and how old were they?
 
I’m just mentioning this as an option. If the leak is small, probably in the indoor coil the newest leak stop products can work. My Trane developed a leak several years ago. I still had some R-22 so put some in ,lasted a year and then 9 months later added some more. Finally it would hold for a couple of months. I looked for leaks but couldn’t find any. I was running out of Freon and had gotten expensive to buy. Nothing to lose I applied a stop leak product, topped off the Freon. It has held for many years . I don’t know but maybe 8-10 .Recently when the weather got cold and I turned on the heat pump at 10 pm, aaahh, no heat! I’m thinking it’s time for a new unit. Next morning I discovered a $7 relay was bad. Every situation is different but good decisions are based on good info.
 
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