New coil installed....concerned.

[bigbooty]

I have a 3 year old, 2 1/2 ton Coleman Heat Pump with a 3 ton F2RP air handler mounted in the crawl space. Yesterday I had the evaporator coil replaced. It was leaking. It's under warranty but I pay for installation which I determined would be cheaper in the long run versus having to add freon every 5-6 months. The tech who came out to install it arrived a little after 1:00. It was cold, about 35*. He had me switch the t-stat from heat to cool and it came on and ran this way for maybe a minute or two while he was valving off the condenser unit outside. He shut off the disconnect by the outside unit.He said doing that held all the freon in the outside unit. I helped him haul the new coil to the crawl space door and under he went. He also had a brazing rig that he took under there with him. I was in and out for the next hour or so and soon he came out with the old coil. He then brought a tank of freon from his truck to the outside unit. He had me switch back to heat on the t-stat. Now this is where the concern comes in. He hooked up the freon tank to the unit through his gauge manifold and proceeded to "flush" the line set back to the coil with freon. I saw the freon blowing out of one of his hoses. He did this for maybe 10 seconds or so and then valved open the outside unit and started the system. he added some more freon and was done. Now I didn't say anything to him about blowing freon out in the air and I've thought about this and I know he should have pulled a vacuum on the line set and the new coil. I've learned down through the years that no matter what you know about a particular trade, some people don't liked to be questioned. But I'm concerned about my system. Given the fact that discharging freon is illegal is one thing but will his freon flush be adequate to remove the air, moisture, etc. from the new coil and line set??

[Kevin O'Neill]

Air? Probably. Moisture? I doubt it. Scale that was formed when he brazed the lines without flowing nitrogen? No...the scale is still there. What he did was stupid, un-professional and illegal. Get a new service company. He should have installed a liquid line drier as well. :eek:

[jwiehagen76]

Sounds like you could be in trouble down the line. May want to find some one to come back and do it right. The evacuation process is important to a long happy life for your compressor

[JWB]

Hack. Read you estimate for the repair. It should state something about a vacuum. It may actually cost less in the LONG RUN to get another company out there. The same one may screw around there and not do the repair right. If the jug was green or pink, he blasted with freon. If it was a cylinder like a dive tank it might have been nitrogen. Either way, a good vacuum was not pulled, these take time. Good observations on your part.

[heaterman]

Not the proper way to do it, as you already know. Now the entire charge is contaminated, capturing it to the condenser after this change out won't be possible. It will need to be reclaimed, filter dryers installed, evacuated and recharged. Failure of the compressor is most likely eminent. The sooner it is repaired properly, the better off you will be. On top of this, the remaining warranty on the rest of the system is most likely void because of the lack of filter dryers after the system was opened.

[bigbooty]

It does have a filter drier installed. I'm assuming its the one that was factory installed as its inside the condenser unit near the compressor. This is a real quandary for me. This company has been around here for a long time and field a bunch of service techs in this area. I'm sure this is their standard way of doing things. Should I refuse to pay the bill when it arrives until they do the job right? Should I bring up the fact that the tech illegally discharged freon to the atmosphere ?? These guys installed this system 3 years ago and are a Coleman and York dealer. Since it was a warranty repair, should I involve Coleman directly? I'm hesitant to have them back as they might try to screw something else up.

[heaterman]

A new filter dryer should have been installed. Call the service manager of the company and ask him exactly what the service tech did. Ask whether the coil and lines were vacuumed down before being charged. If not ask him why not. Be polite but express your concerns and request that it be done correctly.

[Gunnery Sergeant Hartman]

If this is their evacuation procedure, this may be the reason your coil was leaking to begin with.
Acidic oil will eat away at the braze joints causing leaks.
Bring your concerns up with the owner and give them a chance to make things right.