higher seer, more 90+ = heavy

[Knight97]

We have came to the conclusion that the equipment is getting heavy. :) Ecspecially with the 13 SEER mandate.

How do all of you people handle

loading truck
removing equipment
getting new equipment into location
loading old equipment.


To date, all we have done is man handled the stuff. We lift the new equipment up into the truck. If the old furnace is heavy, we tear it apart. We try to use the handtruck as much as possible, but it only goes so far, because you have the architects that take the stairs right down into the wall. grrrr. And then you have the downflow 90's that you need to lift up on to coil boxes. I don't see a fix all problem to that.

We are looking to buy a small forklift for the shop, but that doesn't help on the job.

Sob story I know, but we have a guy that sprained his back lifting a 13 seer unit into the truck. Forklift can prevent that, but not once your at the job.

We also are looking at this super hand cart ( like $2200 super) that has forks and a little winch system. We are getting a video on it and we might buy two. One for each box truck.

Any ideas? Are we all in the same boat? I like alot of things about the trade, but I hate hot itchy attics, and I hate lifting the heavy stuff.

[mark beiser]

Heh, the high end equipment has always been heavy!

I guess I don't notice the "difference" so much since the first company I worked for installed a lot of Water Furnace geothermal units, very heavy. They also did Trane XV1500 units, wich are heavy.
The next 2 companies were bigtime into Lennox 2 speed air conditioning and Pulse furnaces.
Where I am now, we sell lots of Trane XL19i equipment, 340 pound condensors are fun.


The Trane XL19i condensors and Lennox Pulse furnaces are light weight compaired to some of the Carrier, Lennox and Westinghouse equipment from the late 40's through the 60's.

Had to remove a 5 ton Westinghouse condensor built in 1951 once. We called a crane service after bending both of the refrigerator dollies we were trying to move it with. I forget the exact weight listed on the nameplate, but it was up around 900 pounds. Huge beast with a simihermetic compressor and 1/8" steel cabinet.

[Edited by mark beiser on 07-14-2005 at 08:01 PM]

[t527ed]

made a bracket for hand truck and hi-jack for moving equipment with the boxes that are folded and strapped around the top. new equip is slid out of box truck on plank. old stuff if heavy is pulled up plank with 1,000 lb electric winch bolted to floor in front of box truck. carry come a long and little rollers in truck for some uses. to old and tired to bull this stuff around, installed many pulse furnaces and hs14 2 speeds in their day. new xc21 is a bear now. just keep coming up with new ways to work smart not hard.

[jasonblanchard]

This thread is two years old, so forgive the revival....

I'm looking for ideas about moving units around. I have a changeout this weekend that is a package unit, about 430 pounds. I can only imagine the old unit is twice as heavy. It's down a hill, up a hill and behind the house so it's going to be a lot of grunting.

Any brilliant ideas to help the next one go a little easier on my back?

[docholiday]

get a helper. :)

[Cinciwinters]

Hire someone else!