Looks good / works poorly

[selfemployed]

This heat pump job has been in for 5 yrs. History is add gas in summer and take out in winter. 11 seer OD unit and TXV on ID coil. The equipment is not the problem. Why can't installers follow the directions?

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[Joe_C]

How many sheath elements have they gone through?
I've seen many units like this.

[selfemployed]

The elements are green tip and none have failed. Plenums on both air handlers are being replaced this week. I wonder how many people have looked at the pic. and don't see anything wrong ? One contractor here has corrected 30 installs in one development. All done by the same company.

[cehs]

Are you refering to the condensate drain color, or the ductwork, or something else?

Please be more obvious (and specific). I don't see what you are trying to show us. What is happening to these units?

I want to learn, so be kind to those of us that don't see what you see as obvious.

[Edited by cehs on 02-10-2003 at 08:14 AM]

[billygoat22]

Don't those units have a 8" wide outlet on them?

[Breeze]

I see the drain clean out is past the trap and not capped or raised high enough to prevent a water leak.
Our inspectors would require the PVC to be insulated and all joints to have mastic on them.
The liq. line should be insulated on a heat pump to prevent condensation.

[workinlate]

Wrong indoor unit or a messed up: coil/cap tube/valve/airflow/lineset/tech/customer.......

"charge robber in the condensor??????"

[Edited by workinlate on 02-10-2003 at 09:54 PM]

[spike]

Not sure about my terminology, but on Rheems, the plenum should be designed/attached to the metal tabs from the blower assembly section, not the outside edges of the cabinet.

[james mo]

Well, It seems like we are talking about an airflow problem. Is it the plenum size? I don't see a place for a filter.....Damn......I'm not going to sleep tonight.

[selfemployed]

It is suppose to leave the air handler the size of the blower outlet, approx. 8x18 and continue for minimum of 12" - 14". There is orange tape on blower flanges that says, do not bend down.Installation instructions say that static pressure and air flow problems will result. I wanted to see how many people have run into this problem. It really will make you scratch your head the first time you run into it. Thats why I said, add gas in summer and take gas out in the winter. Head pressure reset starts tripping in heat mode after adding gas during summer to correct suction pressure in cooling. Sometimes it just heats and cools poorly with high heating and coolng bills. They finally put a filter door on the new air handlers instead of removing the coil door to change the filter.

[Breeze]

Down here fan coils are installed similar to your picture only we use fiber board and the return air is increased for heat pumps. Never had a problem connecting the duct like you are showing.
Do these problems happen when weather is mild? They do here, we sometimes have to install a mild weather kit. Most of the time the customers filter is dirty or return isn't large enough.

[icemeister]

I don't do much residential A/C, but I can say I don't remember ever seeing any Rheem/Ruud air handler installed per their instructions.

I installed a 4-ton 10 SEER Rheem heat pump in my own home three years ago. Standard setup, no TXV(s), just cap tube feed. The discharge plenum is full-size all the way to the attic space. My install manual says the discharge plenum must be the same size as the blower outlet for a least three feet or a loss of up to 0.1" static pressure will result. So? What does that really mean to me?

No apparent airflow problems, checked the temperature rise with the 10KW strips and its pretty close even with a slightly restricted return setup (I'll fix that one of these days).

I am interested in Breeze's post concerning a mild weather kit. What's that? I live on the Florida east coast and when we do use the heat, it's to keep the house at 75 Deg, not 65 like we did years ago up north. On a 60-65 Deg day if the heat kicks on and it'll usally trip the HP switch. So I let out about a pound and its fine. In March or April, I'll be putting it back in to get ready for the summer when we keep the house at 80 Deg.

[Breeze]

A mild weather kit is nothing more than a auto resetable high pressure switch installed in liq. line and cuts out the outdoor fan on high pres. this lowers the head pres.
Most come with a tee adapter.