Questions about swap out installation

[Joseph K]

Got a new Bryant 114CNA installed today (swap out of an older Bryant). The installer did three things that bother me: 1) He leveled the pad (on top of a concrete slab) by packing dirt under it. Gap of 2" between pad and concrete filled with dirt. Seems like this is going to wash out pretty quickly. Can't believe it's going to stay in place for years. 2) He re-used the copper tubing between the inside and outside unit. Pressure tested, yes, but this seems risky to leave 20 year old tubing in place when it could be easily replaced now. 3) He spliced the control line outside by twisting the wires and covering the splice with electrical tape (exposed to sun and rain). Hope he used a good grade of tape. I think these things might give me problems in the future. What do the Pros think? Are these acceptable, standard practices - or did these guys not know what they're doing? Anything need to be done to put things right? Thanks in advance, Joe K

[Pnasty]

Sounds like you didn’t get the best installer. 1) dirt will wash away, depending on the actual slope of the unit it might not be a big deal. 2) reusing the lineset is fine as long as they are the correct size and at least blown out with nitrogen. 3) wiring sounds like it might give you problems down the road.

I would be curious if a proper evacuation was down and if the installer charged and set up the indoor unit properly. Hope everything turns out well for you.

[jbhenergy]

Was it stated in your estimate for new line sets or low voltage wire?

Personally if the concrete was that out of level I would have gotten adjustable legs for the unit.

Did you go with the cheapest guy?

Was a load calc done on the house to determine what size system needs to be installed? Most units I see in my day to day are over sized because a lot of people up size "just to be on the safe side".

I dont replace line sets on all change outs regardless of how easy they would be to replace. Unless I have a reason to believe they are going to be an issue. If the 20 year old ones are leak free leave them be. Odds are the new ones will be thinner cheaper copper and not last as long.

The low voltage wire may or may not be an issue. When you "just twist together", does that mean no wire nut or crimp connector was used? just twisted the bare wires together and put tape over it? Eventually the tape will break down from the sun, but given enough time, so will the jacket of the wiring. My 1967 unit at my house does not have the jacket on the low voltage wires anymore from the sun, but it still works fine.