Useful life span of geothermal

[gunny1]

I'm looking to replace my current geothermal system. From what I have read on these forums, a life expectancy of 15 to 20 years seems to be the norm. My current system is 15 yrs old and I am not familiar with the new 2 stage systems. I want to take advantage of the tax credit b4 it runs out in 2016, hence the excuse for replacing the system.
System consists of a closed ground loop and pond loop in Southern Illinois.
What is the useful (practical) life expectancy for these newer units? I'm currently looking at Tetco TXT units. Taking into account the various REMC and tax credits, would this be a savings compared to traditional heating/cooling units costs? Credits would save me about 43% of the install costs
Any guidance would be appreciated.

[kdean1]

My experience with Tetco was 15 years ago with their early units. I was disappointed in the quality of the equipment. I worked on two of those early systems.
The new equipment that I can see on their website has a better looking cabinet but that's all I can compare.
2 stage equipment will be a big improvement.
I'm leaning towards WaterFurnace 7 Series for my own house. The compressor is digital, variable speed which provides fully modulating capacity so the system can be sized for heating load, which is larger than the cooling load in our area.

[gunny1]

Hello Kdean,

My past experience with WF was not good. Could not even get their lazy rep. to size a system for us. This was after numerous calls and sending house plans to him .
My understanding with Tetco is that they no longer outsource some of their components from WF, as in years past, and the quality has improved. I do see a lot of complaints on this forum about WF. Wonder why?

[kdean1]

I have been told by contractors outside my business area that the Envision systems had problems with evaporator coils leaking. We do only a few geo systems a year but we have not had any leaks.

[SkyHeating]

Yeah, WaterFurnace and most manufactures did have issues as late as around 2008, for some reason it seems WaterFurnace took the brunt of it, even though all experience failures. I am putting a WaterFurnace 7 Series in my home and have installed lots of them with no issues.

I have found many older systems, regardless of brand do seem to make it to the 20 year time frame, even though ASHRAE(i think, can't remember who gave me this statistic) rates a geo unit at 24.7 years of life on a national average. But if you replace the unit in 2017 after the tax credits and have to pay 43% more for the system how much did it cost you to wait? I would do it in the next year or two regardless because each year you wait after 2016 could cost you thousands of dollars.

[gunny1]

Yeah, WaterFurnace and most manufactures did have issues as late as around 2008, for some reason it seems WaterFurnace took the brunt of it, even though all experience failures. I am putting a WaterFurnace 7 Series in my home and have installed lots of them with no issues.

I have found many older systems, regardless of brand do seem to make it to the 20 year time frame, even though ASHRAE(i think, can't remember who gave me this statistic) rates a geo unit at 24.7 years of life on a national average. But if you replace the unit in 2017 after the tax credits and have to pay 43% more for the system how much did it cost you to wait? I would do it in the next year or two regardless because each year you wait after 2016 could cost you thousands of dollars.

Thanks to all for the help.
Sky, your thinking the same way as I. Might a bit premature to replace now, but with inflation and the credits, it may be a good idea to pull the trigger and get it done. These things aren't going to get cheaper, unless a new technology eclipses what is currently out there. Again thank you for confirming my thinking......Gunny

[hvacvegas]

I have been told by contractors outside my business area that the Envision systems had problems with evaporator coils leaking. We do only a few geo systems a year but we have not had any leaks.

For what it's worth, alot of manufacturers even outside geo had coil issues in 07-09.

[BadAttitude]

I have a question that is nearly identical to GUNNY 1, above.

I have a 16 year old Water Furnace closed loop system, 2 stage 4 ton unit that continues to perform wonderfully....no problems in all that time. My question is should I consider replacing it to take advantage of the 30% tax credit, and avoid the future run to fail problems?

The rep claims that their are no repairs possible to the existing compressor, and no replacements except total upgrade to their System 5 or System 7. If we go ahead, I would consider the newer variable speed compressors and possibly not WaterFurnace (since it seems like an exceedingly high replacement cost). Hydro Temp looks like a good replacement, with good local rep experience. Advice please!!
)

[andretti]

This home we purchased in 2013 was built in 1985 with a WF install using a horizontal ground loop. In addition to using a home inspector prior to purchase we had a local HVAC company inspect this system at the same time and supply a quote for a new series 5. They were amazed to see it was still operational as I assumed it was heating strictly with auxiliary electric heat.