We have a 6-8 year old 2-ton heatpump on about a 1000 sf house. One technician has told us the following:
1. The ‘reversing valve’ is bad. Claims that replacing the valve is too labor intensive and that it is not advisable to do so on this age unit.
2. So he Recommends replacing the Heat Pump entirely (The entire outside unit.)
3. Finally, he states that new Heat pumps will not match the seer rating of the interior unit coil, and that the only way to install correctly is to replace everything…pricetag $4800.
This is a small rental house and I find it hard to believe that a reversing valve could result in a total replacement of this magnitude.
Question: What really happens when the heat pump is 13 seer and the interior coil is rated at 10 seer?
Any other friendly suggestions for us?
Replies
You will harm your outside compressor because you are not losing enough heat in the 10 seer coil and that excess heat returns back to your 13 seer compressor to eventually over heat it....
See that this is your first post on BT, welcome.
It always helps if you fill out your profile (click on your own name, go from there) as HP queries are very dependent on climate and geography. Also, are you totally ignorant of all HCVAC or somewhat knowledgable about the terminalogy?
That said, re: 6-8 year old.........told us...... The 'reversing valve' is bad. .....replacing the ....is not advisable to do so on this age unit.
Brand, etc info would be helpful, also an important item is if the expansion valves are orifice or TXV (TXV are a flying saucer shape with a pedastal under or over it if you dont know what that is, best to google it and get a picture). Orifice is just a bump in the small dia line.
Is your tech from a respected and established company or a 'recent addition to the field'? I'd suspect 'recent addition', as 6-8 years is not old for 2002 vintage machines.
'reversing valve is bad' almost cries for a second opinion - it is not unknown for a hack (term for unscrupulous tech) to tap the side of a reversing valve with a wrench rendering it useless.
Assuming the reversing valve is truly bad (say due to the original installer letting dirt into the system), you can replace just the outside unit and install a TXV (a $15 part if not already there) on the outside unit with no fear of any deliterious consequences, and the unit COP will actually increase slightly (higher COP = goodness, google coefficent of performance if you do not know what that is). If no TXV installed, just an orifice, and an outside coil bigger than the inside, the orifce size would need to be changed for proper operation, which the less talented techs don't know how to do, hence the suggestion to replace both inside and outside (besides parting you from more $$<G>
Good luck.