Installation of Heat Pump
The installation of our new heat pump was to take two days, and I assumed would be done during normal business hours (8:00AM \- 5:00PM). I expected a smooth process and a properly working system at the end of the 2nd day. The experience was not even close to my expectations. Day 1: Old air handler, heat exchanger, compressor pad and compressor were removed; new air handler, heat exchanger, and compressor pad were installed. As expected, the new compressor was placed on the pad, but not connected to inside unit. I observed one of the four\-man crew scraping gravel from my neighbor's driveway to put under the compressor pad. When I told him that my neighbor probably would not like that, he said, "It will be OK. I'll smooth out the places I took it from." He couldn't have given a more wrong answer! Late in the afternoon, the electrician (an Overlake subcontractor) arrived to hookup power to the new system, and all four from the installation crew left. (I think at least one of the crew should have stayed until the electrician was finished to verify that the system was working. And maybe to explain to me how to operate the new thermostat!) About 90 minutes later, the electrician was finished, but the system would not turn on. It was not his job to troubleshoot system problems, but with the guidance of someone over the phone, he managed to find two wires that had not been connected by the Overlake crew. He connected the wires, but that made no difference. I was supposed to have backup electric heat working at the end of Day 1. This was important because it was December and the temps were down to 32 degrees at night. After 2 hours of trying to get the system to produce heat, the electrician left at 7:00PM, and an Overlake tech arrived at 8:30PM. At 10:00PM, the tech determined that a circuit board in the air handler was defective, and a new one would have to be obtained and installed in the morning. I managed to get by with two 1500\-watt space heaters by closing off most of the rooms. Day 2: Before the techs arrived, I noticed that the compressor pad, with compressor installed on it, was significantly out\-of\-level. The techs arrived at 10:30AM, and I asked them to purchase a bag of gravel to replace what had been taken from my neighbor's driveway, and they complied with my request. I also asked them to level the compressor pad which they did. The defective circuit board was replaced, and backup electric heat came on. It took two Overlake techs until 7:00PM to connect the inside and outside units of the heat pump, and attempt to charge the system with refrigerant. However, a valve on the compressor unit was leaking so the heat pump could not be operated until a new valve was obtained and installed the following day. Day 3: Two Overlake techs arrived at 1:30PM, and, I assume, they installed a new valve. What appeared to me that was left to be done at that point was to charge the system with refrigerant, connect a small electrical cable between the inside and outside units, insulate the refrigerant lines, and spot\-tie the lines and wires into a neat installation. This seemingly small quantity of work took until 10:00PM to complete, at which time it appeared that I had a working system. Day 4: I had programmed the wi\-fi capable thermostat using the owner's manual on Day 2, so I woke up on Day 4 to two emails from the system telling me about urgent notifications that had occurred in the middle of the night. They were Error Code 99's \- High Torque Lockout. A google of this returned a manufacturer's document that explained this code was likely due to overcharging the system, and resulted in the compressor shutting down for a while and then restarting for a couple of hours when the error situation occurred again. I called Overlake and they said to run the system only on the electric backup until a tech could come out 4 days later. I think Overlake should have sent a tech out that day since, at that point, they were already two days late providing me with a working system. Also, since my old but still working heat pump had been turned off 3 days before, I was going to be using electric backup for 7 straight days (at least), and that more than doubles my heating bill, at this time of year. Days 5 thru 7: Waiting for tech to return and troubleshoot error code. Day 8: Appointment for tech was scheduled for between 11:00AM and 1:00PM. Tech arrived at 4:00PM, but did call to say he would be late. Between 4:00PM and 10:00PM, the tech removed the refrigerant from the system and then recharged the system with refrigerant. He had determined that the initial charging had been below spec (too little refrigerant was used), and he said that the system should work OK now that it was properly charged. After the crew left, I noticed that there was dirt, installation scraps, and some kind of cream\-colored lubricant on the carpet next to the air handler, as well as trash in the crawl space and outside around the compressor unit. In general, they could have done a better clean up. Also, they apparently used the top of our dryer as a work bench since there was a drop of dried, blue PVC solvent on the dryer along with many dirty finger prints. The system has now operated for 5 days without any obvious problems. I now have an installed and operating system; however, given that it arrived from Bryant with two faulty components, and the installation included two wires not connected and improperly charging of the system, I have little confidence in my new Bryant heat pump. However, among all the negative aspects of this project, there were a couple positives: Overlake's price was almost $2000 lower than their competition, they promptly submitted the necessary data to Bryant for the rebate I was due, and they appeared to provide a neat and proper installation.