Manufacturer Reliability, Efficiency Ratings, and Customer Service
mrworth
| Posted in Mechanicals on
We are a residential construction company in the Pacific Northwest specializing in remodels and additions. For the last several years we have been recommending and installing one particular mini split manufacturer. In the recent past we have had some equipment failure issues shortly after installation. With any technology as sophisticated as heat pumps it is understandable for there to be manufacturing issues from time to time, the problem we are having is with the warranty departments’ lack of cooperation and willingness to take accountability for obvious factory defaults. Does anyone have suggestions for resources (or opinions) on current manufacturer reliability, efficiency ratings, and customer service?
GBA Detail Library
A collection of one thousand construction details organized by climate and house part
Search and download construction details
Replies
Did you or your employees install the units or is there subcontractor in the middle?
How sure are you that the manufactures installation instruction was followed to the letter?
Was the tubing was being purge with nitrogen while brazing as is often required by the instructions. Triple evacuation? Vacuum under 1000 micron? All this stuff is in the instructions and almost never done.
Have you had more than 3 units fail in the exact same way?
If yes, would I be correct if I guessed the indoor coils were leaking and the houses were insulated with open cell spray foam?
Walta
Hi Walta, thanks for the questions....
It was our in house installers that did the work. We do follow manufacture's instructions / trainings diligently. No brazing needed as the individual line set runs were fairly short. We use all the proper flaring and torque tools and triple evacuate to under 500 microns on every install. After we tested all the line sets and indoor units individually for leaks we isolated the outdoor unit and found it to be the culprit. This is the second time this as happened in a few months, both on identical make and model outdoor units that were purchased from the same supplier within weeks of each other. Definitely seems like a factory issue that Fujitsu does not want to acknowledge.
On this site people routinely recommend Mitsubishi and Fujitsu. I'm not sure I've recognized a distinct preference for one or the other in terms of reliability or customer service, though.
BTW, what area of the PNW are you in? Just curious if there's a Seattle-area contractor visiting this site... I'd be happy to know if there is!
PNW
We are at the bottom of the belt, just south of the Oregon border;)
Seem to me the factory rightfully expects your technician to do more diagnosis and find and repair the leaks and expecting any manufacture to replace every out door unit with a leak seem unreasable and is not likley the warrant procedure you agree to when you became their dealer.
If you are going to be a refrigeration technicians you will need to learn how to find and fix leaks as it is the biggest part of the job.
Walta