Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Aperron t1_j6ioy3d wrote

Reply to comment by Cease_Cows_ in who recently got a heating oil bill? by lottabigbluewater

This is a pretty common situation sadly.

The parts are model specific, and models refresh very frequently so the parts for a given model are only produced for a very short time.

Additionally heat pumps regardless of manufacturer aren’t really designed with repair in mind to begin with. A lot of mechanical techs consider them to basically be similar to a very expensive disposable window unit. Even if you do all the preventative maintenance (which is quite involved, better hope the indoor heads are placed so they can be fully disassembled yearly) they’re unlikely to make it to 15 years of service life. Many people see less than 5 before they’re beyond economical repair.

11

Cease_Cows_ t1_j6ir8c1 wrote

yeah a lot of that jives with what I've discovered as well. It's crazy how the government is pushing these as a panacea when, at least at the moment they're giant money pits that don't seem like they'll possibly lead to enough savings to cover their installation costs.

11

BoBab t1_j6ix2mc wrote

Yea this has all been very illuminating for me to read. The YT vids on heat pumps never talk about the longevity, reliability, or repairability.

8

jj3449 t1_j6kvy2q wrote

The issue is when they try to push the envelope. Get a 12-13 seer unit and all is good but if you get one of these magic 23 seer units that will work in New England down to 10 degrees and every motor is variable speed this is what you end up with.

3

Such-Evidence-4745 t1_j6ojwm6 wrote

A lot of high efficiency stuff seems like that. Looks good on paper but the more complex design seems to break more often and there don't seem to be any techs who know how they work. My parents had a high end boiler installed and it took them along time to find some one who could actually service it instead of just randomly swapping parts. And the thing had issues like 2 years after they got it. Who cares how efficient something is if its broken all the time?

Didn't know that heat pumps were the same deal though, sounds worse to be honest.

2