On October 16 we were awakened by a terrible noise coming from our Goodman HVAC unit inside our 6 year old Fischer condo. We found that the noise went away when we turned off the heat, which is not feasible when the weather has turned cold recently. Since we have been under a service agreement for the past 2 years with Rick's Heating and Cooling I had them come out and upon investigation it was determined that the noise was related to vibration in the extremely long line-set (approximately 106-110 feet) and DelMonde (the installation company) had paired the 3-ton outdoor heat pump with a 2-1/2 ton inside air handler. We have not been able to use the heat pump as the compressor is failing and the coil on the interior air handler has also failed. Therefore, we have been relying strictly on "emergency" heat and space heaters and keeping the thermostat low in an attempt to minimize our electric bills.
Additionally, Rick Martin of Rick's Heating & Cooling states that even if we replace the heating and air conditioning system he cannot guarantee future performance due to faulty installation of the existing line. Ideally, the entire system needs to be replaced and new freon lines run in the proper location. This could be a considerable cost to us and may possibly also involve having to cut through our drywall and that of our neighbors'. Naturally, we do not wish to involve our neighbor in this matter, nor do we want to have to bring it up before our condo association board and would like to minimize intrusion and inconvenience of others. As luck would have it the heat pump only had a 5-year warranty and the coil has a ten year warranty, however, DelMonde failed to register either item for the warranties.
After many weeks of getting opinions from other HVAC companies, two visits from DelMonde, and numerous phones calls with Gary Biszantz of Fischer Homes Warranty Dept. We had an inspection on December 5 with representatives from DelMonde (the installation company), a Goodman factory rep., and Gary Biszantz of Fischer. On December 10 we received a written opinion from Rob Benefiel the Goodman factory rep. Who declared that the refrigerant line set was within guidelines of 150 feet and "equates to a capacity decrease from rating of approximately 12%"... And "it is not outside our allowable design parameters per the R-22 Long Line Set Application guide and is not detrimental to the system operation." He further noted that the heat pump and air handler is a "proper" match... And he "can find no issues with the application or installation."
This is very perplexing to us, especially since 3 different HVAC specialists have indicated that the very long line set is much longer than they would deem appropriate and heat pump/air handler do not appear to be a proper match. On December 16 I wrote a response to Rob Benefiel stating that we are not satisfied with his findings and felt the cost burden to replace our HVAC system should be equally shared by Goodman, Fischer, DelMonde and us. No-one will agree to our proposed resolution of this matter.
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