"SteveB" toquerville,utah@zionvistas wrote in
:
"wgd" wrote in message
.net...
My townhouse has the original York Champion heat pump from 1983. For
many years I used the local company which installed it for service.
They were pretty good until about 6 years ago when they were bought
by another company. Now I have little or no confidence in the people
they send.
The last time I had service the guy noticed a leak in a pipe leading
to the inside unit. It is in an upstairs utility room. It had been
about 18 months since the last service. The leak was obvious because
over time it penetrated the pipe insulation. See picture below.
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n...-pump-leak.jpg
The service guy had been busy trying to sell me a new heat pump.
That's all they want to do. My two closest neighbors in this section
still have their original York heat pumps. They were just good units.
"Wow, a leak! This is almost as good as a new unit sale!", thinks the
service guy. And he quotes me a repair price of about $1000 to fix
it!
The repair would require extracting the freon to a recovery unit.
Cutting out and replacing the joint (or repair existing joint). Then
replacing the freon. Apparently this would be about a 2 hr. procedure
for someone who knew what they were doing.
I told him no. I thought the price was excessive plus I wouldn't
trust anyone this company has sent in the last few years to perform a
repair like this.
I got a recommendation from a neighbor for an HVAC tech they use who
was recommended to them by another neighbor. I'll probably use him in
the future. But I still want to avoid an expensive repair if
possible.
Here's my $4 solution for your consideration - plumbing epoxy putty.
This stuff here from Home Depot.
http://www.pcepoxy.com/puttyepoxies/pcplumbing.asp
I would clean the pipe joint with alcohol then apply the putty to
each side of the joint to seal it.
Do you think this a viable repair method? I would really appreciate
your opinions since this newsgroup gives such great advice.
PS: If you would like to read something from an HVAC service guy who
is willing to admit exactly what happens in heat pump servicing
(which is almost as bad as appliance repair) you might want to check
out the link below.
http://toad.net/~jsmeenen/heatpump.html
A 1983 heat pump is the equivalent of a 94 year old person. If it is
still living, it is one of the exceptional ones.
Figure it like this. (And I speak from experience.) You can throw
money down the toilet on this unit, or just get a new one. The higher
SEER ratings on the new one will save you a lot on energy costs. You
won't be paying someone to come out and fix various things on this
one. It's all the same age ........ compressor ......... fan motors
......... capacitors ....... etc, etc, etc. You fix this one week,
and that the next week.
As with any 94 year old, you need to pull the plug sometime,
uncomfortable as it is. Or just keep paying for a quality of life or
service that doesn't amount to much.
Steve
Something like this Steve?
The cost of replacing now is $3000 (I have no idea. Just pulled a number
out of my a..,errr,...hat). The cost to repair the existing one is say
$300. In 4 months another repair for say $350. 9-12 months from now it's
diagnosed as terminal and you decide to bite the bullet.
$3000 Replacement cost today
$ 300 1st Repair
$ 250 2nd repair @ 4 mos.
$ 100 Service call when diagnosed as terminal @ 12 mos.
$ 250 Price increase of replacement cost 12 months from now
$ 300 Aditional 12 month cost for electricity due to low SEER and age
inefficiency
$4200 Cost to do in a year,