Picture slide show: This is a R410 Trane Heat Pump installed with the service access panel right up against a tree! That makes it very difficult to service! If this company just allowed the installers the 30 extra minutes to rotate the unit 90 degrees and extend the line set and electrical whip, there would be no problem servicing this unit! But this little company doing business in the peoria/sun city/sun city west area in Arizona doesn’t want to spend any extra time to make their installs …
Trane Heat Pump – Hacked install, up against a tree!
January 25th, 2010 by My Efficient Planet Leave a reply »
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HVAC service is a lot more complex than it was a couple decades ago. The average furnace or air-conditioner used to be pretty simple. Now the higher end ones can have two or three computers. Even the condensing units have them now, especially the heat pumps. Thermostats have changed and become more complex. Training on all of this stuff and having a computer in the truck is essential nowadays, but most employers are expecting the tech to cover this stuff, all on about $10 to $15 an hour.
The fact is that a customer is going to have to pay the firm $90 to $150 dollars just to come to the door. That customer already going to be ticked b/c he/she doesn’t have heat or A/C, so you’re going to have to give them an estimate and they sign off on it. Nine times out of ten, they’re going to want you to put a band aid on the problem. The only control you have is to diagnose correctly and give the customer all the options as they’re paying the bill.
it looks like that cause why would the install crew screw with putting so close to the tree and the hassel that would go along with it.
Thats great but as a new guy will I have the power to say back off I’m going to do it right.?
As a HVAC student thats scary .
Heating contractors as a hard and fast rule, want the product installed in the least amount of time with the lowest paid people. The one thing that seems to get the shaft is the guys out on the line. Whethers it’s trucks, training or tools. They have no problem training the office staff or sales people though.
The truth is that the initials on the service sticker mean more than the brand name on the cabinet.
“…its better to ask forgiveness than permission. ”
Hey I’ve never heard that one before, but sounds good to me! Yeah, that tree needed to go!
HEY, i know some good techs that smoke.
id a had to cut tree down(and took an hour to do it). its better to ask forgiveness than permission.
“What idiot would do that and what worthless company allows it.” Exactly! Except at that company, when you brought up problems with installs like this, they called you a whiner and the BOSS gave you 10 excuses why it HAD to be this way. Usually it was a factor on how much TIME they had to do the install.
The only “pot” plant aroundhere was what the installers may have been smoking before they installed this condenser!
Also at first thought that was a really big pot plant. lol.
This one is even better. If I did that S%#T I’d be out of a job. What idiot would do that and what worthless company allows it. And also what homeowner didn’t have the sense to tell them to move it. I have been rushed by my boss before.
What do I do? I say our companies motto,”Sign your work with excellence.” I do all jobs like if it was my house.
Obviously the tree has grown from a seed since the air con was installe all that time ago.
That’s the key’ “Inspectors”. They don’t enforce these companies to pull a permit or have it inspected. One look at this hack job and I knew it was a bad install. But go tell that to the boss at THIS Sun City West, AZ HVAC company! He defended this shit to the end!
Wow. up against a tree? wtf were they thinking? The inspectors up here in mass would have had the hvac tech redo the instalation. as with many of your videos.I know the codes are alot more strictly enforced up here. still, once in a very great while you see it.
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Nice. While some customers can be too nit picky about rediculous items, it’s also good to be involved and pay attention to what is going on.
I’ve commented on a couple of your videos – my (almost went to hell install) was a few years ago when I had a new condenser, coil and air handler installed. I spent upwards of $4,500 for this.
But he wanted to use the old line set, which was much smaller. I said no, I want a new line set installed for the proper size. He tried to tell me it would be more efficient. If that were true then Amana would have manufactured it that way.
Extra time on the job, 1 hour cause he didn’t have the part.
The bad thing was these installers had just installed this unit this way. The access panel was against the tree because they don’t use extra copper line needed to rotate the unit to where no access panels were against the tree! There was plenty of room on the other sides. They just put the corner of the unit where the line sets connect the closest to the old don’t care where that puts the access panels on the NEW units.
Exactly! the customer is always right and they know everything. They put in their 2 cents and then you ask yourself why the FU** am I here. I guarantee the customer said don’t touch my tree. You should have said ok I wont. I’m not a tree trimmer….but here’s the bill to move your unit.
It was their BOSS who made them rush so often. The boss didn’t ever want anyone leaving a job to get a part or spending the time to do the job RIGHT. Just hook it up and leave! I actually felt sorry for these installers. They had their hands tied.
I have been in a hurry before but never that big of a hurry these guys need to slapped who installed the unit. They probably don’t even flush the lines or install filter drier’s they just stick em make sure they sound like there runnin and hit the road. Hillbilly hacker strikes again!!
I tried to push the tree right the fack over! After that didn;t work, I bent the fack out of that panel to gain access. I was hoping the customer would call themself and ask WTF?
I would have brought the customer out there along with my sawzall..
Yeah it would.
Or the installers could have not placed that side of the unit against the tree. There were 3 other sides to the condenser. But they didn’t want to extend the copper lines. :p