Heat Pump Repairs

[Sam]

I had an interesting situation that finally will be corrected today or tomorrow by our heat pump contractor.

 

My wife owns a rental house and the property manager was contacted in October, 2022, by the renters that the air condioning system was not working. So the property manager and I went to the dwelling to meet "Mario" from our HVAC contractor's company to add coolant, make repairs to the unit, and check it out.

 

The problem became apparant when Mario tried to remove the refregerant cap, which he could not do as it has a locking device on it and neither me, our rental agent, the renters, or my wfe had the key. In fact, no one knew a key was needed to unlock the cap.

 

(Note: in defense of the unit manufacturer and installation HVAC contractor, the federal government has rules regarding refrigerants and your service guy has to have passed the test to be qualified to refill the HVAC units. Guys in the construction indusutry know more about this than I do so your input is requested. My HAVAC guy and his assitant are certified to replace the coolant but no one would sell them the key)

 

I contacted three or four HVAC suppliers and none would sell a key to me or to my HVAC contractor to open the unit to add coolant. I finally found a wholesaler in Fredericksburg, Virginia that had the key but they would not sell it to me since neither me or my HVAC contractor are the manufacturer's rep.

 

I called the HVAC contractor who installed the unit four years ago and his office told me 1) they did not have a key in their office and 2) they could not find any such key on any of their trucks.  So it was back to square one.

 

Then, in January of this year, we recieved a ValPac advertising envelope in the mail and the vice president of the original HVAC installation company had a flyer in it and on the flyer was the Vice President's smiling photo saying what great service his company gives its customers.

 

So what did I do?  I sent him a nice letter explaining what was going on and told him that I could not believe the HVAC unit manufacturer did not have keys to unlock the refregerant cap nor did his company have a key, since they installed the unit and never told anyone that a key was needed to properly sevice the unit.

 

Today I sent the vice president a nice follow up email asking if his company had the opportunity to replace the cap with one that did not need a key and he replied that they had replaced the original cap with one that did not need a key.

 

What bothers me is that the manufacturer knew the cap needed a key; the installing HVAC contractor knew the unit needed a key; and both lied to me about having the key unitl I contacted the vice president of the HVAC contractor company. This was done so that anyone having a new HVAC unit  installed would have to use the installation contractor for future service and repair.

 

No reason to threaten the HVAC company with the release of this story in the local Richmond community. However, it is a sad commentary on this one HVAC contractor who would rather lie about the key than to do their job and help a customer with a problem they and the manufacturer caused.

 

Your thoughts???

 

 

 

 

[Fishingmickey]

Sounds like serious typical (I don't want to deal with it - no money in it) BS and run around to me. If they put a locking cap on it. They should have provided the key upon installation.  Heck yaaah, out them in the local paper.

FM

[slonezp]

Locking caps are an aftermarket installation. They are installed because people are huffing refrigerant. I'm in the business 25 years and I don't know any manufacture that puts these on their equipment. They are all dealer installed. Huffing refrigerant doesn't get you high. The "buzz" comes from oxygen depletion.