Sometimes old Refrigerators and Geothermal heat pumps are the best.

I repaired a household refrigerator from the 1940’s at a hotel in Miami a few years ago. The thermostat was bad. It stopped working after 60 plus years. It was about the size of a grapefruit or small coconut. The replacement that I put back in was the size of a match book or maybe a driver’s license. I know the new thermostat isn’t going to last 60 years. Sometimes the old technology is better than the new. Many times not though. I just replaced my Rheem heat pump condenser at my house with a dual tonnage inverter compressor with the new freon. It is drawing 1/2 the electricity as the old one and is quieter and is supposed to heat at a much colder outside air temperature than the 18 year old Rheem. Have not tested the low temperature claim, but it looks reasonable. The amount of controls in the service panel is intimidating though. I have never seen so many components stuffed in a heatpump. I thought I was a HVAC mechanic that could handle any heat pump repair. Not too sure with this new one. I’ll report in a year if any issues. It does have a 10 year parts warranty. If you might need a new air to air package unit or split system heat pump for your home of business then you might want one as it doesn’t get any better than 10 years parts and labor. I also saw a heat pump in Miami that was 45 plus years old. It was a Florida Heat Pump. They were bought out by Bosch and I doubt we will ever see 45 year old heat pumps again. Bosch, Climatemaster, Waterfurnace and Enertech were all bought out by foreign companies. It is amazing that the United States is losing most of its geothermal heat pump factories. There are still some good ones left. Ask me and I will tell you my favorites. I did see a new geothermal company in Spain called Ecoforest. The factory is amazing. Their technology looks impressive. Instead of buying an American company they want to enter the USA market the old fashioned way: exporting. We will see how that works out. I know that my USA built swimming pool heat pumps are better than they ever have been. The warranty on some brands can start in the spring for winter deliveries and you will still get last years price. The photo is a recreation of the worlds first motorcycle. About 1885 I think. That was amazing technology for the time but I don’t think it aged well with 1” ground clearance and a 3 horse power engine that won’t get you very far. It will be going in my living room one of these days if Mrs. Miller can work it into the decorating style.
Have a great Thanksgiving.
We are here for you.
Marcus
Cell 360 348 7584

Should you repair older swimming pool heat pumps that use the discontinued freon 22, F22 or R22 when the new ones use mostly 410A.

I am asked every week if it makes sense to repair 15 to 20 year old swimming pool heat pumps. Since I come from a service background it gave me great pleasure to keep pool heating equipment running efficiently for as long as possible if the repair is reasonable. I was thrifty property managers best friend when I could make a long term repair instead of replacing equipment for a reasonable cost. I was never a fan of replacing good running equipment with higher efficiency models as the payback was usually a long time and my customers could hopefully invest their money elsewhere for better returns. When there is a big repair on an old piece of swimming pool heating equipment then I am all for getting the highest efficiency (COP) new models so that they will have the lowest electric bills. Things are a bit different now that old heat pumps made before 2010 use the discontinued Freon 22. If you have a bad Freon leak maybe it is time to get a new heat pump instead of paying for expensive new or reclaimed Freon 22 or paying to convert the heat pump to a newer Freon. You also want service to be easy for mechanics down the road who might not know what was done to the old heat pump. Also some utilities are giving large rebates for new swimming pool heat pumps so that makes the decision harder if money is available for higher efficiency equipment. PSEG on Long Island in New York is giving $600.00 in 2021 for many new heat pumps swaps and installs. You need an authorized contractor to do the job to get the rebate, but I am told it is simple for them to get approved and the contractor even gets $100.00 for their trouble. So if you are thinking of repairing or replacing your heat pump and are not sure what to do just send me an e-mail or text and I will try to help out. Recently I had a guy with an old 17 year old Kopec 650 with a rotary knob thermostat that failed. He put in a new digital board from a new heat pump and now has an upgraded digital heat pump for another few seasons. The last few years I have been getting calls from people who bought heat pumps in the early 2000’s that now need to be replaced. Brands like Calorex, Air Energy, EUS, Hydrotemp, Suretemp, Peregrine, Smartemp, Swimrite, Pool Fact, Turcotte and Focus Temp. The owner of Peregrine was a buddy of mine. He designed some amazing heat pumps. One of his would heat and cool the pool. Heat and cool the house. And also heat the domestic hot water. He was a green kind of guy that was ahead of his time. Many of the old heat pump didn’t use titanium heat exchangers and didn’t last long if the pool chemistry was off. If one did last 18 years then you know the pool owner was on top of their PH and kept the pool chemicals just right. Titanium solved a lot of problems except for them freezing with water in them in the winter. Usually I tell people to keep the filter pump on 24 hours a day if you are going to get a freeze and the pool isn’t yet shut down for the winter. Last season my customers in Texas couldn’t do that because they had a deep freeze and also lost the power to run the water pump. In those cases you have to run out and drain the heat pump ASAP. Most of them had other more pressing problems though like pipes breaking in their walls and the homes getting too cold. So if your heat pump is not running let me know and we can troubleshoot a bit to see it it might be an easy fix.
Have a great season,
Best,
Marcus

Many customers are installing their own geothermal heat pump systems in their homes.

I have been getting many calls from homeowners who want to save on their utility bills, and who have done their research that showed them that Geothermal heating and cooling was the best way to heat and cool their homes. Some have already bought their heat pump and just want help with the HDPE piping and accessories. As long as you use a licensed electrician the factories are happy. Some of the heat pump manufacturers are very homeowner friendly and some are horrible and don’t want to talk to people just trying to save some money on the installation. They want you to buy through distribution and not direct. I can tell you who is helpful. We have some of the best geothermal USA made heat pump manufacturers in the world. Some once were USA owned like Florida Heat Pump. They were bought out by Bosch in Europe a few years ago. I remember picking up heat pumps from FHP first manufacturing plant near my house in Pompano Beach, Florida in the early 1980’s. It was really cool to watch them make a unit from scratch. Some of the first ones that I put in are still running 30 years later. Then I used Miami Heat Pump and Coldflow units. My mom got a Coldflow geothermal heat pump for her condo 20 years ago. She liked the look of the stainless steel cabinet. One customer bought a used geothermal off of Craigslist in nice shape for $500.00 and used an open loop for the water supply. He probably spent less than $1,000.00 to change his old inefficient heater to a Geothermal. His payback was a few months instead of years. He got lucky though. Most people spend about $5,000.00 for a nice geothermal air to water heat pump. Some people get water to water heat pumps and circulate hot water through pipes in the floor. That like the even heat throughout the room with no drafts from air blowing through ductwork. Some people don’t mind the draft and also it is easier to cool a house with cold air from the ducts and you have the bonus of being able to filter the air. You can’t do that with a floor water to water hydronic system. Some of the big names in geothermal are Climate Master, Enertech, Hydrotemp from Arkansas and Water Furnace. It is hard to do research on the different brands to compare them and rate them. It seems every brand has it’s hates out there and they seem to write the most about their experience. I have a feeling though that many of the bad blood installation related and not a manufacturing issue. I have seen some really stupid manufacturing problems though. Fortunately it is getting rarer to find these days. If you have any geothermal heat pump questions please let me know. I would love to help out. If you want to text me a question, my cell number is 360 348 7574