R22 - R410A Heat Pump Change out.

[jodem]

We are currently is discussions with a client concerning changing out the refrigerant piping for a 6 Heat Pump swap out. It was not indicated in the spec to remove the existing piping and we quoted the project to that manner. What is your take on the piping what are the risks in not changing out the piping? System has been pruged with nitro and has held pressure for two weeks.

Just an update here, we did end up changing out the piping. Costs were around $1500.00 for materials and about 40hrs labour. Good that we did change it out though there was an unbelieveable amount of oil in the piping. These units were at a teaching school for the military and they must have had some major problems with the existing units. So in hindsight we are glad that we changed out the piping, but will be sure to price it in for all future work.

Thanks for your supporting comments guys.

[Admin]

You should be fine, as long as the existing lineset is the right size for the new equipment.  Just make sure there is no mineral oil left in the lines.  If you've purged with nitrogen you should be good to go.

[Zzz]

I am no expert but I would say you are setting yourself up for disaster. WHat are we looking @ $150 for a line set???
I try to do things so I don't get called back even if it costs the customer a lil more $. I don't gouge but I don't want to go back exept for future service.

[TECH X]

The customer has 6 heat pump systems.  $150 would barely cover the material cost to do the lineset for one heat pump.  Factor in the markup and the labour and the original quote would have been much, much higher.

If I had a compressor burnout I would flush the sytem with a special solvent.  There's alot of different injector kits available.  After the flush I would purge with 150 psi of nitrogen for a few minutes.  I would also install a suction line drier to protect the compressor and a liquid line drier to protect the metering device and other components.

If the new equipment uses the same size lineset then there should be no problems.  If they're using a different refrigerant the purge should remove all the existing oil.  In a residential install I always prefer to change the lineset if there is access, but there's always one you can't do without making holes in the ceiling.  In that case I would consider reusing the lineset.

[Zzz]

I was refering to the draler cost of one lineset but if a person is going to change out 6 pumps he isn't going to bitch about $1500 for linesets if it going to assure him reliability.
I agree with you X if there is one that can't be accessed and it slops one way of the other it's all good but, if there are sags your pooched.