Greeetings,
I am going through HVAC training, have my 608 Universal and State of Maryland Apprintace HVAC License and more relevant to this discussion am a homeowner that hired a company to change out 2 HVAC systems at my house.
Unfortunately, the contractor I hired, to be nice, use questionable practices. The only installer that seemed to be professional and experienced is on vacation for a couple of weeks the others seem to be less than professional.
Given my training, reading tons of posts here, and watching hours & hours of HVAC videos on YouTube (AC Service Tech, HVAC School, Quality HVAC, Etc.) Before they began brazing in the condenser units, I asked them to flow nitrogen (which I have) and put a wet rag (which I also have) on the Condenser valves while brazing in the 2 condenser units, but they said "we install hundreds of units every year with no issues and this is the way we always do it" to which I replied I'm sorry you don't follow basic best practices. They replied that "Sometimes the book answer is not the right/best answer" I had some other work to do so I left them unattended to install the indoor units, but shortly after doing a little more work getting the indoor equipment somewhat placed they just took off for the day without even letting me know they were leaving.
There have been several other issues with them not showing up, showing up without all the materials needed, not ordering the propane conversion & horizontal drain kit, etc, etc. I spoke to the company owner (who is out sick) and he apologized and said he will refund my deposit and said since I know so much I should just finish the installation myself or hire someone else.
There are two split systems and the upstairs line set is run inside the walls and between the second and third floors of the house because the unit sits in the middle of the third floor, so I need to use that existing line set. The other line set could be replaced without too much difficulty since it is a fairly short run into the adjacent crawl space.
There was a ton of copper oxide on the outside of the tubing because the tech seemed to struggle with brazing and they used a straight coupling and elbow so there are 4 braze joints on the line sets. I'm not sure why they didn't just cut, bend, and swedge a piece of the additional 25' line set (I paid for) to make the connection leaving only two braze points vs four, but they didn't.
The line sets are still open on the other end which finally leads to my question. I know there is a ton of copper oxidization on the inside of the copper just like there is on the outside, so:
Would a flush RX-11 or Diversitech Pro-Flush (which needs to be done anyway because it is a R-22 to R-410 change over) remove the copper oxide?
Or would you recommend un-brazing the work they did and install new sections of tubing as I described above and brazing it flowing nitrogen (or even Soldering it with STAY BRITE 8)?
Any comments or recommendations are appreciated. (BTW this is my first post and as you know I have to do 15 before I can apply for a professional account)
Thanks & God Bless!
I am going through HVAC training, have my 608 Universal and State of Maryland Apprintace HVAC License and more relevant to this discussion am a homeowner that hired a company to change out 2 HVAC systems at my house.
Unfortunately, the contractor I hired, to be nice, use questionable practices. The only installer that seemed to be professional and experienced is on vacation for a couple of weeks the others seem to be less than professional.
Given my training, reading tons of posts here, and watching hours & hours of HVAC videos on YouTube (AC Service Tech, HVAC School, Quality HVAC, Etc.) Before they began brazing in the condenser units, I asked them to flow nitrogen (which I have) and put a wet rag (which I also have) on the Condenser valves while brazing in the 2 condenser units, but they said "we install hundreds of units every year with no issues and this is the way we always do it" to which I replied I'm sorry you don't follow basic best practices. They replied that "Sometimes the book answer is not the right/best answer" I had some other work to do so I left them unattended to install the indoor units, but shortly after doing a little more work getting the indoor equipment somewhat placed they just took off for the day without even letting me know they were leaving.
There have been several other issues with them not showing up, showing up without all the materials needed, not ordering the propane conversion & horizontal drain kit, etc, etc. I spoke to the company owner (who is out sick) and he apologized and said he will refund my deposit and said since I know so much I should just finish the installation myself or hire someone else.
There are two split systems and the upstairs line set is run inside the walls and between the second and third floors of the house because the unit sits in the middle of the third floor, so I need to use that existing line set. The other line set could be replaced without too much difficulty since it is a fairly short run into the adjacent crawl space.
There was a ton of copper oxide on the outside of the tubing because the tech seemed to struggle with brazing and they used a straight coupling and elbow so there are 4 braze joints on the line sets. I'm not sure why they didn't just cut, bend, and swedge a piece of the additional 25' line set (I paid for) to make the connection leaving only two braze points vs four, but they didn't.
The line sets are still open on the other end which finally leads to my question. I know there is a ton of copper oxidization on the inside of the copper just like there is on the outside, so:
Would a flush RX-11 or Diversitech Pro-Flush (which needs to be done anyway because it is a R-22 to R-410 change over) remove the copper oxide?
Or would you recommend un-brazing the work they did and install new sections of tubing as I described above and brazing it flowing nitrogen (or even Soldering it with STAY BRITE 8)?
Any comments or recommendations are appreciated. (BTW this is my first post and as you know I have to do 15 before I can apply for a professional account)
Thanks & God Bless!
source https://hvac-talk.com/vbb/threads/2242891-Line-Sets?goto=newpost
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