EcoRenovator - View Single Post - Free Packaged 5 ton Heat pump troubleshooting

Geo NR Gee · 02-01-17, 12:18 AM

My 75 year old friend and his cousin have been working in his shop for the longest time without heat. It's so cold inside there that you can see their breath most of the year. I made sure to put on a coat when I went over to visit.

One day after my visit, I was looking through the free ads and found that a local Aerospace company was giving away some 5 ton Trane packaged heat pumps. They had 5 of them and by the time I drove an hour and a half, only one was left. These are 3 phase units and I didn't think they would go that fast.

We hoisted it off the trailer and into the big door of his shop, hooked it up to power and made sure the compressor and the fan turned on. We all agreed that it was putting out heat.

The two of them took their time and after about 6 weeks, they had the unit wired up, ductwork through the wall and into the shop. Inside they built wooden ductwork and painted it gray. I was impressed with the special turning radius that they built into them.

We turned on the breaker, called for heat on the tstat and heard the compressor start up. The shop temperature was 39* F inside and 42* F outside. I left them to enjoy the warmth and within a couple of hours they said it was about 50 and the next day it was 60.

When I came back to check on them, the unit didn't sound like the compressor was on. After going inside I saw that the tstat read backup heat.

Now, these guys are retired and told all their friends that this is the first time in January they didn't have to wear their double coats inside in over 25 years!

The look on their faces when I broke the bad news and told them it was on backup heat was awful.

I got some hvac gauges on the lines and found that the pressures were the same for both the low and high side. Hmmmm. They both showed 132psig and the temperature was 64.5 and 96.7. I have never saw the same pressures before on both the low and high side. Thought about it and wondered is the compressor shot? Is the reversing valve stuck? I didn't know how to troubleshoot them.

We put the unit in cooling mode to see if that would fix it and if we could hear the reversing valve switch and then swoosh like I would normally hear. Nope. That didn't happen either. I took the magnetic coil off the reversing valve to manually move it and that didn't change anything. I checked it with a screwdriver and you could feel the coil pull the screwdriver to it.

Watching a few youtube videos they say to lightly tap on the end of the reversing valve. Nothing changed there either.

Not sure what else to check. Could it be low on refrigerant?

02-01-17, 12:18 AM	#1
Geo NR Gee Journeyman EcoRenovator Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Seattle Posts: 326 Thanks: 109 Thanked 23 Times in 18 Posts	Free Packaged 5 ton Heat pump troubleshooting My 75 year old friend and his cousin have been working in his shop for the longest time without heat. It's so cold inside there that you can see their breath most of the year. I made sure to put on a coat when I went over to visit. One day after my visit, I was looking through the free ads and found that a local Aerospace company was giving away some 5 ton Trane packaged heat pumps. They had 5 of them and by the time I drove an hour and a half, only one was left. These are 3 phase units and I didn't think they would go that fast. We hoisted it off the trailer and into the big door of his shop, hooked it up to power and made sure the compressor and the fan turned on. We all agreed that it was putting out heat. The two of them took their time and after about 6 weeks, they had the unit wired up, ductwork through the wall and into the shop. Inside they built wooden ductwork and painted it gray. I was impressed with the special turning radius that they built into them. We turned on the breaker, called for heat on the tstat and heard the compressor start up. The shop temperature was 39* F inside and 42* F outside. I left them to enjoy the warmth and within a couple of hours they said it was about 50 and the next day it was 60. When I came back to check on them, the unit didn't sound like the compressor was on. After going inside I saw that the tstat read backup heat. Now, these guys are retired and told all their friends that this is the first time in January they didn't have to wear their double coats inside in over 25 years! The look on their faces when I broke the bad news and told them it was on backup heat was awful. I got some hvac gauges on the lines and found that the pressures were the same for both the low and high side. Hmmmm. They both showed 132psig and the temperature was 64.5 and 96.7. I have never saw the same pressures before on both the low and high side. Thought about it and wondered is the compressor shot? Is the reversing valve stuck? I didn't know how to troubleshoot them. We put the unit in cooling mode to see if that would fix it and if we could hear the reversing valve switch and then swoosh like I would normally hear. Nope. That didn't happen either. I took the magnetic coil off the reversing valve to manually move it and that didn't change anything. I checked it with a screwdriver and you could feel the coil pull the screwdriver to it. Watching a few youtube videos they say to lightly tap on the end of the reversing valve. Nothing changed there either. Not sure what else to check. Could it be low on refrigerant?