# Heat pump short-cycles (heat only)



## dgp1939 (Nov 1, 2011)

I have a Carrier 50JZ024-060 Single package heat pump I bought new 9 years ago. Never had a problem with it. Recently my wife received a phone offer for cheaper service and accepted it. The guy came and really messed up the unit. He screwed up some wiring and added what he said was 3# of refrigerant. Never had a low refrigerant problem before.

Immediately after he left, I went back inside and found that the "inside" blower was not running and the unit was short-cycling. I immediately turned off the A/C circuit breakers and contacted his office and demanded his immediate return. When he came back I told him what was going on. He went to the unit and vented refrigerant for about 5 minutes and allegedly corrected the wiring.

The weather has turned cooler again and I went to use the heat function for the first time since the "servicing". The unit short-cycles on heat only. It produces heat OK. I immediately switched over to electric heat and contacted the contractor, who sent out another guy who spent about an hour on the unit. He found a lot of oil in the compressor compartment (from the refrigerant venting) and that one of his gauges was reading higher that it should on heat function only.

I'm aware that a heap pump works in A/C one way and then reverses the condenser and evaporator for heating. Can't understand why the pressure should change.

He left with a diagnosis that the ducts were undersized and that I should use the electric heat feature until it was fixed. This unit has worked flawlessly for nine years with the original ducts. He also billed us for his time.

My question is: "What in the world could that first guy have done to my system to cause this problem? Any help with this will be appreciated.


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## Patrick Eubanks (Oct 6, 2011)

*Heat Pump*

It sounds as if you have a TXV problem. overcharging of the system will cause this. I think a good place to start is to evacuate the system of refrigerant and weigh in the charge. If the problems persist then contact your old company.


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## dgp1939 (Nov 1, 2011)

Patrick Eubanks said:


> It sounds as if you have a TXV problem. overcharging of the system will cause this. I think a good place to start is to evacuate the system of refrigerant and weigh in the charge. If the problems persist then contact your old company.



Thanks, Patrick, the system seems to function properly in A/C mode. The short-cycling is in Heat mode only. Can't tell overcharge from gauge readings? Service dude said pressure too high on heat only. Don't think this unit uses a TXV. All I know is that the first guy really put a lot of R410A in.


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## gregzoll (Dec 25, 2006)

First thing would be placing a complaint with your State's Attorney. Then contact a lawyer regarding your rights in taking the person to small claims. The first clue was, they contacted you, you did not contact them, if that is how I am getting this story. Also placing a stop payment on any pending checks or credit card payments to this person.

Then after I sat down and got myself together, I would contact a reputable company to put the system in order, and write it off as a lesson learned. Hopefully you haven't kicked the wife out of the house, and she will know next time, that to ignore phone calls like this, and discuss before hand.

There are just too many crooks out there, and right now in this economy, they are getting a plenty.


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## dgp1939 (Nov 1, 2011)

Here in FL one has a lot of other options, too. I can tell the 1,200 residents of my community about my experience. The state Dep't of Agriculture has an excellent business complaint service that gets results. Also, there is something known as DBPR that handles all contractor licensing complaints. The TV stations here just eat this kind of stuff up. However, before I get up on my soap box I need to gather up all the facts and be absolutely certain of what caused this problem and be able to show how it traces back to this contractor. Oh, well. Needed something to do for the next couple of weeks anyway.

Thanks again.


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## beenthere (Oct 11, 2008)

call the company you use to use to come out and fix it. let them know another company added gas, and then blew gas off.

They will probably have to recover whats in it, and then weigh back in name plate charge. And then it will probably work ok again.

Sometimes, the "cheaper rate" companies half to make their money by "finding" things wrong. Weather or not anything is wrong.


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