What are the common repairs required for goethermal systems and what is the average repair and maintenance costs? Aren't these covered under manufacturer warranties?
Energystar/tax credits drive warranties which are 5 year labor 10 year part minimum. I can't tell you a "common repair". The expensive ones involve opening the refrigeration system.
Maintenance costs are not covered by warranties. The MOST important maintenance task is yours and will determine the longevity of, and the efficiency of, the unit. Keep a CLEAN filter in the unit! Bergy
=========== I will partly answer your questions. Basic warranty for a geo install by an installer is usually one year; unless you have negotiated something else beforehand. Parts may be for 5 years or longer. There are a few companies that have a 10 year warranty on certain parts. Read the literature. What can go wrong ? bad design of a closed loop system which can be complicated to sort out, leaks even, Closed loops have at least one electrical pump motor. It can eventually fail; failure of electronic sensors, ECM motor, or items part of refrigeration circuit. Air handler coil and or heat exchange coils can develop leaks. Modern units have electronic cards, high pressure, low pressure switches. They sometimes fail. There is a reversing valve that can give problems. Units designed to preheat hot water have a built in Taco or similar small circulation motor. That motor will eventually fail or have to be rebuilt $400 - $600 ? Compressor contactor needs to be replaced every 4 or 5 years. ? $150.00 ? ( A handy man can do it) I have had to replace Three Taco water flow valves ($120.00 - $180.00), since 2008. (Sand collected in the valves area and they would not shut off tightly). (I reran my Taco valves top to bottom instead of horizontal left to right, and added a Whirlpool whole house lexon filtration bowl , NOT using the cartridge, and I reduced sand travel and the Tacos became more reliable. I developed a slow leak in the refrigerant part of my system. I spent $600.00 initially to look for it and we did not find in 2010. My original condensate pump failed: $140.00. Premium filters at $12.00 per filter MERV8. Insulation fell down in my Carrier and had to be replaced carefully. (Shouldn't have happened) The next time we look for that leak, the company I use will start at $600.00 plus labor and parts. From there it goes up. Unless the ECM motor is covered by a 5 or 10 year warranty, a new motor will cost over $400.00. Your particular installation may vary. I use commercial technicians who are personal friends.
======= Bill breakdown: Commercial Technician (who knows what he is doing unlike residential air to air tech) comes to house; Initial refrigerant leak check, recover refrigerant, repressurize with "trace" amount of R401A + nitrogen (we want to keep the system dry) (so 410A can be identified by leak detector), take pressure readings on coils, leave set for several hours (over lunch), pull vacuum down to tiny microns, monitor with highly accurate $250.00 micron gauge. At that time we could not find "the smoking gun" , we re weighed in the name plate label charge. There wasn't one item charged that was not legitimate. Yeah, you can do it yourself cheaper.
"I will partly answer your questions. Basic warranty for a geo install by an installer is usually one year; unless you have negotiated something else beforehand. Parts may be for 5 years or longer. There are a few companies that have a 10 year warranty on certain parts." Again Energy Star requires 5 year labor and 10 year part, if those warranties aren't present system will not qualify for a tax credit. "I use commercial technicians who are personal friends." I don't know that my "friends" would pay $600 for a leak find. "....monitor with highly accurate $250.00 micron gauge." Did you buy the gauge as part of the $600?
=========== Look, prices will vary a bit around the country. Air to air heat pumps are perhaps fixed more easily and cost less money. I maintain and fix (these days I supervise the fixing) true commercial and I learned what I know from working with mechanical contracting companies years ago. I sometimes feel that geo is "sold" only on the theoretical benefits and the assumption that nothing breaks. If you peruse this forum, there are plenty of posts about incompetent work, poor initial conception or calculating, not using engineering calculations, and actual problems with units. When geo works, it is thrilling. But if the job wasn't planned/calculated properly, or leaks either circulating fluid or refrigerant, it sucks. I'm 66. I may not want to crawl under the house in a cramped space to recover refrigerant, unbraise two heat exchangers inches apart, working rapidly so the system doesn't get "wet". If I ask them to fix it, I'm not going to waste a lot of time and energy and play the cheap shyster nagging them into fixing it for $200.00. So let's tell the people the truth. Or maybe the only people that should buy geo are geo trained hvac technicians.
"So let's tell the people the truth." The truth is there is little I get $600 for that doesn't result in a repair.
Let me rephrase this to make more sense..... So let's tell the people the truth. Or maybe the only people that should SELL AND INSTALL geo are geo trained hvac technicians!
