Hi guys, have a question that I need answered as soon as possible, appreciate all the help I can get here... can a lack of water/water pressure in your geothermal system cause a burn out of the compressor? This is the sequence of events that occurred. My pump breaks, we are not sure why. We repair it. A few months later when we need to use the AC, it does not work. We bring someone in who tells us that our compressor is burnt out. Seems like a coincidence that a pump is replaced and so soon after the compressor is broken. A week later the compressor is replaced, but the AC is still not working, the system is still running too hot. The pump now breaks again, and our guy says he does not know why. We thought this was weird, so we brought in another person to take a look. This person replaces the broken pump and realizes that there is air and a lack of water in the coolant system which was causing all the heat to build in the system. We now know that when the first pump was replaced, the repairman did not check to see if there was enough water pressure in it before saying the job was complete. Could this lack of water pressure and high heat be the reason why the compressor burnt out in the first place? Looking back, we paid for the replacement of the broken pump, but did the botched job of replacing that pump then also cause our compressor to burn out due to the heat? Thank you.
Lack of pressure - no. Lack of flow - yes. Definitely a lack of flow leads to heat build up in AC mode. Like an engine, this isn't good on the compressor.
Any time a loop system is opened, such as replacing a pump, requires the system to be flushed and purged of air before being placed back in service. This nearly always requires a flush cart. I have to add that most modern heat pumps have safety controls that should lockout the compressor under those conditions to prevent damage to the compressor. Unless subjected to multiple resets without correcting the cause of the lockout.
Recent service call behind another technician. They replaced the split system and reversed the water side hoses. The system is on a inside building loop, so a check valve trying to move water the wrong direction caused a no flow situation in the unit. In the 10 minutes it took us to figure this out, the water in the unit was almost boiling, definitely scalding. Just ask my apprentice. No flow will ruin a compressor from excess heat. Eric
