Slow day, so I'll post a question The month before my car warranty expires I get the car to the dealer to have it gone over thoroughly to see if there are any warranty issues that can be identified and fixed prior to the warranty expiring. I thought the same could be done on a geothermal system by paying a professional to thoroughly go over the unit. This check may include some things that are not normally done at a yearly (or semi-yearly) inspection. I listed everything I could think of without pulling out the manual. Check door and comfort alert lights for error messages. Inspect/replace air filter Inspect/clean air coil Inspect/clean blower cage Flush condensate line Check loop pressure (closed loop) Check flow rate Check air temperature delta Check brine pressure delta Heat of Extraction/Rejection Calculation Heat strips amp draw Compressor amp draw Compressor winding test Start/Run Capacitor test Blower amp draw Circulator pump amp draw? DSH temperature delta Check freeze protection level? System function test (all stages, aux, and emergency heat.) What did I miss?
That's a long list. If air and water side delta Ts and flows are OK and unit amps reasonable, I'm not sure all the rest is justified. Good air and water delta-Ts coupled with a quiet, not-overworked ECM blower indicate everything else is in order. if filter, coil, and blower cage are really dirty then efficiency will have dropped, but those conditions would be revealed during investigation triggered by departures from fundamental readings list above. DSH deserves a look for good delta T on the refrigerant side - my hand can tell if that is OK. If my hand doesn't perceive a large refrigerant delta-T and a smaller but still easily perceived waterside delta-T, then a DSH flush may be in order.
My thought is to catch a problem that may not be apparent near warranty end with normal checks (since the warranty is soon to expire), but may become apparent the following year or so after the warranty has expired. If normal checks would uncover the problem, then I agree that there is too much on the list.
While we might cover some of this inadvertantly, I generally don't activate aux on purpose, nor do I pull amp draw on it unless customer has indicated trouble. There is little to fail on these so they usually work or not, but their would be little warning before failure. Joe
