A few weeks ago I wrote how inverter duty, variable flow systems are sure to change industry. There is an ASHRAE standard to show how low the operating cost is compared to other types of systems. We are seeing an increase in the number of these systems specified by engineers and installed by mechanical contractors. What remains to be seen is adequate installation support, adequate start-up support and the resolution of service problems. I’d like to detail a few of my experiences to help convey my concern with the installation of variable refrigerant flow systems.
1) Job # 1 – a service customer came to us looking for help with a system that was installed by a reputable area contractor. The warranty had expired and contractor was no longer willing to service the system that had never functioned properly. The system was specified by an engineer and installed with the construction of an addition. ModernControls contacted the manufacture and talked to the same factory technical support person that helped the last contractor. The manufacture sent us many parts over the course of the next few months in an attempt to resolve the issue. None of which worked. The customer however having to pay all the labor was not happy. Then the technical support person stopped returning calls. I spoke to other factory representatives; all said they would have to speak to the original guy because he was in charge of the department. No one ever called back. When my customer got frustrated I turned over all the information, including dates and names of who I had spoken to. He got the same lack of response. There were 2 systems installed to service the same area, he shut down the system that never worked and has been dealing with inadequate heating and cooling on degree days since day one.
2) Job # 2 – a mechanical contractor was installing three variable refrigerant flow systems in a large building renovation project. ModernControls was the control contractor for the project and our scope of work was to integrate the three systems with the Johnson Controls building automation system. This part of the project went well. The local sales representative asked ModernControls to perform start-up of the systems. The representative said that they would give us full support so we could get familiar with their product and the hope was that we’d sell them to our customers. It took twice as long to perform start-up as they said it would, the contractor made piping mistakes that needed to be sorted out and then corrected. The instructions have the pictures together in one spot and then you find the corresponding instructions in your language in another part. After following the series of instructions and seeing the mistakes that were made it was pretty easy to see how things went wrong. That however was not the only problem. The manufacture representative told us that he would have one of his “start-up guys” meet our technician on the job the first day. What we got was a call 3 hours after we arrived from a technician who had “been around a few” but really wasn’t that familiar so he didn’t come out. Two days later we came up with the right way to do things, a third day was spent on site to pass the information on to the actual installer so he could make the changes. Fortunately on start-up everything appeared to work correctly, had it not we would have spent more time scratching our head because the product sales representative didn’t have expertise to help us with start-up let alone troubleshooting problems.
3) Job # 3 – Which will take us back to Job # 1 briefly. The sales representative for the product from job # 1 showed up in my office with sales literature. I refused to take it and told him about my experience with the product. He said he could get me factory assistance to help correct Job # 1 which is now almost 3 years old resolved. I told him I would talk to the customer but informed him that he has requested prices to remove both systems from their site. If the factory would assume the responsibility for all cost we could approach the subject with the customer. The following day, like on queue a job turned up with the same product. One of my service customers had a renovation project completed with a large variable flow system. The call I received was like this “the customer had a service call for a new unit in the fitness area that need to be reset every time they used the room since start-up. They wanted us to take care of the problem now that the warranty was over.” I assumed it was a single cassette ductless split. When the tech called and told me what he was looking at and that he need technical support I passed on the product representative’s name as someone to call for support. The next morning I came in to find our parts person putting together a 500 page booklet that had been e-mailed to the technician. Their idea of technical support was a 500 page book. When I called to ask the product representative if that was his idea of good product support he told me that “the guy” wasn’t available for 3-weeks and if I sent my technicians (22 mind you) away for a 3-day class they would know how to work on the system without help. The technician that was on site has over 20 years of commercial and industrial HVAC experience.
I am sure that there is a leaning curb associated with every new technology but this one seems like it’s going to cause a lot of discomfort. Back in February I expressed my opinion that the package units with the inverter duty compressors would help us gain a better understanding of how these systems operate and what to expect under different conditions. This is one service aspect that we need to address so that we can train technicians on the common functions of the different manufactures’ systems. The next thing is how to install the systems in such a way as to allow malfunctioning systems to remain on line while making repairs. A simple refrigerant leak or failed metering device can take an entire system down for repairs. The installation of valves and access fittings, plus keeping all piping accessible can suddenly make the installation not so cost effective.
