frontpage Posted by WakandaFlex26 • May 26, 2023
May 26, 2023 8:00 PM
Item 1 of 6
Item 1 of 6
frontpage Posted by WakandaFlex26 • May 26, 2023
May 26, 2023 8:00 PM
Costway Air Conditioners: 12000 BTU 20 SEER2 115V Ductless Mini Split
& More + Free S/H$545
$970
43% offCostway
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There is great discussion about heat pumps and DIY installation in the FAQ of the r/heatpumps community on reddit [reddit.com].
In most states, you do not need to be a licensed HVAC contractor to install one of these systems and can still do it "on the books" by pulling an Owner-Builder permit. For example in California: https://www.cslb.ca.gov/consumers...rvi
R-410A is being phased out and R-32 is the primary replacement, so this system being on R-32 is not necessarily a bad thing. That said, most HVAC systems being sold in the US today are still R-410A so you might have some more challenges locating refrigerant and technicians willing to work with you. Generally, you need to have a dedicated set of tools for each refrigerant type.
All heat pump systems have a factory charge that corresponds to a certain line length. You only need to add more refrigerant if you have longer lines than what the factory charge is good for. I reviewed the documentation and was not able to find this information, but it should be printed on the label on the side of the unit.
This system is listed on neither the NEEP Air Source Heat Pump [neep.org] or AHRI Certification [ahridirectory.org] directory, meaning that its performance has not been validated by a third party source. This could mean that the efficiency is very poor, but it might be fine. However, Costway's website says that the unit has AHRI certification, so either they are lying or there is certification under whatever brand they are buying these units from and white labeling and they didn't bother resubmitting the certification under their own brand.
Here's the instruction manual if you don't have a Costway account yet: https://cdn1.costway.co
If you live in a cold climate (below ~5F in the winter), you are going to want something that uses vapor injection technology [youtube.com]. Typically these systems are branded as "hyper heat" or "extreme heat" and work quite well in low temperatures.
Feel free to DM me if you have any heat pump questions, happy to help out!
A lot of nay sayers nearly had me convinced that it would fail after 2 months and that it was a waste of time and money, but I think if you are reasonably intelligent when installing it and treat it as a semi-disposable unit, you can also be happy with it.
Only complaint operating it is that the auto function is basically useless. It will remain cooling 100% of the time and I manually stop it when I realize the room is more than 10 degrees cooler than the setpoint. I think I expected it to cycle on and off to hold a temp like a central AC, but it just runs the fan at a slower speed... which happens to be enough to still over-cool the room.
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Feel free to DM me if you have any heat pump questions, happy to help out!
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You wouldn't want to bury the lineset. The compressors on these are pre charged for the included line set, which on this unit is 13 feet. If you need a longer run, you would need a longer line set and likely also additional refrigerant for this specific model. I've seen some with longer linesets. If you're trying to keep it DIY and need longer than 15ish feet. Mr.Cool has their pre charged line sets in varying lengths up to 50 feet. Not to plug them but they're the only brand I am aware of that does this.
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oh and no cradle for the remote. that was really annoying...
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A lot of nay sayers nearly had me convinced that it would fail after 2 months and that it was a waste of time and money, but I think if you are reasonably intelligent when installing it and treat it as a semi-disposable unit, you can also be happy with it.
Only complaint operating it is that the auto function is basically useless. It will remain cooling 100% of the time and I manually stop it when I realize the room is more than 10 degrees cooler than the setpoint. I think I expected it to cycle on and off to hold a temp like a central AC, but it just runs the fan at a slower speed... which happens to be enough to still over-cool the room.
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