$800 estimate for disconnecting a heat pump's air handler

In My Humble Opinion
1

I want to repair the old and water-damaged drywall in my utility closet. That’s where the heat pump’s air handler is. In order to be able to get to the walls and work on them, the air handler will have to be moved out into the hall way - perhaps a distance of three feet.

I can move the unit myself, it’s not that big or heavy (5’ tall by 22" deep by 14" wide). The problem is the coolant line. I don’t know how to handle that. I assume the refrigerant will need to be drained from the line before it can be cut?

Because of that scary thin copper tube, I’m calling an HVAC service company (the same one that installed it). They’ve given me a ballpark estimate of $800 to do this. I almost fell out of my chair.

Drain the refrigerant and cut the line. That’s a 45 minute job at most. Then, after I’m done with my drywall and painting of the closet, they come back to reconnect the line and refil with refrigerant. Another 45 minute job. So, $800 for 90 minutes of work. Does that seem reasonable to anybody else?

2

It isn’t so much the time I would guess as the coolant. There are strict regulations about how they handle it Then they have to replace it when they put everything back. So I wouldn’t be surprised if it was rather expensive. Whether or not it should be $800 I don’t know. Your best bet is get quotes from other companies and compare. I got quotes for replacing my garage roof from 3 places, $3400, $3900, and $15,000. Guess which one didn’t get called back. :stuck_out_tongue: Multiple quotes are your friend.

3

It sounds very over priced. The coolant will have to be drained, and stored and then the system recharged. The price they gave you sounds ridiculous. Call somebody else and see what they will quote. I won’t think repairing a utility closet wall worth spending $800 on.

Are they union or Pentagon subcontractors?

4

After leaving the system open for that period of time, the receiver drier will have to be changed. On a home A/C unit these are brazed in line, not connected via a threaded fitting. Also every A/C heat pump installation takes a different amount of refrigerant, due to the variable lengths of the pipes connecting the units.
Finally A proper job will have the system evacuated for probably about 1 hour before recharging to make sure all the water has boiled out of the system.
While $800 sounds high, it really does not sound too far over the top, depending on labor rates in your area.
To give you a comparison, I had a experienced A/C technician doing a side job repair a leak in my system, replace the receiver drier, evacuate and recharge the system. It cost me $475 last year, and I considered that to be the deal of the week. If I had hired a contractor I am fairly certain that the bill would have been between 150%-200% of what I paid.

5

will repost

6

[QUOTE=Patty O’Furniture]
I want to repair the old and water-damaged drywall in my utility closet. That’s where the heat pump’s air handler is. In order to be able to get to the walls and work on them, the air handler will have to be moved out into the hall way - perhaps a distance of three feet.

I can move the unit myself, it’s not that big or heavy (5’ tall by 22" deep by 14" wide). The problem is the coolant line. I don’t know how to handle that. I assume the refrigerant will need to be drained from the line before it can be cut?

Because of that scary thin copper tube, I’m calling an HVAC service company (the same one that installed it). They’ve given me a ballpark estimate of $800 to do this. I almost fell out of my chair.

Drain the refrigerant and cut the line. That’s a 45 minute job at most. Then, after I’m done with my drywall and painting of the closet, they come back to reconnect the line and refil with refrigerant. Another 45 minute job. So, $800 for 90 minutes of work. Does that seem reasonable to anybody else?
[/QUOTE]

I’m an HVAC guy and I’ve done this a thousand times.

I can’t remember ever doing this in 45 minutes.

The work scope:

Front End.

  1. Evacuate freon. (30-40 minutes)
  2. Cut refrigeration lines and tape off.
  3. Disconnect sheetmetal plenums.
  4. Disconnect condensate drains
  5. Disconnect low voltage wires
  6. Disconnect high voltage wires
    with tool set up. travel, clean up etc about 1-3 hours.

Back End.

  1. Rebraze couplings where lines were cut. (30 minutes w/ tool set up)
  2. Fill system with dry nitrogen to pressure test. (30-1 hour minutes)
  3. Hook up sheet meatal plenums (1-2 hours)
  4. Reconnect condensate drain (15-30 minutes)
  5. Reconnect high voltage/low voltage (15-30 minutes)
  6. Put vacuum pump on system. Pump will run for 30 minutes to 2 hours based on moisture in system. New filter may, or may not be, installed. A qulaified tech will use a micron gage and will evacuate to 500 microns or less. (approx 1-2 hours, although there is some overlap; the vacuum can be running while the other work is being done)
  7. Reintroduce freon. Start unit. Monitor temperatures and humidity in home, and techinical things in system. (superheat, subcooling, amp draw etc) (1-2 hours)

Maybe you will do some, or all, of this yourself (although sheetmetal is best left to professionals) leaving only the refrigeration for the HVAC tech. Even then, including travel time, I would expect this to be 1-2 hours for the front end, and 2-4 hours on the back end.

In any event, this cannot be done correctly in 45 minutes.

ETA: I haven’t seen the job, so I don’t know if the $800 is correct or not, but at first blush doesn’t sound unreasonable. For a garden variety job—based on what you describe— (and we cannot see) $500-$1000 would be an average range me thinks. Get another quote, but keep in mind you get what you pay for. If someone qoutes you $200 for this take my advice and call the $800 guy. This is not a $200 job.

7

OK there’s a little more to it than I thought, and this is my heat pump that takes care of me all year long so I don’t want to hire some half-assed contractor. On the front end I can do everything after #2. But I guess I can’t do any of the back end stuff since recharging with coolant is the last step.

Thanks.