Heat Pumps and Electric Heating - Does outrighty faulty workmanship hold up past expired warranty

This is in reference to an earlier thread I posted "heatpump won't cool, fan won't run sometimes".

I finally got another heatpump expert to come out and check my system out.

This is what he found.

1. The 7/8" Line coming from the heatpump is crimped near flat coming into the house where it was bent into a 90. Should have had a 90 welded on it.
2. It appears that the original installer may have pieced scrap line set together. There is joints every 10 feet or so. And the line set goes from 3/4" at the heatpump to 7/8" before entering house and back down to 3/4" before going through the floor to the upstairs.
3. The system was extremely low in charge, indicating a leak. He said with it acting up from the start and 3 days after each recharging in the past, tells him that there is a major leak somewhere and it has been there since the install, which tells him that the installer did not do a pressure test on the lines to check for leaks. Hopefully there are no joints inside the walls, which he said he avoids totally but is not ruling it out due to the workmanship he has seen thus far.
4. The fan was actually still running but the low charge froze the A-Coil up and prevented air flow. Therefore it seemed like the fan was not running.
5. The Duct work in the attic is sub par in his opinion. He said that there needs to be 18-24" duct after the last take-off to create backpressure in the duct so that the static pressure stays in the ducts and not in the flex/grills. In my case the ductwork stops immediately after the last take-off. This is true on both ends.
6. He said the take-off should be minimum 12" apart from each other. In my case, there are 3 to 4 take-offs side by side with not an inch to spare bewtween them at the very, very end of the duct work on both ends.
7. He also said that the by the book, the take-off flex hose should not be more than 6 ft long, but he usually goes up to 10ft long. Some of my flex hosing is over 14 ft long. Therefore increasing the chance of the air tumbling through the flex. which he said is not good.
8. He did say that the sub-par duct work is the least of the problems right now but it would make a diifference in air flow idf done correctly.
9. He gave a rough estimate of 750 to 1000 dollars to find the leak and repair as needed, replace all the line set from heatpump to where it enters the floor so that it will be all continuous and no kinked flat spots. About 30 feet worth. And recharge the system.
10. I have already replaced a faulty thermostat because theirs was 6 degrees off and they swore up and down that it was normal for it to be like that.

The question I have is:
The installer yanked our chains with this until the warranty ran out. They kept saying it had either too much or too little charge, and adjusted as needed on all 10 visits from them. Now the warranty is out and we are now are finding all they extremely poor workmanship, is it unappropiate for me to try to go after the original installer for the cost of the repairs. I refuse to let him make the repairs, especially after he kept blowing me off while it was under warranty, buying his time until it ran out.

I don't expect to get anywhere with it, but it might be worth a shot. Is it right or wrong for me to expect the installer to pay for these repairs after his 1-yr contractor warranty has expired?:wall::wall::wall::wall:

Is it right or wrong for me to expect the installer to pay for these repairs after his 1-yr contractor warranty has expired?


If he couldn't or wouldn't find and fix the problem after 10 service calls I can assure you your chances of getting him to pay for another contractors work are slim.

Is it ethical? IMHO no. However, I also would not pay for another contractors work, but I would have made it right.

I have to ask, was this guy low bidder?

The only way you will get anything from this guy is to take him to court..even then it might be impossible. If the second guy is willing to put it all in writing and possibly show up in court for you maybe. But probably doubtful you would ever see anything. I know how easy it is to incorporate in VA and that protects lots of assests. Many handymen and the like incorporate and don't list anything as corporate assets..if something happens, they disolve and re-incorporate under a new name.

I guess you can say the contractor was lowest bidder. He is the HVAC guy of my general contractor's choice. Which in the world of business translates to lowest bidder or family or buddies. It was explained to be that not all, but a fair amount of HVAC techs are guilty of working for a reputable HVAC company and gaining just enough experience to be dangerous. They then go out on their own and hire high school drop-outs and do not properly train them. Or continue his own education to keep current with new technology and changes in code. and that is likely, what has happened here.
I am not seeking to go after the HVAC contractor to pay for the repairs, I want to go after the General Contractor that hired him. The General Contractor is the one who had the 1-yr warranty on the whole house. He can back-charge the HVAC guyif if so chooses.
With the conditions being present during the warranty period and issues being known to all respective parties during this time and the issues still not being resolved, would that not still be considered warranty?
It is kind of funny, the HVAC tech that found all these issues felt so bad about the way the installer installed this system, he chose not no charge me for the 2 hrs he spent going over everything with a fine tooth comb. I find that very to be very kind and even though he is under the impression that he was only there to find out what was wrong and to give a rough estimate on cost so that we could have some ammo against the contractor, I think I may get him to make the repairs himself. I do not mind doing business with people like that.
Like I said before, I really don't expect to get very far with this, but at the very least make it known to the General Contractor that his HVAC sub is not a very good choice.

Having all the service tickets and the other HVAC contractors recomendations I would think the GC would make things right if he runs a reputable business, I would.