Hey guys before we get to the video for more tips and tricks in the heating and air industry, please click that subscribe button. Thank you: hey guys, joshua griffin, air serving the middle peninsula and the northern neck of virginia and wanted to do a video, because i get one question more than any other question. It seems like i get this question on my facebook and my videos and everywhere, and that is what is the best brand who's good who's. Not and one common trend that you'll see across our industry is most heating and air guys can just about all agree that the brand matters less than who installs it so the installation or who installs it matters more than what brand you select.

Of course, we all have our preferences. We may disagree on who's the best, but ultimately we can all agree that usually the installer matters more than the brand that they install, and so the question becomes. I've actually gotten this question. What does that mean? What does it mean to have a bad installer versus a good installer, and that's what this video is going to cover? In fact, if you found this video we're going to do a series of videos where we're going to talk about bad installations, bad installers and some examples that you as the homeowner can sniff out and find, if you're getting a good installation or not so check out.

This video but check out the whole entire series and our goal is to arm you to help you figure out if you're getting a good installation or not stay tuned. So in this video we're going to talk about the outdoor units. So if you're, a homeowner and you're trying to figure out yeah, i've picked my brand i'm having the installer do it is. Are they doing it right is? Is this a good installer? Are they doing a good installation here and for starters i would just want to say the first thing is, if you don't see that that contractor, if they haven't, pulled out the instructions and they're going through that making sure that they're, following what the manufacturer has followed For the specs, that might be your first red flag now, i'm not saying every technician needs to pull out the instructions on every single install.

For example, there are some systems that i've installed hundreds, if not thousands of, and i can probably write the instructions for, but in general, are they following the instructions that should be a big red flag and in those instructions one of the things that all manuals will Go through with the outdoor unit, and that is clearances, how much clearance do they want around the unit above the unit and so on, so that unit can operate efficiently and properly providing you the capacity that you're needing, for example, we see units sometimes set too close To the house i mean they'll only have like a couple inches off of the house, and the instructions are very clear that you know it needs a certain amount of whether it be 12 or 18 inches off of that house. So that way, a proper amount of airflow could get across that outdoor coil. So you take like a four ton unit and you cover one of those sides. You've now taken a four ton unit and now made it a three ton capacity because it can't pull enough air across that outdoor coil.

Another thing that the instructions will talk about - and that is probably common sense. But we see it all the time, and that is that unit needs to be level. It needs to be on a platform whether it be you know, just a normal platform in some markets, some markets they put what we call snow legs or some guys call pump. Ups or whatever it is, they call it whatever verbiage or it could be on some sort of a platform.

However, it's installed that unit needs to be level so that way, the fan and the bearings and everything you're not putting more wear and tear on that system and the compressor is getting the oil back like it's properly supposed to and all that good stuff. So, if a unit's on level, you could have future issues that you would not have if it's installed properly. Another thing that we have seen now again every market's different, but we have seen where we'll see like rain, gutters and they'll be kind of like falling over in the you know, winter time and you get some freezing rain and it's kind of dumping on that condenser And that unit it can go into defrost mode multiple times now we're talking about a heat pump. Obviously, so it's going to be running in the winter time, and if that water is dripping on that outdoor unit, you know they're gon na freeze up a little bit.

Go into defrost mode things like that, but what you'll see is if it's getting that excess water and things like that when it's installed, that's something to be mindful of you know: where's the water coming off. Where is it gon na be exposed to things like that? Because you know that unit could go into defrost mode as much as it wants, but then it becomes a block of ice and it doesn't matter how many times it goes into defrost mode. It can't get all that ice off of there. Another thing to consider: we already talked about clearances and how far the unit is off of the house, but things like bushes, you know if a bush is too close to it.

You know when that unit's installed, that bush might actually be off of the unit. But if you take a little common sense in the hand those bushes are going to grow and that's something to consider you know if nothing else, letting the homeowner letting you know the contractors should say, hey look. You know you want to keep this bush cut back. So this unit can breathe and do what it's supposed to and clearances from things like that as well.

Another thing as far as clearances go is other units, so if you got a heat pump or air conditioner outside it's calling for a certain amount of clearance around it. Well, guess what the one right beside it if you've got two of them or more they've got clearances as well, so you can't put them on top of one another. They need to have some space apart. Another thing that we have to consider in our area that maybe a lot of other folks don't have to consider, and that is how far the unit is off the ground.

So we have to consider things like floodplains and things like that. We have some low-lying areas in our area. You might be in a part of the country where that just simply doesn't matter, but there are lots of part of the country that that unit can be built on a platform. Let's get it off of the ground.

At least above the foundation, or whatever i always say as a general rule, if there's not an actual code on it, then let's at least get that unit up to where, if it got up to that unit, you'd have bigger problems than just water. Getting up to that unit, so we've seen units just mounted on the ground and water gets up just a little bit and if they would have just put it on a platform, they would have never had any issues, but then they didn't and now they are having Issues another thing to be mindful of is pets, and you know: we've seen it a whole bunch of times. You know i hate to say it, but you know dogs. If your dog goes out and it pees on your outdoor unit, it will actually eat the metal.

We've seen it hundreds of times just google, it google dog peeing on outdoor coil and look at the pictures and you'll see what it does on the coils. It's crazy that just you know a dog. It doesn't even take very long just a dog doing his business marking his territory and he pees on your outdoor unit, the problems that that can create pretty quickly. And so what do you do about that? Well, whether it's build the unit off the ground, like we talked about with the platform or putting some sort of barrier around the unit to keep the dog away from it, whatever you've got to do, but you definitely don't want your pets peeing on that unit.

Another thing to consider is other utilities. There are actual codes that say that the outdoor unit needs to be a certain amount of distance away from gas meters or electric panels. Things like that now, if you're the homeowner, and you don't really know what those codes should be, then you know just use a little common sense if the gas meter is behind that outdoor unit. That is a problem.

You know if it's right there in between it and something else you know to where the unit can't be serviced or the gas meter. You know can't be gotten to by the gas company or whatever just keep that in mind, and then that kind of leads into my next part, and that is servicing the unit and i feel, like you know. This is one thing that heating and air guys get wrong so many times, and you know you as the homeowner in the grand scheme of things you may not even really care, but you know you should care, because you want your units be maintained, you want it To be serviced properly, like we talked about having clearances off of other units or the house, you want that unit be accessible for a technician to be able to get in there easily service it open it up all those fun things, because, let's be honest, there's a Lot of lazy technicians out there and if they you know, if the unit's installed in a manner where it's going to be a bear for them to get to it, then a lot of times it's not being maintained like it should be, even if you're trying to Get it maintained properly, so just keep that in mind the unit being serviced the little door where the electrical components are where you connect your gauges, all that stuff, keep that as accessible as you can, and the last thing i'll say is just future issues. We talked about bushes growing things that you know you see that could be changing or whatever, with the environment and around the outdoor unit.

Just keep that in mind. Just adding a little bit of gravel around the unit can stop weeds and grass getting up against it. We see all the time where people mow their lawns and it blows grass up on the unit. And then you know their unit has to work harder and on a hot summer day to try to get that house cool than it would if it didn't have all that grass on the outdoor unit.

So just future issues just kind of keep that in mind and as you're looking at, where they're installing it or where they have installed it things to keep in mind in the future. So i hope that helps again. This is one of many videos stay tuned for more videos on problems with installations. The last thing i'll say is if you're in the market for a new heating and air system and you're in virginia and the middle peninsula or the northern neck, give griffin air a call.

We'll give you a free estimate and the best warranty in the area. But if you're, not in our coverage area check out my new website, i've even got a little banner up here. New hvac guide, dot com check out that site because we've put so much information on there. It's as if i wrote a book telling folks, hey here's.

The good and the bad avoid this or that i've even got a whole page called no no's things to stay away from, and so before you spend thousands check out that website and finally, for more tips and tricks in the heating and air industry. Click that subscribe button, thanks for watching you.