In article <nj9ht8$h91$
1...@dont-email.me>,
I fitted a couple 11 years ago (B&Q sold them then).
One is still working fine.
The other (at my parents') stangely stopped working when there
was building work going on around it, scaffold being erected and
torn down, etc. I suspect the pipework got clobbered.
There's no pumping down required - both sides are pressurised
and use plug-together connectors which maintain the seal as
you connect them.
You can get them repressurised by an aircon company if needed.
I was quoted £100 for the one which was broken, and that
included finding and fixing the leak (providing it was fixable
without needing any parts except tubing).
In the end, we never got around to it.
At the time when I bought mine, they only artracted 5% VAT as
an air-sourced heat-pump (at least, those that can do heating).
B&Q didn't honour this, but they were much cheaper than all the
suppliers who did. I think that might have changed now - there
was talk of the 5% VAT rate being changed to apply to only those
units which are for heating only and do not have cooling
capability, but I didn't follow what the outcome of that was.
I bought mine for cooling originally, but I mainly use it for
heating, when I just want one room heating for working at home.
Fitting the unit wasn't difficult. The outside unit is very
heavy - I did it as a single-person lift, but I would suggest
you get some help with lifting it. (Depends what power the
compressor is - in the US they rate the power by weight of the
compressor.) There are constraints on the relative heights of
the inside and outside unit (outside must be lower).
--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]