tl;dr:
I have my old house sold, but cannot find an installer that can provide a replacement heat pump, despite months of trying. The obstacles seem to be a lack of installers who work on heat pumps, a nationwide heat pump shortage, and frequent mandated refrigerant changes which apparently make it impossible to fix units running last-year's refrigerant-du-jour, and I'm risking losing the house sale as a result. Does that sound legit, or am I being taken for a ride?
Full-blown details for those who are interested:
I bought a new row-house style condo spring of last year, and put my old high-rise condo up for sale. The heat/cooling in the old place is via heat pump and had been acting up, so fixing it went on the list of pre-sale action items.
The old heat pump is a Whalen water/air unit that heats/cools my unit. The compressor, condenser, and air handler are inside my unit in a closet and are my responsibility as owner. The evaporator is outside the building (I believe on the roof) and is the HOAs responsibility, and I believe they may be interconnected/shared. This is in a 26-story high rise built in 2006-2007.
I was struggling to find anyone to come out and look at it, so my real estate agent offered to take over that task and utilize his connections to get bids, and with my approval, schedule the work. He did not have an easy time either, and eventually we got some assessments and bids.
The old compressor had failed, and theoretically could be rebuilt, but isn't allowed to because it uses a refrigerant that isn't allowed anymore as of 2024. Replacing the entire compressor involves removing the chassis from the building and taking the unit offsite, and the cost of doing so matched or exceeded replacing the entire thing, and there were doubts expressed that such a replacement compressor would be available and compatible, so we started down the replacement path.
The HVAC installer said that the new heat pump was backordered, but hopefully should be available soon. Fast forward a few months and a few delays, and the first update of any substance beyond delays is that we are down to the wire in terms of timing before yet another mandated refrigerant changeover, but that we should OK as we placed the order while the old was still allowed, and therefore won't run afoul of 2025 rules even if installing it in the new year. I was told that there are widespread shortages of heat pumps and associated parts, and it could be weeks.
The market here has been dismally slow. No showings, let alone offers. I did a bunch of work, a few upgrades, dropped the price significantly, had two open houses, and zero people showed up. There was only one comparable unit sold in the previous four months, and a dozen comparable units on the market. Mine was in great condition, and priced very aggressively. Good news in late December! I got an asking-price cash offer, contingent upon a home inspection. My agent had been up front about the condition of the heat pump and the scheduled replacement. The buyer's repair addendum was brief, replace the heat pump as had been discussed, and replace one outlet and one old smoke detector by mid-February. Cool! We had a guy out to fix the outlet and detector within a day and a half.
Here we are nearing the end of January, and there is still no ETA on the heat pump we ordered last year! The HVAC folks say there are still nationwide shortages.
As a backup, my agent sought some more bids. The only one we got is over twice as much as the earlier bid we accepted last year! $20k for a new heat pump, all due to a failed compressor! The explanation is that there are limited options that are compatible with the building-side part of the system, 2025 refrigerant-compatible, and fit within the closet (average-sized, roughly 4' x 3.5' x 8' tall or so.)
Does all this check out or am I being taken for a ride? Any ideas on alternatives from folks familiar with HVAC?
I really don't want to lose this buyer, but I don't know how to get the repair done. However it happens, the contractor needs to bonded to keep the HOA happy, and I need receipts to keep the buyer happy, so sadly no DIY compressor rebuild and re-charge! When I started calling around in spring 2024, about 9/10 local HVAC companies said they don't service heat pumps like mine and that I should call someone else. I wouldn't suspect a 2006-ish water/air heat pump is a rare and finicky beast, or so old that it is obsolete. Did I somehow unknowingly age quickly and end up as the homeowner equivalent of the old man calling around to local general auto repair shops, baffled as to why nobody can service the points and multiple Webers on my 60's European exotic? 🤣
