Started around 10am yesterday. By 2pm the system was running. Hardest part was pulling the lines out of the wall while the orange expanding foam held everything in place. Second hardest thing is dealing with the line set connections while at the top of a ladder.
But as it goes with these jobs, a test run is not the end of the job. You have to finish the install itself meaning steps like:
- Reapply orange fire block foam to wall cavity
- Silicone caulk and replace the top cover for the line set where it comes out of the wall
- Apply the UV tape stuff to the line set, at least to the areas that may end up exposed. I covered a lot more area just for good measure.
- Attach the condensate line and cut to length
- Double insulate the various sections of line set (my preference)
- Apply the tar/asphalt sound deadening to upper line set connections
- Finish/tidy up the upper line set connections (more insulation/tape)
- Snap on and screw down the line set covers
- Coil the excess power/signal cable. This gen 4 one is upgraded and armored which is nice.
- Throw away a ton of garbage littered around the work area. Pick up tools. Gather up unused installation items and organize.
I was done with all of the above by 5pm. I would say doing a replacement system was probably half the work/time of a brand new system that's never been installed before. Specifically, cutting out the time for:
- Hanging the inside unit mounting bracket (same for my old gen 3 and new gen 4)
- Locating and drilling hole, installing PVC conduit passthrough
- Locating/attaching line set covers to outside of house
- Locating/hanging condenser bracketry
Seriously, that stuff doubles the time.
Anyway, new system is working great. The gas sniffer had some alarms where the ends of the line set attach to the inside unit and the condenser but I couldn't really figure out if they were false or not. It did pass the soapy water bubble test.
Side note: I JUST threw away the first replacement condenser and when I went to "evacuate" the gas, there was none. That was not the case with my old gen 3 condenser. Not sure what to think about that.