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Ductless - split AC installls?


JerryNY

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Anyone have experience with getting these things installed? I had a HVAC guy take a look today and while I'm waiting for him to build an estimate I was wondering if anyone had experiences with them? I have a 100 y/o Victorian with gas furnace running hot water and no ductwork so the ductless systems seem like a no brainer and super efficient. The guy I spoke to uses Mitsubishi which I was leaning towards anyway but researching costs on these things online is a major PITA. My house is a two family and I'm only doing my first floor 2 BR apartment which is about 1200 ft^2. I'm looking at 4 possibly 5 rooms to have units (two bedrooms, the kitchen and a large converted porch living room - the dining room is centrally located and doesn't need one absolutely). Looking at the costs of the hardware it doesn't look crazy expensive ($4-6k) and the install looks straightforward (power to the box and run the lines drill holes and mount the units on the intererior walls). The tech said it's probabably a 2-3 day job all in. Any experiences would be appreciated; I hate having no frame of reference for having jobs done. I'm half tempted to do it myself but these things seem better to have pros do them for warranty and reliability issues imho. 

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We do A LOT of these Mitsubishis and love them, we've done other brands here and there on request of a certain contract, but they are very impressive if you get the HyperHeat units.

 

You will not regret getting Mitsubishi minisplits, couple guys are going out to Illinois on a government contract next week to install a dozen of these units. 

 

I'm sorry i can't price you on these, I've helped on quite a few, but i'm mainly plumbing, of course.

 

Here's one of 7 that we're putting in some apartments, they are leaving the brick revealed and wanted them mounted directly to the brick

IMG_20170123_145941336

..

f

And this is how they wanted the drains to look:

You may have noticed in the above pic, the drain (white tube) is hanging out in front, and not going outside the wall. It's because this place is sandwiched between two other buildings and everything has to be run inside. they are going for an exposed, industrial look

IMG_20170126_172918388

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Here's a unit we put in a home gym:

IMG_20160916_140737856

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And how about running the lines through the sharp metal siding?

Splice some rubber hose:

 

IMG_20160916_095128410

 

.

IMG_20160916_134343690

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IMG_20160916_143031936

,..

 

You notice the white channel, it looks like a downspout? Line hide or speedi channel it's called, looks very nice..

 

 

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If you're serious about this, you need to follow their directions.

You can flare the lines and do all that, oil the flare nuts threads with refrigerant oil, then torque the flare nuts properly according to the directions. Then apply 400 psi nitrogen to the system to hold for several hours. Then evacuate the system, break it with nitrogen three times and one final evacuation to hold below 500 microns for 20 minutes

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From july 2016

IMG_20160718_082110785

 

IMG_20160718_084024566

 

..Mounted with some wedge anchors:

IMG_20160718_090030040_HDR

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Level!

IMG_20160718_093318160

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Drill a hole through the interior wall, the old old insulation stuff, like rabbit pellets

IMG_20160718_095032791

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I've got a long drill bit to locate the exact point on the exterior wall

IMG_20160718_095141559

 

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This is the time to find out if your house has insulation or not lol

 

IMG_20160718_105132290

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IMG_20160718_100858015

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Use these anchors for the spots you dont have studs to secure to:

IMG_20160718_093759386

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installing Linehide

IMG_20160718_115518043

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This works well:

 

IMG_20160718_130147905

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Torque wrench on the flare nuts

 

IMG_20160718_131223990

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Micron gauge getting down there: Ignore the refrigerant type, that doesn't affect this part of the work.

IMG_20160718_151242775

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The gutter downspout

 running right in our way makes my eye twitch...

 

IMG_20160718_160319736

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Up and running:

 

IMG_20160718_161106236

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.

 

 

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Wow thanks for the detailed posts! It took me a while to get through them. It looks like the Mitshubishis are a good choice. I'm leaning towards getting the pro to install it. There doesn't seem to be anything crazy about installing them but I've never even used one before and it would take me tons of time up on ladders outside doing something I have no experience with which I'd lean towards avoiding ;) I may change my mind when I see the estimate though...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Like Carl said Mitsubishi is the best and of coarse the most expensive but its worth it. I install minis as well and I wouldn't recommend that you install it yourself if you never worked with air conditioners before. If installed wrong your compressor will live a short life and it will cost a lot of money to replace. But the most dangerous part is the refrigerant part if you get liquid refrigerant on yours hands it will burn you and your hands will be in severe pain for the rest of your life. Plus there is a lot of specialty tools and a lot of small tips you need to know in order to not have a problem down the line. 

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On 2/25/2017 at 10:50 PM, KnarlyCarl said:

If you're serious about this, you need to follow their directions.

You can flare the lines and do all that, oil the flare nuts threads with refrigerant oil, then torque the flare nuts properly according to the directions. Then apply 400 psi nitrogen to the system to hold for several hours. Then evacuate the system, break it with nitrogen three times and one final evacuation to hold below 500 microns for 20 minutes

Hey Carl I install mini's too, I use nylog have you heard of it? Its really good stuff, nice to see an A/c post from you :) 

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6 hours ago, Justin Hernandez said:

Hey Carl I install mini's too, I use nylog have you heard of it? Its really good stuff, nice to see an A/c post from you :) 

Yep there's a few tricks to it and quite an important procedure to it.

I've never heard of nylog, does it go on the flares?

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22 hours ago, KnarlyCarl said:

Yep there's a few tricks to it and quite an important procedure to it.

I've never heard of nylog, does it go on the flares?

Nylog is amazing I use it on everything this video explains it well. Blue is for R410a and red is for R22  

 

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