I have had my Complete Heat system since 1996. I am on well and septic. I inquired extensively about running this thing on a well and everyone said it was OK. This was the dumbest thing I've done in years. If the well pump goes down for some reason while you are gone, the heater shuts off and you get to replace those frozen pipes and replace all of your drywall and hardwood floors. The good news is that you repaint your house more often. You'll have the same situation when the Complete Heat ignitor or water pump fails. Hopefully yours will fail (it will fail) in the summer. There is no redundancy.
I was averaging two service calls per year, then three when I decided that I would have to fix things myself until I relace this expensive piece of sh_t. The outfit that installed it could not make it right and refuses to work on it after we had an argument about reliability. I have to rework the ignition points every 1-2 years. I have to replace the toroidal water pump every 3 years. I have replaced the overtemp/overpressure valve on the water heater twice. Once, they did it for $175 once and once I did it for the cost of the part (I think it was about $30). I now stock parts that recurr in failure. (points, pump, valve).
There is a water temp adjustment on the control circuit board that was turned up to near the threshold temp where the releaf valve let go. This controls how hot your tap water is and also (therefore) how hot the water in the heat exchanger is. Hoter air heats the house better, I like hot tap water too. I think the service company turned it up. But the setting was too high and repeated releaf valve purges failed the valve. I poked around until I found this adjustment (trimmer pot on the circuit board) and dialed it back a touch. No failures since.
In general, the system acts like it is too small for the house (3000 SqFt). In cold or hot weather extremes the unit runs continuously and cannot warm the house above 60 degrees or cool it below 78. The blower is definitly not up to pushing air around the house. I've been told to jerk it out and replace it with a two zone unit. I've also been told to replace the blower motor with a bigger one, the one that is in it, I've been told, is the largest one they (Lennox) sell. At this point I have to do blower surgery or eat a new HVAC system.
A thought: one of the notions of a super high efficiency HVAC system is less gas, less electric. These things are set up to run small blower motors (less electric) and scavenge heat. If the thing is running continuosly to try to keep up, there is no saving. Get the less efficient unit with the big blower or a multi zone system and call it a day.
If you are considering a system like this, take five thousand dollars and give it to someone you really dislike, then buy a five thousand dollar, run of the mill, no heat the water to heat the house system. You will be better off and have spent the same dough. And made a friend.
Post Reply
Watch this Post
