Pros: Geothermal is great!!!! It pumps out the hottest and coldest air I have ever felt. We don't use our gas fireplace logs any more.
Cons: My Tranquility unit has had 2 freno leaks, 2 electrical shorts, and one mechanical failure all INSIDE the unit in less that 4 years.
You must read this before you purchase a Climate Master Tranquility geothermal system.
I purchased a Climate Master Tranquility 27 unit in November 2007. I am still waiting for the unit to 'work the bugs out'. I hope I don't go bankrupt before I get all the kinks worked out.
First, geothermal is wonderful. I love it. We had oil heat before and we always used the gas logs in the fire place. Since we had geothermal installed, we very rarely use our gas logs. Love it!!!!
Either the Climate Master Tranquility 27 product is a piece of you know what or just my particular unit is a lemon. I am giving Climate Master the opportunity to show me it's just my particular unit.
In less than four years:
The auxiliary heat control board burned up. It was a visibly charred, burnt up circuit board. During the summer, when there is no aux heat being used, it fails. But, the design is so poor it fails in the "on" position. So all summer, our a/c system is cranking out electrical resistance heat (you know how expensive that is) that we are then having to cool with the geothermal a/c system. 6 visits to fix. Really??? The local company that installed it (ClimateMakers, see the problem, I am so &^$#%) couldn't fix the problem in less than 6 separate trips to my house.
The compressor wouldn't run (fully??) What do I know? I called the installer because it wasn't cooling the house. Two more trips to replace the part that was "shorting out". Another electrical issue.
Freon leak. Geothermal systems are like your refrigerator. They are not like your old a/c system. There is no inside unit and out side unit that's connected by copper tubing. It's all one unit make by the manufacturer, Climate Master. One of their copper joints was leaking. Their copper union, their joint, their labor, their problem. Wrong!!! Climate Master's assistance stopped at providing another $1.25 copper fitting that could have been purchased at Home Depot. Distributor? Nope, Virginia Air wouldn't help either. The local installer, ClimateMakers, were happy to help. $740.00 their help to fix the manufacturing defect cost me. 3 more days off from work to find and fix the problem.
TXV Valve? Didn't know I had one. But, you will when it goes bad. It's a component inside the refrigerator sized unit. Again, no one's responsibility but the manufacturers. They will pay for the part. Did I want to pay $100 to have the part shipped in sooner? Fortunately, my service warranty, for an additional fee, covers the labor. But, there is the small issue of me having to pay another $281 for the freon in the system. Another 3 trips to fix. Can you say ka-ching?
Evaporator leak!!!! You got to be kidding me. You know the routine. The part is covered. But, to get the part shipped sooner it will cost me $200. I am just so thankful to the local installer, ClimateMasters, that they found the evaporator leak before they installed the TXV valve. If they had not found the second freon leak before installing the TXV valve it would have cost me more days off from work and another $281 worth of freon. Yippy!!
Can you tell that I am less than happy right now? In less than four years two electrical components failed, a mechanical valve failed, and there were two separate leaks on the sealed freon system. This is just a poorly manufactured unit.
I am looking for manufacture (ClimateMaker. Did you know that they are owned by Carrier!!), distributor (Virginia Air), and/or the installer (ClimateMakers) to step up and do the right thing. The unit I have is a lemon. They need to step up and replace the unit. The $27,989 that I spent to have my HVAC system modernized is at risk because neither the manufacture / distributor / installer has stepped up and spent the $2-3,000 it would cost to install a new unit.
I will keep you posted!!
I opted for the new unit. I have contacted the local dealer that installed the unit to see what can be done, cost wise, on installing a replacement unit. They will research the situation and get back to me.
In full disclosure......while speaking with ClimateMaker regarding installing the replacement unit, they did remind me that my comments here did not include the facts that since the unit was installed a house addition was done. The Tranquility unit was sized for the addition and capacity has never been an issue. However, the GC doing the addition did not use ClimateMaker to do the HAVC work on the addition. As a result, the third zone had some air flow problems that had to be corrected by ClimateMakers after the fact. I did not include this in my description of my problems with the unit. While, I stand by my position that air flow / zone issues did not cause the multiple sealed system leaks and TXV valve failure; I can agree with the installer that an air flow issue did not help the unit. Sorry for the omission.
VBTony