Seed Eco-Home 6 Data Collection

Heat Pump Rework - Feb 5, 2026

• Initial line connections leaked. Small line had a leak (thus vacuum pull failed). Small line was re-flared. Vacuum test held vacuum, pressure test was not done assuming all is ok. Upon refrigerant release - system leaked from large fitting, while the small line was ok. Fluid potentially contaminated with air, needs refrigerant recovery and refill.

Feb 19, 2026

The basic process for recovery and refill of a leaked heat pump system with possible air intrusion is:

1. Vacuum out a new refrigerant recovery tank using a vacuum pump. 2. Redo fittings on heat pump, to prepare for refrigerant recovery3. Recover refrigerant from the heat pump using a refrigerant recovery pump.4. Pressure test with nitrogen 5. Refill with refrigerant. Turns out that this pump uses R32, not R410a like the other heat pumps we installed, which I only found out when looking up 'how much R410a to use' needless to say I need to get R32 because I only have a tank of R410a. Details: 1. Emptied  recovery tank to <0.01 atmosphere, which took about 30 minutes with the vacuum pump. It was cold, so it took some time2. The fittings were challenging. First, the large fitting flare had to be redone as it was leaking. Did that, but it was tight as we are running out of line so it was tight to make it fit. Then had to redo the small fitting flare - which was not leaking - but had to be shortened to make it fit. During the flare process, as my hands were cold in the wind, I mistakenly crimped with the next smaller size, which butchered the line but the flare looked ok after using the correct size flaring hole. 3. With lines connected, I released the refrigerant and started the recovery pump, with the lines connected to the recovery pump going to the recovery tank. The heat pump refrigerant was captured successfully. But, some time though this process, i noticed a small leak in the small refrigerant line at the flare which was tightened to the correct pressure - so the small line must definitely be reflared. Anyway, we need to redo the line set to the heat pump. The small line leaks at the flare. The large line is ok. The challenge: with the current setup, lines don't reach any more, the last cut I made barely made it. We need to move the heat pump at least 4 inches up for a comfortable rework. I would suggest moving it up by 8 inches so we have room for 2 more tries if the first one fails. How does this sound? Marcin