Geothermal Heating Servicing -- Recommendations Needed

[Traum]

Anyone got a lead for a mechanical servicing company that works on geothermal heating systems? Something must have died because only cold air is coming out now.

I seem to remember other RS members having problems with their geothermal heating, and that was eventually resolved.

Help would be very much appreciated.

[Traum]

Holy shxt... What a disaster. If anyone is looking to get into a condo / apartment with geothermal heating / cooling, know that the mere act of finding someone to service the thing is a major PITA.

None of the indie heating / furnace servicing people that I called do geothermal. Not everyone that Google turned up has good reviews. Some don't call you back. Others don't do geothermal.

Schmidt Bros Mechanical seems to have a few good reviews, but unfortunately, Tri-Cities is outside of their service area.

By the time I found Moore & Russell, I didn't even bother asking about rates. At that point, I was pretty much ready to beg them to come look at the darn thing at any price.

We'll see how this goes. Gosh...

[Jmac]

Good luck, BCIT had all but abandoned theirs when they gave us their green tech tour in 2016. Seems like there aren't many people in the lower mainland that know how to fix them when things go wrong.

[Mr.HappySilp]

I guess that's how new technology works? They push Geothermal like no tomorrow saying how great it is but doesn't have enough support for it.

[Traum]

Well... as sort of a non-update, the tech came for an inspection last week and suspects some switch thing between the AC and heater is dead. They are going to follow up with the manufacturer first to see if anything is warranty-able, but even then, the labour is going to kill me.

Crap can I just go back to electric baseboard heating? I can safely say that as far as I can remember (since my teenage years), I have never had an electric baseboard heater failing / breaking on me or require (any?) maintenance.

[IMASA]

We have geothermal in our condo in Richmond and it's been a big headache for us.
We are lucky because our unit is single floor, thus 1 heat pump, and we are relatively close to the room that houses all the geothermal equipment and the start of the geothermal loop, so our heat pump's performance has been good during the winter and the summer. The units that are multi-floor and further away from the geothermal equipment room all have shitty performance.

Our strata used Ashton in the past and they haven't been that great. We have bi-yearly scheduled inspections and all they do is change the filter and check the flow in each unit. I change my filter every 2-3 months. Ashton worked on my neighbour's and changed a lot of stuff and couldn't figure out the problem, and eventually blamed the design of our condo's geothermal loop on the upper flows.

Ashton says our heat pumps (Climate Master) are only good for like 10 yrs and cost like $8-10k for pump only. Some residents with multi-floor units have already had to replace theirs.

I'd rather go with electric baseboard, but I do enjoy the AC during the summer. I'm somewhat skeptical if we are seeing any cost savings with geothermal.

[Traum]

Fxxk me... M&R got back to me after speaking to the heater manufacturer. Including parts and (5 hrs) labour, the estimated bill is coming to **$1250** for the repair. The hard parts that need replacing are:

- reversing valve
- reversing valve solenoid
- thermostat

When the geothermal system didn't work last time -- maybe 2 yrs ago, and it wasn't giving off any heat -- the last servicing place that the building management company recommended had already replaced the thermostat. The replacement thermostat did the trick, but according to M&R, the current thermostat is of the wrong type, and lacks a backup / fail-safe mechanism.


My interaction with Moore & Russell has been fantastic so far. Their office staff is friendly, helpful, and most important of all, driven to get stuff done. Their tech seems to be knowledgable on these systems, and they have been detailed, thorough, and organized in keeping me well informed as the dumb user.

The previously incorrect thermostat suggests to me that not all service persons / companies know their way around these geothermal systems.

So yes -- like I said, can I just go back to a simple, basic, cheap, and reliable system like those baseboard heaters?