Used Heat Pumps are a Gamble

Be Careful With Second-Hand Heat Pumps

​As houses around Christchurch are demolished, efforts are made to salvage as much as possible. Beautiful items are being made from repurposed materials, and at many salvage yards you can find second hand doors, windows, bathtubs… just about anything that can be repurposed from a home.
 
There are some people around Christchurch who are trying to re-sell second hand heat pumps. If you’re considering buying a second hand heat pump, make sure you know all the facts first.

Don't Bet On A Second-Hand Heat Pump

Heat Pumps NOW doesn’t recommend buying second hand heat pumps as there are too many things that can go wrong. We don’t stock second hand heat pumps, and in our experience of installing someone else’s used heat pump, the failure rate of those heat pumps is very high.
 
Before you buy, we strongly recommend viewing the second hand heat pump and making sure it works. If you didn’t see the heat pump working prior to purchase, how can you know it will work after you buy it?

​The responsibility of supplying the goods is from the person you’re purchasing from. It’s your job as the consumer to find out as much as you can before you buy. The only way to see if a heat pump works is to pay and have it installed. It can cost you a lot of money to buy and install the heat pump only to find it’s a no-go.
 
Installing and uninstalling heat pumps can be tricky, and is best left to the professionals. If uninstalled and transported improperly, gas can escape and parts can get damaged, meaning the heat pump won’t work at the new location.
ho uninstalled or salvaged the heat pump at the previous location? If the person wasn’t an accredited heat pump installer, that should be a red flag.

Would you buy a used heat pump from an earthquake damaged house?

Used Heat Pumps Have No Guarantees

Unless a member of our team uninstalled the working heat pump and installed it at the new location, we can’t be certain it will work, or how long it will work for. Heat Pumps NOW can, and do shift heat pumps successfully.

​Sometimes a homeowner will want to shift their heat pump to a different part of their house. We’ve also helped Cantabrians uninstall and upgrade their main heat pump in the living room, and shift their now secondary heat pump to a different part of the same house, a rental property, or a holiday home. This is very different to buying a used heat pump where you:

• Don’t know who installed it in the first place
• Don’t know who uninstalled it
• Haven’t seen it working
• Don’t know how it was transported.

 
As accredited Mitsubishi and Fujitsu Christchurch heat pump installers, we can transfer or shift heat pumps to different parts of a property for the same owner without voiding the warranty. But, warranties don’t transfer between owners. If something goes wrong with a second hand heat pump you’ve just bought, the manufacturer has no obligation to honour it and you’ll be left in the cold.

How efficient do you think this heat pump will be?

Because there’s no warranty, and the condition of second hand heat pumps can be wildly different, there is absolutely no way of knowing how long the heat pump will work. It could be a week, it could be months, or even years.
 
After buying and installing a second hand heat pump, sometimes they won’t work right away. Don’t panic. Some used heat pumps can take up to 24 hours to go through a reboot and start-up phase. Leave it on for a day, before turning it off and on again. See if that makes a difference.
 
Another factor that could prevent your used heat pump from working is a lack of refrigerant gas. Heat Pumps NOW can refill the correct refrigerant type for each unit from $140. However R22 refrigerant which is used in some older heat pumps is being phased out by the year 2015. We will no longer be able to refill these, and you’ll have no choice but to buy another heat pump.
 
 Second hand heat pumps really are a gamble. By the time you buy one and have it installed you’ll already have spent around $1000 - $1500, which is around half the cost of a brand new heat pump. Sometimes you win, in that you can buy one from a Christchurch salvage yard or second hand dealer, have it installed and it runs like a dream. But in our experience of installing used heat pumps for other people, it’s more likely you’ll lose and end up with a dud. If that happens you have two options. You can spend an extra $1500 on another cheap used heat pump, install it, and cross your fingers. Or you can purchase a new one, which comes with a minimum 5 year warranty and 1 year labour guarantee.
 
If you’re thinking about buying a heat pump, don’t take a gamble. Go with a safe bet and get a new heat pump from the team at Heat Pumps NOW. Contact us today on 03 377 7393