Hello All, First my apologies for posting this question as a response to an existing thread. I just could not figure out how to start a new thread and no matter what I tried, I was going in circles. Anyhow, I hope this question is relevant to this thread and will appreciate any answers. First the facts: I had a 5 Ton Rheem heat pump installed in our home to replace an 18-year old Lennox heat pump (Model HP22-461-2P) of about 3 or 3.5 Ton capacity which ran its course of life. The Air Handler is installed in the Attic and the external unit is outside. I bought the unit brand new and had it installed by a licensed HVAC contractor. The model of Rheem Air Handler Installed inside the Attic is RHPL-HM6024JC. The model of Rheem Heat Pump (External unit) is RPRL-060JEC. They are purchased as a packaged unit from a Rheem wholesaler through the web and I confirmed through Rheem officials that the units are compatible with each other and the seller is licensed to sell them. These are installed by a local contractor with a Honeywell FocusPRO TH6000 series thermostat which he, the contractor supplied on his own as per the agreement we signed.. The heat pump is advertised as 2-stage. Now, the problem: From the time it is installed on January 26, 2012, the outside fan is not blowing. I asked the contractor about it, and he seemed not sure, but told me not to worry about it and that it will come on when necessary. Then I read a little bit about heat pumps and also recalled that in the case of the earlier heat pump, the outside blower was running much of the time. Toward the end of its life (i.e., just before the installation of the new unit, however, the outside unit had ice formed all over it, and the fan was still struggling to run. A few contractors who came to look at it to give an estimate said that the old unit pretty much ran its life and that it needed to be replaced. One of them said with so much ice outside the heat pump is doing nothing but wasting electricity and disconnected the outside unit from the socket and asked us to put the inside thermostat to emergency heat because that is how we were getting the heat anyhow. This was the condition at the time of the new installation. The new contractor of course, threw out the old outside unit as well as the in-the-attic air handler and and replaced them with the new Rheem units and installed the Honeywell thermostat FocusPRO TH6000. Since the installation, I kept observing the outside unit and found that it was never running. I contacted the contractor after a couple of days and he said we could test it by turning off the circuit breaker for the outside unit off and wait for 5 minutes and then turn it on to see if it would come. When we did that, the outside unit fan did come on, but within a minute or two after picking up speed, it shut itself off. The home is getting heated, but I am concerned that the unit is running as an electric heater rather than as a heat pump because the outside fan is not running at all. This seems extremely unusual. I wrote to the supplier and he says the problem is most likely caused by wrong installation or wrong wiring. When I asked the contractor about it, he adamantly maintains that there is Zero Wrong with his wiring, but he does not have an explanation as to why the outside fan is not blowing. I wrote to the supplier again, and he says that in the most unlikely event that something is wrong with any of their components, they will replace them under warranty if I get a written estimate and a confirmation of the problem. My guess is that the contractor made some error in the wiring, perhaps a simple one, but am not sure what it is. According to the Owner's manual I downloaded, the Rheem heat pump is with serial communicating technology and it consists of Indoor Air handler, Outdoor air conditioning condensing unit/heat pump, and a touchscreen thermostat. The touchscreen thermostat is not supplied along with the heat pump and air handler. I asked the supplier about communicating technology and he responded that they could supply it for about $400 extra. They confirmed that "The heat pump system is definitely equipped with Rheem's Comfort Control System Serial Communicating Technology. Looking at the specs document you can see that the heat pump is equipped with this technology. The air handler you bought RHPLHM6024JC is also Communicating. This system was designed as a matched Communicating system. In order to achieve the benefits of the Communicating system you will need a Rheem 500 series thermostat. The thermostat is not included in in what you purchased. To keep prices low we sell matched split systems and let customers choose their own thermostats." I would like to know: a) How we can diagnose the reasons for the outside fan not running b) Whether the outside fan is supposed to spin when the unit is on Heat and the temperature is cold outside. c) How we can fix it to ensure that the unit is functioning as a heat pump d) Whether it is advisable to consider purchasing the thermostat recommended by Rheem have it installed. Thank you for any info or guidance you can provide.

How old is your furnace? How large is your house. I assume the winters in Milpitas are mild. The motor is probably a 0.25 or 0.5 HP size. Your motor may have failed prematurely because either your furnace is too big for your house, and/or your duct work is too small. A furnace which short cycles puts a lot of wear and tear on the motor. In addition the motor has to do a lot of extra work if it is trying to push the air through a constricted filter or duct work. These things kill blowers. I don't understand why the installer would limit the blower to run in the high stage only. This could also have contributed to an early failure. Find an HVAC contractor who can evaluate your system. You don't have to find an industrial strength motor. The new motor will outlive your current furnace if it installed properly.

Newer plastic encapsulated PCB. Older PCB... so you can see what I am talking about. However, just as there are places that rebuild all manors of automotive and marine starter motors and alternators, there might be places that rebuild ECM motors. I took one of mine apart from my other house. That system was around 8 years old at the time. The ECM motor wouldn't spin up it would just rock back and forth. Took it apart and the magnets were shot. But in addition to that --- if you understand rotors and stators and how these have to line up properly to work... I ran the crap out of that motor. Looking at these other parts and deterioration of them I knew it wasn't worth the trouble. Then I looked at the other side of the motor with the PCB and it was encapsulated in a poured in plastic material. If you go on ebay they have used ECM motors for around $200 but the OP bought a new one for $210. This is why it is not worth the effort. We are consumers --- we consume. The manufacturers are depending on it. Now if you have a really big commercial type motor, it might be worth it... but don't forget about the precision part of the operation, all the tools you will need to do it. The bearing presses, the shaft pullers etc.

That may have sounded like a political attack Elmer, now that I reread it. But I meant that as a joke. I believe it's true that licensing and regulations increase costs. In Texas, to get a *true* HVAC license and not just some registration with the state as in a technician --- you need 4 years of verifiable experience, someone with a *Real HVAC License* to vouch for you for that 4 years of experience, then you have to take and pass the HVAC license exam with a 70 or better. It's a timed test, but open book. It's by no means an easy test. You also need to have the means to buy and maintain General Liability Insurance. Open book is easy: uh, no. The test covers multiple books, the refrigeration book alone is like a phone book of a major metropolitan area that is if you're old enough to know what a phone book is. I believe it's a dumb approach when you have to pull a permit for everything and anything. It's mostly a money grab in my opinion. Those permit rules are implemented by politicians. We have to pull permits here in the city limits. Most of my work is in the county, there is no requirement to pull a permit in the county here. (That makes the job easier to get done and move onto the next job, which is important in this climate. California climate is nothing when it comes to air conditioning, in most cases. ) With that said, I know what the building code is in Texas and I follow it, even though I am not pulling a permit 99% of the time. ------------- The point that was lost though is that your climate would make it extremely difficult for an HVAC technician / installer to make a good enough living only doing air conditioning work. This is why I was against moving to a more moderate climate. I wanted to work doing what I wanted my career in HVAC to be about. Mostly air conditioning related problems. I don't regret that choice. The only choice I regret is not getting my HVAC license sooner than what I did. But I probably wouldn't have as much knowledge as I do from the myriad of employers I worked for over the years... seeing different ways of doing things. This is why I said: HVAC installer is a dead end job. I believe it would be true even for California, because you'd never make enough to support yourself *only* doing AC installation work.