Is it normal for outdoor heat pump wiring to be left exposed like this?

Leaving the low-voltage control wire completley exposed and letting the lineset drag in the dirt isn't an immediate system killer, but it's definitly sloppy workmanship that can cause headaches in an Ontario winter.

Technically, electrical code often allows class 2 low-voltage wire to be run without conduit, wich is why installers shrug it off as standard practice. But thin 18-gauge wire gets incredibly brittle in sub-zero temperatures. When a drift of crusty snow packs around it or ice shears off the side of the house, that wire can snap cleanly and knock your heating offline during a blizzard. It takes five minutes to sleeve that wire inside a flexible **liquid-tight conduit** or run it cleanly alongside the main power whip. The foam insulation sitting in the dirt is just as concerning. Standard rubatex foam acts like a sponge when it touches wet soil, accelerating breakdown and inviting rodents to chew it up for nesting material. Once that insulation degrades and gets soaked, your lines lose thermal efficiency and the bare copper is left exposed to the elements. The entire lineset shold be elevated off the ground, secured with proper clamps, and wrapped in heavy-duty UV-resistant tape or encased in a protective duct channel. Call the company back out and tell them you want the exterior run secured properly before deep freeze sets in. Ask them to sleeve that thermostat wire, strap the lineset up off the grade, and ensure the wall penetration has a proper drip loop and duct seal. You paid thousands for a system meant to heat your home through the winter, so holding them to a clean, weather-protected finish is completely reasonable.

Did they even put the condenser up on snow legs? If the lineset's literally dragging in the dirt, I'm betting the unit's just sitting flat on a plastic pad. Up here in Ontario, you need that thing lifted at least a foot off the ground or defrost runoff's gonna turn the base into an iceberg.

While you've got 'em coming back out, tell 'em to throw some line-hide channel over the exterior run. Don't pay the final invoice 'til they get it sorted.

I had this exact same sloppy setup on mine two winters ago. What saved me while waiting on the tech to come back was building a little lean-to shield out of scrap pressure-treated plywood right over the service valves. A chunk of ice slid off my roof during that first freeze and woud've sheared those exposed connections right off if that wood wasn't there. For the torn foam, I wound up wrapping it tight with self-fusing silicone rescue tape as a temporary patch so wet slush couldn't soak the copper. Cheap insurance to keep it dry untill the crew finally showed up.