If you've spent roughly $5k on a new furnace/heat pump that is supposed to pay for itself in just a few years with lower electricity bills, at what point (how many repair calls) would the heat pump unit be considered a "lemon"?
We have had the company who installed the Rheem furnace (and 'Weather King' heat pump - which is a Rheem subsidiary) out about 5 times in the year since it was installed. Each time the issue turns out to be that the coolant has leaked out of the unit. The unit actually had this problem right at the start - there was a crack that was determined to be a manufacturing defect, and they had to come out within a week or so to fix that and fill it back up with coolant.
Recently I found out that the heat pump hasn't been engaging for some time. Obviously it wouldn't on the coldest days, but even on the warmer days I saw that it wasn't working. When our electric bill came in at about $180 more than I was expecting, I sat up and took notice, and finally realized it wasn't just an issue of the extra cold winter that was causing the heat pump not to run.
So the guy came out about a week and a half ago, determined that it was another leak - no coolant left. I asked him at that point when the company would consider it a lemon, and replace the unit. He laughed, and said they don't replace them - they just keep sending him out to fix it. (that was NOT reassuring) He fixed it yesterday, and the 'fix' went bad in less than 16 hours. No working heat pump today. No fan, despite it being up near 50 degrees.
What are my options? Should I just keep putting up with the thing conking out, and hope they eventually get it right? I'm really starting to suspect that the thing is really a piece of junk. At this point I would never recommend that anyone install a Rheem or Weather King heat pump, due to all of these continuing problems.