Supply and Return Issue

billybob45

I had a packaged unit replaced on my home last year. The supply and return orientation on the new unit is opposite from the old one. My home is a 28 year old two story.The unit is about 7 feet off the ground on a concrete platform just big enough to hold the unit. The company that installed it just used flex duct and crossed them to make it work and in the process crushed the ducts to about half their size greatly reducing the airflow. As you face the back of the unit the supply is on the left and return on the right. I need to know if anyone makes a packaged unit with the supply on the right and return on the left. No permit was pulled and no inspection made until today per request and the inspector told me it was not installed to code and there is no way it would have passed. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

rosehillraymond

Very interesting situation billybob but not unusual.
Was the installing company a licensed contractor (i.e. a 'professional')?. In my state, HVAC must be installed by state licensed contractors and a dissatified customer can file a compliant with the licensing board. If your state has a licensing law, and the company was not licensed, you probably have a stronger position from which to file a compliant. However, in my state filing a compliant may hurt the installer, but provides no relief to the home owner unless the licensed contractor is required to correct poor work. Filing compliants against unlicensed companies does nothing for the home owner. The state cannot require an unlicensed company to do work.
Looking at the outside of a packaged unit and inline with the home, I always expect to find the supply on the right and the return on the left. Identifying a unit with this arrangement is not a problem.

billybob45

The Contractor is licensed by the state (South Carolina) and I have already spoken to the Licensing Board. They are sending a complaint form and will conduct an investigation and possibly pull his license if he does not correct the problem. One of the techs for that company told me that you can't get units with the supply on the right and return on the left anymore but another contractor, with his own company, and 30+ years experience, told me yesterday that they could be special ordered that way. Our unit is an Amana and I'm trying to find out from them if one can be ordered that way. I won't know for a day or two. I'm just trying as many resources as I can find to gather information so the Contractor can't try and feed me a line of crap to try and get out of fixing the problem.

rosehillraymond

Well, this is interesting. I live in T.R. and am a HVAC student at Greenville Tech. I would very much like to get the company's name. I am a devoted WalMart customer - in fact I have been a wmconnect.com customer since 2000!
I am amazed at how much misdirection and misrepresentation goes on in the HVAC area.
Getting a packaged unit with the supply on the right is not a "special order" unless they mean that Amana only makes supply left side units. Take a look at acdirect.com - if you drill down through the site to the techincal information on a specific unit, I am thinking you will not find a unit with the supply on the left. I have been wrong on occasion - so beware. But, I installed my own system In April - a Goodman 3 ton unit. All Goodmans are supply right side. All package units I work on at Greenville Tech are supply right side.

rosehillraymond

I just did some quick research and found that Amana and Goodman are trademarks of the same company. Look at http://www.goodmanmfg.com and http://www.amana-hac.com/Portals/1/pdf/SS-DGPC13H.pdf where you will find the same equipment listed under both names. You can look at the product information brochures for several units and in each case see the supply right side configuration.
This is getting strange!