The pre-charged kits are fairly inexpensive and surprisingly easy to put in, but you’ll need about $400 in extra shit.
My extra shit list:
Disconnect box
Surge suppressor
Liquid-tight whip
Lineset chase
20A breaker
Various holesaws
12/3 wire
Caulking
Duct seal
Extra insulation
Wall mount or concrete paving block
Completely charged. The linesets are evacuated and the compressor and head unit are precharged. If you use more than the 25’ lineset they come with, then you might have to add freon. While I do have the tools and freon around to add some if I needed as I often do AC work on my ag equipment, I didn’t have to use any. They recommend adding a certain amount if you have to use additional lineset though.
The fittings all have a dual o-ring sealing system and you can hear them pressurize when you tighten them up. Once you have it all together, you open the valves on the compressor to open the loop.
You basically check for studs, tape the pattern for the head unit to the wall where you want it, drill the lineset hole and screw the mount on. Push the lineset bundle through the wall and clip the head unit to the mount. Bend the lineset carefully so you don’t kink the copper but that seems harder to fuck up than you would think. They bend fairly nice.
If you aren’t familiar with electrical, you might want to have that done for you, but I’ve done my own electrical work for years so I wasn’t too worried about that. But you definitely don’t need to be an HVAC tech to put these in, it’s dead simple.
I’d like an update in 5 years when/if they fail/leaks. They tried precharged lineset’s years and years ago for contractors, then pulled them from the shelves because they all failed as the rings were inherently garbage and it was a big nightmare for homeowners, contractors and wholesalers
The coupling system seems pretty robust compared to the run of the mill flare fitting that you’d find on a normal install. Also, they are not just quick couplers, they’re inside a JIC so there’s a backup seal there. Maybe not as good as brazed, but flare fittings work well enough on equipment. It does have ports for charging so I could always refit with brazed lineset some day and recharge.
We’ll see. Typical charge for installing one of these things around here is upwards of $4000, on top of the $4000 they charge for a $1500 unit. I’ll take my chances since I’m all of $1800 into it. And compared to my old 4t AC PAM unit, I’m pretty sure I’ll save that in a year.