Anyone experienced with moving minisplit lines?

I am building a deck and need to move the lines running from our minisplits on the parlor floor to the air handler on the garden level. They are under the white casing in the picture and I need to move then two feet to the right, snuggled right up next to the downspout in order to fit the 20 foot span of deck. I got one quote where the plumber said they can’t simply be moved. They need to be cut out and replaced. They are eight years old and we have two minisplit units so there are 4 lines total. Any sense of how big a job this is? I’m trying to get a few more estimates but I thought I’d try here too.

pitythefool

in Heating and Cooling 4 years and 8 months ago

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Guest User | 4 years and 7 months ago

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As a reference point, I just paid close to $750 for a 100ft line and that was just for the line itself (from eComfort). There is then the cost of charging and installing, which I expect to be the same again. If you are really replacing both lines and they are long runs I would expect this to be >$2K, but that is just my experience. I would certainly try to see if you can do as GreenThinker suggests which could avoid a substantial cost of parts.

pitythefool | 4 years and 8 months ago

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Thanks so much greenthinker. I had a plumber who does hvac come out and he quoted me $2950 to move them, which was way more than I expected. He thinks bc they are 8 years old that it won’t be safe to move them, and they will need to be replaced. But that is much higher than I was expecting. Trying to figure out if replacement is really necessary.

GreenThinker | 4 years and 8 months ago

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These are 1/4 and 3/8 soft copper tubes. You can try seeing yourself if there’s any slack/give to move them 2 feet. Worst case, you’ll have to call someone who specializes in hvac, they’ll get all the gas back into the condenser, disconnect, move, reconnect, vacuum the lines, and potentially top off the refrigerant if need be.