The twelve-year-old package unit behind a Live Oak manufactured home: keep it, swap it or split it

Year twelve for a package unit in 94-degree heat

A package heat pump sits outside in the full sun, the rain and the lightning for its entire life, with the compressor, coils, blower and controls all in one cabinet. Twelve years into that in Live Oak, where July afternoons are the hottest in north Florida, the cabinet has rusted through at the base, the coil has lost fins to pressure washing and hail, and the compressor has started hard a few thousand times on summer afternoons. It still cools, mostly. The owner is deciding whether to put a few hundred dollars into it for the third year running.

The fork has three branches, not two: repair it, replace it with a new package unit, or convert the home to a split system with the air handler inside. Which one is right depends on the home as much as the machine.

Why so many Suwannee County homes have one

About a quarter of the housing inside the city and close to half across the county is manufactured. Those homes were built with a duct in the belly and a flange on the end wall for a package unit; there is no attic or closet for an air handler. Add the small commercial buildings along US 90 and US 129 with rooftop units, and the slab houses where a previous owner chose a package unit to avoid attic work, and you have the bulk of our package-unit customers.

What is good and what is not about a single cabinet

Good: everything is reachable from outside, so service is quicker and nobody climbs into a 130-degree attic. There is no refrigerant line set to leak. Replacement is usually a one-day swap onto the same pad and duct flange.

Not so good: the whole system lives in the weather, so corrosion, lightning and floodwater reach every component. The cabinet sits at ground level where grass clippings and pine straw clog the coil. And a package unit can only be as good as the duct it is bolted to, which on a manufactured home is thin, often damaged and under the floor.

Package unit against a split system for the same home

Converting a manufactured home to a split system means finding space for an indoor unit, usually a small closet, and running a line set to an outdoor condenser. It costs more up front. In return the blower and coil come indoors, the equipment lasts longer, higher-efficiency tiers become available, and the system can be matched to a repaired or replaced duct run.

For a home the owner plans to keep another fifteen years, on a lot the owner also owns, conversion often wins. For a rental, a seasonal river place in Suwannee River Park Estates, or a home where the budget is the deciding fact, a new package heat pump is the sensible call and we are happy to install it.

Ask about package unit replacement

What moves the price

• The pad. Settled, cracked or too low after a flood. A new pad or stand adds a line to the quote.
• The duct connection and the belly. A collapsed or torn belly duct has to be repaired or the new unit will underperform from day one.
• Electrical. Older homes often need a new disconnect, a properly sized breaker and a surge protector; after Idalia we take surge protection seriously out here.
• Efficiency tier. Package units come in fewer tiers than split systems, but a higher-SEER2 model is available and can qualify for the FPL instant credit for customers in town, through the utility’s participating contractors [[CONFIRM WITH JERRY]].
• Crawlspace access. Low skirting and a wet crawlspace slow the work.

Every quote spells those out separately, so you can see what is equipment and what is the home.