a disturbing heat-pump event
This morning, when I was sitting on the couch working, I heard something fall and clatter. I was focused on what I was doing and ignored it.
A few hours later, I was sweeping the floor and saw the problem. A chunk of the plastic casing from our heat pump had broken and fallen off. It's a square about two inches on a side, from the bottom of the unit. I'm a bit unsure what caused it. There was nobody near it at the time, so it wasn't impact damage. The unit was on at the time, and kept working without any noticeable change.
My best guess is that the plastic had gradually fatigued due to heat-cold cycles. The part that cracked is right where the coolant lines go, and I see some bending in the bottom of the case near there. So perhaps the plastic finally had expanded and contracted too much, and so snapped?
I don't have any reason to suspect functional damage, so that suggests it's just a cosmetic issue. It's a bit of an annoying one to fix; I don't know how one patches a big plastic thing. But it's in a visible-enough location that I feel like we should do something about it before we sell the house?
A few hours later, I was sweeping the floor and saw the problem. A chunk of the plastic casing from our heat pump had broken and fallen off. It's a square about two inches on a side, from the bottom of the unit. I'm a bit unsure what caused it. There was nobody near it at the time, so it wasn't impact damage. The unit was on at the time, and kept working without any noticeable change.
My best guess is that the plastic had gradually fatigued due to heat-cold cycles. The part that cracked is right where the coolant lines go, and I see some bending in the bottom of the case near there. So perhaps the plastic finally had expanded and contracted too much, and so snapped?
I don't have any reason to suspect functional damage, so that suggests it's just a cosmetic issue. It's a bit of an annoying one to fix; I don't know how one patches a big plastic thing. But it's in a visible-enough location that I feel like we should do something about it before we sell the house?