minisplit run with king valves closed - is it damaged?

[cadillackid]

Ok so I thought I had seen it all... I was outside watching my new units run today when the lawn service guy next door says "hey!.. I have an A/C unit like that and it sucks.. put it in new and it has never worked!!"...

turns out he installed it to work as supplmental cool / heat for a room above his garage.. I gave him my number..

he claims continuous P3 or P4 error codes which is Over-current and High discharge temperatures...

I run over to his place to find 0 PSI at the service port.. oh and I tried to run it and it sounded like it was under heavy load so I shut it off right quick.. and then noticed the king valves never opened...

"oh wow i didnt know you had to turn those.....is that where the ***** is??" is the response i got..

I went ahead, Vac'd it down, opened the king valves and it seemed to run Ok....

however the guy did say he tried to run it every day it got hot for a couple weeks with no luck...

my question is did he forever damage that unit or greatly shorten its life by running it valves closed for many times? I told him that most likely its fine for the over current and over-temp protected the compressor..

probably a good thing since he had no clue about vac'ing it down so it woulda probably blew up anyway...

he claims to want a new one and wants to try and get the company that sold it to him to replace it... dontyou love the ones that install it incorrectly then want a new one for free??
-Christopher

[rude]

The safety devices on the unit may have saved it from long term damage but you never know.

Some splits installed correctly can die in the first week of use others will run for ever. Luck of the draw imo

[cadillackid]

you are right about the luck of the draw.. considering that the manufacturer of these offers complete outdoor unit replacement if the compressor dies in the first year...

maybe it says that unit will be real strong since it has been stress tested already...
-Christopher