hely

your description and problem begs two questions that must be answered.

1.was the 8 KW heat strip even installed? if you say yes, how do you know? you've seen it or taking someone's word?

2.is the heat strip operational during a defrost call? if operational, it's difficult for me to believe supply air would not be higher than 58 degrees.

89 degrees supply temp at 29 degrees outside is not that bad but could be improved by checking/adjusting airflow
speed and refrigerant charge.

you need a fresh set of eyes to look at this situation.

let us know what they find.

IMO

tigerdunes:
The installer is also the Amana service person. We have a 10 yr parts and labor contract w/Amana. I could call Amana and see if they will send over another company at no charge to us, but we thought if it was an install problem, then Amana wouldn't cover the service.

So... 1) Is there any way we can tell if there is an 8kw heat strip installed? And, if it is, is there anyway for us to tell whether it is hooked up properly AND working properly?

2) Again, the installer/service person "tells" us it is working (i.e., he put the compressor into defrost, came inside and looked at something and said "yup, the heat strip is working") He has even called a couple other HVAC people to ask them questions while he was here.

He feels since we are getting 36,000 BTU's of cool and only 30,000 BTU's of heat (with the 8kw strip) that it will always be colder. But what I've read on other posts is that the heat strip has a 30/70 and I wondered if perhaps in defrost mode that it is only operating at 30% capacity??? (Like I really know what I'm talking about, so forgive me if I'm WAY off base).

We did have him adjust the CFM down to 1100. It was running at I think 1400 and the noise through the duct/vent was too much (the vents were cleared out, though). Also, in the summer, it would only run for about 4 minutes, not enough time to help w/the humidity in the house. When the temps are above 40, the "heat" runs for 9-15 minutes normally.

If you or anyone else has any further info for me, let me know. Otherwise, I will try to get someone else to look at it. I'll let you know.

I have a new 3 ton Ruud 15 seer HP with 15kw heat strips in Missouri and had the issue that the small stage of strips was connected to the defrost cycle which is @7.5kw. When the heat pump is in defrost mode the air coming off the coil is extremely cold and if the strips are not big enough it will only take the edge off. I switched to the other set of strips 10.5kw and it made a huge difference.

I don't think 8kw is enough to still provide warmth on defrost on a 3 ton. 10 might do it.

He just checked everything today, forced the compressor to defrost mode and said the heat strip was on and air coming out was 58 degrees (outside temp was mid 50's). ***His solution was to change out the 8kw heat strip for a 10kw (no charge to us). However, he said we had 8 gauge wire but since it already passed inspection and we had it before, it wouldn't be a problem.(we had a 60 amp breaker w/old system that he replaced with a 40 amp breaker-house built in 1998).

OP lives in Florida. He needs to get answers to the two questions I listed in previous post. The symptom you describe suggests the heat strip is not operational in a normal defrost call. This needs to be verified before any discussion of a larger heat strip.

and while I won't go into now, the tech's comment about wire size and breaker raises a red flag.

BTW, what size was heat strip on older system? any problem with defrost call and supply temp?

IMO

I'm not sure we are looking for "warmth" -- even 65 to 69 degrees (which is the room temp) would be nice, but not 52-58 degrees. And we are concerned that by putting in a 10kw strip, we are not to code (which says 6gauge wire w/50-60 amp breaker; we are told we only have 8gauge wire, even though we previously had a 60 amp breaker w/the old system).

Second, our old system was a 2.5 ton w/10kw heat strip, but it ran in aux/emerg heat ALL the time (according to thermostat). Not a good comparison, since I know this would provide more heat than the new system; but we didn't expect such a difference on defrost.

Could he connect the large set of strips (is there even one on an 8kw) to the defrost mode? I don't think we are getting the full 8kw on defrost, because when we crank up the thermostat, there is more heat coming through the system.