ᐅ Current Test Reports on Air-to-Water Heat Pumps

After one year with the Vitocal 200 (air-to-water heat pump), I can only advise against Viessmann. "Unorganized and bold" seems to describe it best. Technicians, if they come at all, only arrive weeks after a malfunction.

Currently, the 14th service call due to malfunctions is scheduled. Everything possible has already been replaced, most recently even the entire outdoor unit.

The only positive aspect is that so far, everything has been handled under warranty.

As already mentioned here, planning and design are crucial. Even the best system offers no added value if the planning is poor.

Christian K. schrieb:
Unfortunately, that doesn’t help you much, but I’ve read a few tests and they usually include only a small selection of models. For example, I recently got a recommendation from a colleague to look at Rotex and Tecalor. The parent company of Tecalor is the market leader in HVAC technology, and an air-to-water heat pump is essentially part of HVAC. So far, I haven’t seen these companies included in the tests.

We have a unit from Tecalor (the parent company is Stiebel Eltron; Tecalor is a brand), a THZ 504. It’s a combined system, but so far we are quite satisfied. It heats the house efficiently, provides fresh air inside, and there is no outdoor unit that might bother the neighbors.

Snowy36 schrieb:
I don’t get it either... there are tests for everything— even doctor reviews— but not for an air-to-water heat pump costing $11,000.

Because the topic is complex, most people just have their heating system installed by the heating technician of the general contractor (at least here, at least 75% build with a general contractor), and the units are too expensive for a testing institute to simply set up a few models for review. Even if they did, the BAFA list has 93 pages full of heat pumps, so it would only cover a tiny fraction of the market. Everyone visits a doctor or buys something on Amazon regularly, but how often do you buy a heating system? The main thing is that it reliably heats the house without consuming too much electricity.

I mainly wanted one that is quiet... couldn’t find anything online except the plain dB rating... which doesn’t really help me...

The Junkers unit at our son-in-law’s place is really quiet. You can barely hear a faint humming. When you walk past the house, and since it faces the street, you don’t hear it at all. You really have to get close to notice it.

The Federal Heat Pump Association offers a noise calculator that my planner also used as proof in the building permit application, and it was sufficient. You can then see, based on clear graphs, from how many meters each heat pump at a specific installation setup produces noise...

Snowy36 schrieb:
I mainly wanted one that is quiet ... couldn’t find anything about that online except the simple dB rating ... which doesn’t really help me ...