‘Good intentions led us to buy a £20,000 heat pump – it’s been nothing but trouble’

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Dear Katie,

In September 2020 we decided to have an air source heat pump installed in our family home, thinking it would be an efficient and cost-effective way to heat it over the long term.

However, it has turned into a complete and utter disaster. Just one-and-a-half years later in May 2022, it broke down, leaving myself, my partner and our 11-month-old baby without central heating.

We have been using an immersion heater for hot water, but it is really expensive to run.

The heat pump system cost around £20,000 and came with a seven-year manufacture guarantee from LG and a two-year guarantee through the company that had installed it.

When it broke we were well inside this window. We didn’t have much luck with the company that installed it because it had since gone bust.

But we phoned LG and it instructed us to call upon an air source heat pump expert to provide a diagnosis on what had gone wrong.

According to the report the expert produced, our heat pump was installed with “a complete lack of care and consideration for the customer [us] and the work they were paid to do”.

We approached the insurer which backed up our guarantee but it told us it would not pay for our system to be fixed.

We were running out of time so we approached the Home Insulation & Energy Systems Quality Assured Contractors Scheme, which the company had been a part of, but it was equally unhelpful.

It refused to intervene or mediate based on the fact that the original installer was still listed as “active with a proposal to strike off” on Companies House.

We would need to write to the company and wait 14 days for a response, we were told, by which time our two-year installation warranty would have run out.

In February this year someone from an “LG trusted” third party visited us to conduct a heat loss survey, which we had to pay £300 for. However, this seems to have led to nothing.

The engineer did mention that the heat loss report showed the house required 25Kw of heating and the heat pump only puts out 16Kw, meaning we have a mismatch of supply and demand (heat loss) of 9Kw.

We are worried that LG will use this as a reason not to rectify our situation. However, we argued that we have an aga, wood burner and multiple portable radiators which reduce our overall heat loss to less than 2kWh.

Regardless of this and in our view, after spending a large sum of money for this system, we feel we have been treated absolutely shockingly.

While the installer going bankrupt has been unfortunate, the problem has been exacerbated by persistent failure and lack of customer support from LG.

I am about to write a letter to LG’s chief executive on this matter and seek further help from the company, since the only contact we have is through the LG engineer who is, at best, disinterested and disengaged from helping us.

– HE, West Sussex

Dear reader,

You had this heat pump installed because you thought it would be good for the planet and save you money in the long run, but in fact it has ended up being something of a financial disaster.

Not only was your heat pump shoddily installed, but it seemed you might have been missold it because, by the sounds of things, it wasn’t powerful enough to heat your large home on its own.

You’ve been extremely unlucky here because despite two different guarantees being in place, plus being covered by a consumer protection scheme, you have still ended up in a situation where you’ve paid £20,000 for a broken heat pump which no one wants to take responsibility for.

As the company you bought it from was no longer operating, I felt banging down its door was probably going to be a waste of time, so I asked LG to see what it could do.

Its own seven-year manufacturer’s guarantee is only valid for customers whose systems are installed by a certified installer and maintained according to the manufacturer’s guidelines.

At the time the company you used was MCS certified under the Microgeneration Certification Scheme, which is a quality assurance scheme set up in 2007 to increase public confidence in low-carbon energy technology.

However, this doesn’t appear to have stopped what seems to have been a subpar installation taking place.

None of this was your fault though, as you did all you could at the time and ensured everything was by the book.

You say LG wasn’t exactly forthcoming when you tried to complain to them, and it’s probably because it felt the evidence pointed towards the dodgy install being the root cause of the issue, rather than a manufacturing defect.

Ultimately, this meant it was easy for LG to turn its back and claim it wasn’t its problem.

However, since my involvement, LG got back in touch with you and promised to put things right. It took several weeks to decide what to do but you were delighted when it told you it had decided to replace the heat pump with a brand new like-for-like one.

You will still need to pay £6,000 for a separate oil boiler which can work alongside the heat pump in a “hybrid” system, so the heat pump is not overworked. LG has also given you £600 towards the installation of the new pump.

An LG spokesman said: “We were disappointed to hear of Mr & Mrs E’s recent experience and the inconvenience this has caused them.

“After-sales support and ongoing maintenance are typically handled by the original installer, but unfortunately in this instance the company they purchased the system from has closed its business.

“We have worked with Mr & Mrs E, alongside other installers, to try to repair the heat pump system and following internal consultation we have agreed the best course of action is a new unit.

“As a gesture of goodwill we have offered a replacement, as well as contribution towards installation costs, and we are pleased to say the offer has been accepted.

“Further, we have also advised Mr & Mrs E to carry out remedial work to their property to ensure the heat pump works effectively in low ambient temperatures. This is following findings established from an independent heat loss survey they had carried out.”