Customer-Supplied Equipment Acceptance

Purpose

A customer who has already bought the equipment has removed the shop's control over three things at once: what the system is, whether it matches what it is going onto, and who stands behind it when it fails. Accepting that work is a legitimate business decision. Accepting it without a documented check is how a shop ends up owning a compressor failure on a unit it did not sell, did not select and cannot get warranty parts for.

The decision this procedure forces is made before the truck is loaded, not on install morning with a crate open and a customer beside it. By then the shop has absorbed a mobilization, and every answer gets easier than it should be.

Safety actions that gate this procedure

• Do not unload or move equipment the shop has not agreed to accept. A unit lifted off a pallet is one the shop has handled, on a job nobody has planned rigging for.
• A factory outdoor unit arrives with a holding charge under pressure. Depress a service port only with the port's own core depressor and eye protection, never by loosening a fitting, and never on a unit whose label you have not read.
• Where the unit carries an A2L refrigerant, the shop's A2L handling, storage and tooling rules apply from acceptance onward, including transport on the truck. A shop not equipped for that refrigerant refuses rather than works around it.
• Panel and disconnect work at the existing circuit is done by a qualified person under 29 CFR 1910.333(b)(2), de-energized where the check can be made dead, with the meter proved on a known live source before and after per NFPA 70E-2021, 120.5.

Scope

Covers the decision to accept or refuse equipment a customer has purchased themselves, on residential and light-commercial work: the eligibility checks, the physical inspection, the match verification, the warranty position, and the written acceptance or refusal.

Does not cover the installation itself, which runs under the changeout and commissioning SOPs, equipment the shop supplies, or the pricing of labor-only work. The startup paperwork and warranty registration SOP owns registration mechanics once a unit is accepted.

What acceptance transfers and what it does not

Roles and responsibilities

Procedure

1. Get model and serial in writing from the customer before anything else happens. Photographs of the rating plate and the purchase confirmation, not a spoken model number. Acceptance: both numbers on file, legible, matching each other's product family. What wrong looks like: scheduling from a description like "a three ton condenser", which is not enough to check anything against. Stop rule: no plate photograph, no scheduling; the check does not start. Hazard: none, this is office work before dispatch.

2. Verify the combination is a certified match, not just a plausible one. Look up the outdoor unit with the exact indoor coil or air handler it will run on in the AHRI Directory of Certified Product Performance and record the reference number, or record that none exists. Acceptance: a certified reference number written down, or an explicit finding of none. What wrong looks like: matching on nominal tonnage alone, which says nothing about whether that pair was ever tested together. Stop rule: no certified combination means the acceptance is refused as presented, because an uncertified pair has no rated capacity to quote and disqualifies any incentive program that asks for the reference number. Hazard: none, this is a lookup at a desk.

3. Check the electrical the unit needs against the circuit that exists. Read minimum circuit ampacity and maximum overcurrent device from the new plate, then the existing conductor size, insulation rating and breaker. Acceptance: conductor ampacity at or above the plate's minimum circuit ampacity, and the existing device at or below the plate maximum, using NEC Table 310.16 at 75 C terminations unless the equipment is listed otherwise. What wrong looks like: assuming the old circuit serves the new unit because both are the same nominal tonnage. Stop rule: a circuit that does not satisfy the plate is priced as electrical work and agreed before acceptance, or the acceptance is refused. Hazard in this step: reading the breaker and conductor means opening a panel, so it is done by a qualified person under 29 CFR 1910.333(b)(2) with the meter proved before and after per NFPA 70E-2021, 120.5, and goes to an electrician if nobody on site is qualified.

4. Check the mechanical fit against what is already there. Line set diameters against the new unit's connection sizes, metering device type and whether it ships installed, refrigerant type against the line set's history, pad clearances against the manufacturer's dimensions, and drain and duct connections at the indoor unit. Acceptance: every interface either matches or has a written scope line to make it match. What wrong looks like: finding the liquid line a size down on install morning, with the old unit already cut out. Stop rule: an interface with no agreed scope line is an open check needing service manager approval. Hazard: none beyond ordinary site movement; nothing is opened or lifted here.

5. Inspect the unit before it is unloaded, and let the customer sign for it. Walk the crate for impact damage, check the shipment against the customer's paperwork, and confirm the unit still holds positive pressure at its service port against what the manufacturer states it ships with. Acceptance: damage noted or explicitly absent, and a positive gauge pressure recorded as a number. What wrong looks like: the shop signing a clean delivery receipt for equipment it does not own. Stop rule: zero pressure at the port means the unit has leaked or been opened, so it is refused at delivery; a shop that accepts it inherits a leak search on somebody else's unit. Hazard in this step: the port is under pressure and the crate is heavy, so depress only with the port's own core depressor wearing eye protection, and leave the unit on the pallet until acceptance is written. What a noted exception does to a later carrier claim is a question for the customer's attorney; what it gives everyone is dated evidence the damage predates the shop.

6. Write the acceptance or the refusal, with the warranty position stated separately. Name the parts warranty position as the distributor confirmed it in writing for that serial, state the shop's labor warranty in its own sentence, and state what happens to labor if the unit proves factory defective. Acceptance: a signed document carrying the AHRI reference or its absence, the electrical and mechanical findings, both warranty positions, and any open check with its approval. What wrong looks like: a verbal "we'll take care of you", which becomes a dispute the first time a part is needed. Stop rule: a refusal is written and given with the failed check named, not delivered as vague unwillingness. Hazard: none, this is a document.

7. On install day, re-verify the serial against the acceptance before a connection is broken. Read the plate on the unit actually present. Acceptance: the serial matches the acceptance document exactly. What wrong looks like: a substituted unit installed under an acceptance written for a different serial, which unwinds every check above it. Stop rule: any mismatch stops the install and goes to the service manager before recovery begins. Hazard in this step: the old system is still charged and energized here, so nothing is cut, recovered or disconnected until the serial clears.

The record this produces

One acceptance record per unit: model and serial with plate photograph, the AHRI reference number or the finding of none, minimum circuit ampacity and maximum overcurrent device against the existing conductor and breaker, the mechanical interface list with scope lines, the delivery inspection with its holding pressure, the distributor's written parts warranty position, the shop's labor terms, any open check with its approval, and the install-day serial verification.

Two readers use it. The install lead, who works from it on the morning rather than from a conversation. The service manager, the first time that unit needs a warranty part, when everyone remembers it differently.

Worked pass: customer-purchased 3 ton condenser onto an existing indoor coil

Step 1 collected plate photographs of the crated outdoor unit and the existing indoor coil. Step 3 read minimum circuit ampacity 24.6 A and maximum overcurrent device 40 A on the new plate, against an existing 30 A breaker on 10 AWG copper. 10 AWG at 75 C terminations carries 35 A in NEC Table 310.16, clearing the 24.6 A minimum, and the 30 A device sits under the 40 A maximum, so the circuit passed as it stood.

Step 2 failed. The AHRI directory returned no certified combination for that outdoor unit with the installed indoor coil, which was one nominal size smaller. Under the stop rule the acceptance was refused as presented, in writing, naming the failed check.

Two routes went back to the customer rather than a flat no: return the outdoor unit for the size that certifies against the existing coil, or keep it and add the matching indoor coil as shop-supplied equipment, which restores a certified reference number and a normal warranty path on the coil at least. The customer took the second, and the acceptance was rewritten against the new pair with its number recorded.

Step 4 cleared on the rewritten pair: line set diameters matched the connection sizes, the metering device shipped installed with the coil, and pad clearances met the manufacturer's dimensions, so no interface carried a scope line. Step 5 ran at delivery. The crate was undamaged, the shipment matched the paperwork, and the service port held positive pressure, recorded as a number against what the manufacturer states the unit ships with. The customer signed the carrier's receipt as consignee; the shop did not. Step 6 wrote both warranty positions apart from each other, because the distributor's written answer for that serial and the shop's labor terms are two promises from two parties. Step 7 read the serial on the unit in the driveway against the acceptance and matched it before anything was recovered.

What the failure teaches: the mismatch was findable in a lookup that takes minutes, days before anyone drove anywhere. Found on install morning it costs a mobilization, a cut-out system, and a conversation with a customer standing in a house with no cooling and no good answer available.

References

• The AHRI Directory of Certified Product Performance, the source for the certified combination check in step 2
• Equipment rating plate for minimum circuit ampacity, maximum overcurrent device size, connection sizes and clearances, and NEC Table 310.16 for conductor ampacity at 75 C terminations, in the code edition your jurisdiction has adopted
• 29 CFR 1910.333(b)(2), electrical safe work practices for general industry, with NFPA 70E-2021, 120.5 for the before-and-after proving sequence
• See related: System Changeout Day of Install Standard; Startup Paperwork and Warranty Registration