DUCTLESS MINI-SPLIT INSTALL IN OREM

A lot of Orem homes don't have ductwork that reaches everywhere they need cooling. Original 60s/70s ranches throughout central Orem were built with the gas furnace in a center utility closet and short duct runs to the main living areas — finished basements, additions, and garage conversions usually got skipped. Running new ducts through an existing Orem home is expensive, disruptive, and on the older brick and plaster builds, sometimes impossible without tearing into ceilings. A mini-split solves the problem by skipping the ducts entirely. An outdoor condenser connects to one or more indoor heads through a small refrigerant line set and drain — no sheet metal, no new chases.

We install mini-splits across Orem for four main situations. Spot cooling — that one Foothill Drive bonus room that bakes upstairs in July. Garage conversions and ADUs — common in the Sleepy Ridge and Cherry Hill neighborhoods where homeowners are adding rental income or in-law spaces. Finished basements that the central system can't reach efficiently — extremely common on older central Orem homes. And whole-home projects on older Sharon Park houses where the alternative is ripping out plaster to install ductwork. All four are strong mini-split use cases.

Single-zone, multi-zone, and ducted mini-splits

• Single-zone — one outdoor unit, one indoor head. Most common for a single Orem bedroom, garage conversion, or detached ADU. Install runs $3,800–$6,500 typical
• Multi-zone — one outdoor unit, 2 to 5 indoor heads on separate thermostats. Best for a basement + bonus room combo on a 2-story Suncrest home. $7,500–$13,500 for 2–3 zones
• Ducted mini-split (concealed) — the indoor unit hides in a soffit or small closet, serving 2–3 rooms through short ducts. Looks like central AC, operates with mini-split efficiency. Great for whole-home retrofits of older Orem houses. $9,500–$16,500 typical

Brands we install and service

Mitsubishi Electric (our default for Utah Valley — best cold-climate performance, H2i models work down to -13°F, important for Orem winters), Daikin, LG, Fujitsu. Mitsubishi's Hyper-Heat models are the only mini-splits we install when the customer also wants reliable heating through a Utah Valley winter — most standard mini-splits lose capacity hard below 20°F.

What Valley does differently

Proper mini-split installs live or die on three things: line-set brazing under nitrogen flow (keeps copper clean — most cheap installs skip this), full vacuum to 500 microns before charging, and correct mounting height and airflow direction on the indoor head. We do all three on every install. We've replaced a lot of poorly installed mini-splits in Orem where someone skipped the nitrogen purge and the deep vacuum, and two years later the system was leaking refrigerant from oxidized braze joints.

Every install pulls the City of Orem permit, registers the manufacturer warranty in your name (12-year parts on Mitsubishi when registered properly), and comes with our 2-year Valley labor warranty. Members of the Quality Service Club HVAC plan get the warranty extended to the life of membership plus free annual mini-split service on every indoor head.

When a mini-split is NOT the right answer

If you already have working ductwork throughout the house and just need a new central AC, standard central is almost always cheaper. If you want heating down to -15°F, a gas furnace or cold-climate heat pump beats a standard mini-split. And if you hate the look of indoor heads mounted on walls, a ducted mini-split costs more — worth knowing going in.