Question
The seller of the house had the deck builder encase the unit in a crate-like box to match the deck and hide the unit. The unit has about 6-8 inches of clearance but I am worried there may be some air restriction. Should I ditch this covering? A/C works fine but I did have to recently replace a couple of burnt out wires. Could this crate thing be the cause?

Reply:
You are correct in suspecting the operation of your air conditioner is being hindered by the restriction imposed by the covering. No air conditioner should be covered in such a way as to restrict the airflow.
You will find that by removing the cover that your unit will operate more efficiently during higher ambient temperatures, which is when you want it to.
Aesthetics is the only reason someone would do this to an air conditioner with little or no thought to the machines ability to perform it’s function.
As for the burnt wiring, The sheathing on the wire can sustain much higher temperatures than that caused by the enclosed A/C unit. It is unlikely that the box covering has caused the problem. Burnt wiring is usually the result of a ‘hot’ connection where the connection point of the wire is loose.

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Question:
How do you know if a heat pump is single stage or multistage?

Reply:
Heat pump refers to the reverse cycle capability of the machine to heat the occupied space.
In the air conditioning industry ‘multi stage’ normally refers to the number of compressors or stages of capacity the unit can deliver in a sequential order i.e. 3 steps at 33% each to reach the full cooling/heating capacity of 100%. A single stage unit has 1 compressor and therefore when it runs the machine delivers 100% capacity without loading capability (this does not take into account inverter machines which vary the compressor speed).
The benefits of multi stage or inverter units are that you are able to spread your energy consumption thus giving you lower operating costs and secondly having a more accurate control of temperature fluctuations inside the conditioned space.
For the lay person the only sure way of finding out is to make note of the brand and model number of the outdoor unit and calling the manufacturer.