Hi,
I have a 2700 sqft house heated by oil furnace that I will be having converted to a heat pump system (with an electrical 15 kilowat furnace). Because of the large outlay of $ for this, I thought I would check in on the quality of the brands -York, Lennox, etc. Do any brands stand out from the rest and why? Or is it certain models within the brands that are good or bad?
Should the lenth of the warranty be the most important factor?
My concerns in descending order are: longevity, heating/cooling performance, price and noise.
Thanks
Replies
Welcome kovr.
Try Hvac-talk.com, post in the residential section for hundreds of opinions and an exposure to brand bashing.
What is most important is proper installation. (I DIY to be sure, but you need about $1k worth of equipment, some self education plus EPA license if you use R22). Any brand with a scroll compressor will be good.
Proper installation means good brazed joints with N2 fill during braze, pulling and holding good < 500 micron vacuum to assure of no water or air in system and no leaks, use of a scroll compressor, txv, new filter dryer, and mating the HP with a good well designed duct system. Own preference is for mounting on rubber pad on concrete base vs. cheap plastic pad.
Hack installers (those with maybe a license but no smartz or no ethics) will make a mess of any brand.
That said, the lowest price equipment is often Goodman, which I installed at both my son's and mothers house. The ones I installed for them had Copeland scroll compressors. Own house has a Rheem with same compressor (Goodman at the time had not yet marketed a unit with that compressor)
Locally no one sells Goodman, mostly: York, Carrier, Trane, Lennox. Any opinions on these?
I'll check the Hvac site. Thanks for the hints on what to look for.
York, Carrier, Trane, Lennox. Any opinions on these
All good, as long as they have a scroll compressor. You will have slightly lower indoor noise choosing a variable speed indoor air handler (e.g Goodman AEPTxxxx, all the other brands make variable speed also nowadays) IMHO, 2 speed outdoor units have marginal advantages compred to the cost.
Brownbag: if kovr goes onto hvac-talk.com as a meek HO and acknowledges that he is looking for advise on how to choose a competent installer that uses Manual J, etc., and not as a DIY (as we have suggested), he will get additional good advice.....
..... other than some of the dealer types there bashing Goodman and any brand not their own!
PS: if nobody in kovr's town has Goodman, there may not be an outfit with 30 employees???
Edited 9/21/2006 10:04 pm ET by junkhound
I had a Lennox installed earlier this year - it has worked great. I had a 30 year old one made by GE before that. This new one give us about 25-30% performance improvement.
The whole system, including new electric furnace was $9K - not cheap. We have a 3600 sf house, pretty well insulated. We also heat with a pellet stove.
Just curious why using a pellet stove as well? Simply a secondary heat souce if the electricity goes out?
I use the pellet stove as the secondary heat source in the winter.
I burn 1 ton of pellets every two months when the weather is cold (Oct thru March - I live in Oregon). A ton costs about $160 - or $80 a month. If I use the electric furnace all winter, I will be at more like $80 a week.
I figure I save about $750 to $1000 a year with the pellet stove. It cost me $1700, plus about $400 to install. So I get my investment back after a couple of years.
... and its nice to sit by when its cold and rainy outside, which happens a lot here.
all the major brands are good, even goodman.
here what you do. open the phonebook and find the biggest hvac dealer in your town. find one with over thirty employees. dont bother with less than thirty. Find one that been in business since 1975. dont bother with anybody else
Big, 30, 1975
reason. 99% of hvac is dealer service, you want somebody who been here, somebody who successful to have 30 employee and the big dealer will have best product and warrenty.
And 75% of all Hvac company have less than 5 employee. They wont be here 10 years from now. any system is good for 15 years, its after that that you need service. In HVAC you get what you pay for.
Here the short, HVAC is reputation. If not good, your out
and go ahead go ask this at HVACtalk.com they will eat you alive.
Edited 9/21/2006 10:28 pm by brownbagg