Central air question

[Greyd]

Someone I know is getting a Central Air unit installed in their house. they are deciding between Trane and Comfortair (? from Sears I think) Anyone have any recommendations or comments about either? Or anyone know anything better?

Thanks

 

[Gyrene]

Trane...don't get anything for Residential besides Trane

 

[Quixfire]

Originally posted by: dtyn
Trane...don't get anything for Residential besides Trane

Ditto

 

[Doggiedog]

Originally posted by: Quixfire

Originally posted by: dtyn
Trane...don't get anything for Residential besides Trane

Ditto

Why is that?

My central ac condenser unit basically broke itself apart and I have to get a new unit. My AC guy tells me he's getting a Goodman for me. I'm paying about $1300 for it and installation.

Are these any good?

 

[alkemyst]

Trane is good, if you can find someone that carries the American Standard brand (which is who makes Trane) you will save alot of money.

I bought an American Standard computer controlled variable speed fan system, everything was identical to the Trane unit except the labels.

My A/C bill went from $125-300 to never more than $100.

 

[Pakaderm]

I got a quote from a Trane installer this week. His price for everything:
AC/Coils/Furnace/Ducting/Condenser pump/registers... and remove my entire 25 yr old system was about 5K dollars.

This was for the 13 Seer 3.5 Ton unit with the 2 speed furnace. Still wondering if I should go for it or not.

-Pak

 

[rh71]

Our CAC unit came with this house when we bought it 7 months ago. Knowing the previous owners - they wanted the best for everything. The unit has the Goodman namebrand.

 

[Doggiedog]

Originally posted by: rh71
Our CAC unit came with this house when we bought it 7 months ago. Knowing the previous owners - they wanted the best for everything. The unit has the Goodman namebrand.

My AC guy tells me the Goodman is the same as Amana.

 

[Ornery]

Trane, eh? Our HVAC guy gave us the lowdown on all this hype from Trane, Rheem and others. Basically, they all use the same components. You can buy different size and grades of parts for your whole system. He said the one problem with Trane was their damn Spine Fin coil. He said it's a bitch to clean them. Notice Trane doesn't use those in their commercial coils? Other coils are easy enough to clean with just a garden hose, even cottonwood fuzz.

We ended up with Goodman based system. Basically like your custom PC, with each part purchased separately. I wanted to get a scroll compressor based on their specs, but he talked me out of it. Told me he could get one, for quite a bit more money, but he didn't think it was worth it. He knew a hell of a lot more about this crap than I did, so I went with his recommendation. He was adamant about getting a Maple Chase/Robertshaw programmable thermostat, though.

 

[rh71]

Originally posted by: Doggiedog

Originally posted by: rh71
Our CAC unit came with this house when we bought it 7 months ago. Knowing the previous owners - they wanted the best for everything. The unit has the Goodman namebrand.

My AC guy tells me the Goodman is the same as Amana.

Is that good or bad ?

 

[Doggiedog]

Originally posted by: rh71

Originally posted by: Doggiedog

Originally posted by: rh71
Our CAC unit came with this house when we bought it 7 months ago. Knowing the previous owners - they wanted the best for everything. The unit has the Goodman namebrand.

My AC guy tells me the Goodman is the same as Amana.

Is that good or bad ?

Like Ornery said, they all pretty much use the same components and have the same 5 year parts, 1 year service warranty. He opened up my condenser unit which looks like a window unit and the neighbors unit which looks like one of those CPU heatsinks for comparison and showed me they used the same parts.

He said for many of the expensive units, you are just buying the name brand. I don't know anything about this stuff so I'm leaving it up to him. If he saves me money great.

 

[Gyrene]

Originally posted by: Ornery
Trane, eh? Our HVAC guy gave us the lowdown on all this hype from Trane, Rheem and others. Basically, they all use the same components. You can buy different size and grades of parts for your whole system. He said the one problem with Trane was their damn Spine Fin coil. He said it's a bitch to clean them. Notice Trane doesn't use those in their commercial coils? Other coils are easy enough to clean with just a garden hose, even cottonwood fuzz.

We ended up with Goodman based system. Basically like your custom PC, with each part purchased separately. I wanted to get a scroll compressor based on their specs, but he talked me out of it. Told me he could get one, for quite a bit more money, but he didn't think it was worth it. He knew a hell of a lot more about this crap than I did, so I went with his recommendation. He was adamant about getting a Maple Chase/Robertshaw programmable thermostat, though.

I work in the HVAC field, and I deal with all the companies day in and day out. Now, while I deal more with the commericial side of HVAC, I still design systems for residential. The first thing I learned was that all the central air systems for residential basically suck. Trane has excellent efficiency, a wonderful coil set up (not too much statics pressure, easier on the internal parts), and the people (that I deal with) are better than at any other company. That's why I say Trane. We've used Trane in all of our residential set ups with a 90% satisfaction. Our competition on the other hand uses Lennox and Goodman systems...and they're about to go out of business. In a commercial environment, there's nothing better than a good Trane/Lennox setup, for residential, stick with Trane. We have for the past 10 years, and we've haven't recieved very many complaints.

 

[Gyrene]

Originally posted by: Pakaderm
I got a quote from a Trane installer this week. His price for everything:
AC/Coils/Furnace/Ducting/Condenser pump/registers... and remove my entire 25 yr old system was about 5K dollars.

This was for the 13 Seer 3.5 Ton unit with the 2 speed furnace. Still wondering if I should go for it or not.

-Pak

I don't know where you live, but in TN systems usually run about $1000/ton including installation.

 

[Pakaderm]

Originally posted by: dtyn

Originally posted by: Pakaderm
I got a quote from a Trane installer this week. His price for everything:
AC/Coils/Furnace/Ducting/Condenser pump/registers... and remove my entire 25 yr old system was about 5K dollars.

This was for the 13 Seer 3.5 Ton unit with the 2 speed furnace. Still wondering if I should go for it or not.

-Pak

I don't know where you live, but in TN systems usually run about $1000/ton including installation.

For everything? Furnace? Ducting? Coils? Pump? I'm in CA, btw.

 

[Pepsi90919]

we have a coleman evcon hvac system and it's good um i guess.

 

[Gyrene]

Originally posted by: Pakaderm

Originally posted by: dtyn

Originally posted by: Pakaderm
I got a quote from a Trane installer this week. His price for everything:
AC/Coils/Furnace/Ducting/Condenser pump/registers... and remove my entire 25 yr old system was about 5K dollars.

This was for the 13 Seer 3.5 Ton unit with the 2 speed furnace. Still wondering if I should go for it or not.

-Pak

I don't know where you live, but in TN systems usually run about $1000/ton including installation.

For everything? Furnace? Ducting? Coils? Pump? I'm in CA, btw.

It includes everything but thermostats. What is the furnace's BTU/h rating?