Carrier Infinity 96, Lennox Signature G61 gas furnaces

[jberry]

We're probably going to get one of these furnaces. Carrier Infinity

58MVB060 or Lennox G61MV070. Both are two-stage, variable speed DC fan blower, about 95% efficiency. No air conditioning, we're on Vancouver Island.

Dutifully reading newsgroup posts, I came across the advice that all parts on these furnaces, especially the electronics and the DC motor, are more likely to blow than on an old-fashioned furnace (the furnace being replaced, a late 70s Airco, had no electronics at all), and can be very expensive to fix. For example, $us 800 to replace the DV motor. Several posters suggested "go for the 10-year warranty".

It seems that in Canada, the standard is a 5-year warranty on parts (from the manufacturer) and one year labour from the dealer. My dealer said he'd get back to me on the prices for warranty extensions.

I'm wondering if any other readers have (or have installed) these furnaces, how old the installations are (I'm guessing that none are older than 5 years), what if anything has broken. What I probably won't get to know is how much it cost to fix, because everything will still be under warranty. Or is there a website which tracks the reliability of furnace components?

TIA.

[Todd H.]

5/1 appears to be the standard here in the US too. But 10year P&L is available.

A Carrier dealer quoted me $350 for this extended warranty. A Bryant dealer had the warranty baked into the quote already. It's been installed for a few days and works great so far. ;-)

-- Todd H.

[hallerb]

shopping for new furnace here what costs for new furnace installed?

i know stuff varies all over the lot but am waiting for home depot to get out and do estimate.

just looking for ballpark costs

[hallerb]

shopping for new furnace here what costs for new furnace installed?

i know stuff varies all over the lot but am waiting for home depot to get out and do estimate.

just looking for ballpark costs

[Todd H.]

This varies a lot based on home size of course. You could be in a mansion or a townhome.

I can offer a datapoint at least from quote activity this month. A

95% Carier or Bryant system with variable speed blower, 2-stage, Evolution Control (which I wouldn't necessarily rush to recommend), and a 10yr parts/labor factory-backed extended warranty for a 2500ish sq ft house in suburban Chicago came with quotes from $3700-$4700 from reputable, factory trained shops. Bryant is offering a $150 rebate right now until Nov for whatever that's worth and is the exact same factory/parts as Carrier with different paint and labeling. 80,000/52,000 BTU 94.1% AFUE units by the way, which replaced a 100,000 BTU 65% efficient unit.

Drop the Evolution control and you pay $325-450 less. Drop variable speed and you pay about $800ish less. Go down to 80% AFUE and you pay about $1000 less.

If you go through Home Depot, add some profit marging for them over what a local hvac shop might do. They just subcontract the stuff out anyway. At least that's the way it seems to work on a lot of their other installation services.

-- Todd H.

[jberry]

The cost of the warranty extension is $475, Canadian funds. But it comes not from the manufacturer nor from the dealer but from an insurance company. I'm probably going to go for it, but need to find out some details first. For instance, if I sell the house, the warranty should go with the furnace. That's completely logical, but it wouldn't surprise me if the insurance company had it different. Given the uncertainties and high parts cost of these high tech units, I think that $475 is a great price to increase the labour warranty from one year to 10 years, and the parts warranty from 5 years to 10 years. And, no, when I buy a TV or a stereo component, I *never* take the extended warranties they offer.

[Todd H.]

Yeah, I don't buy extended warranties on anything, but I wanted it for this given what labor costs can be on an invasive part failing. Who knows if it'll pay off.

[jberry]

Turns out that the extended 10-year warranty *is* from the Carrier factory. Officially, it's non-transferable, but according to the rep, he hadn't heard of anybody being denied extended warranty service on the account of a change of ownership of the house.