Trane Variable Speed Furnace

[jwalkky]

Yeah, the Trane is a great furnace until the motor goes out. I was quoted $1000 plus labor to replace the motor. That's One Thousand Dollars! Yow, that hurts. The disappointing thing is the motor probably failed about 3 or 4 years ago... when it was still under warranty. But we didn't notice that is was no longer capable of anything but the low speed given the mild climate in Oregon. Now that the motor works properly we can see that it hasn't been this way in years. It was installed 7 years ago so no luck on the warranty. The good new is that the replacement motor is guaranteed for a whole year... One Whole Year! Wow.

Nothing Runs like a Trane wreck.

I wish I had done the due diligence seven years ago. There would certainly not be a Trane in my basement today had I done so.

Live and learn.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, That may include the motor control board. They're known to destroy each other.

[Bubba]

Hmmm, remember that 5 or 10 yr parts and labor warranty that your HVAC specialists offered you but you thought it was way too expensive then? Bad decision. huh? :-) Bubba

[MLD]

My gas utility company offers a service plan that will cover just about anything that can fail in the home heating or cooling system. Doesn't yours? MLD

[gfretwell]

When the motor on my TWE went bad they decided I needed the moror and the controller board. It was going to be at least $1000. For $210 (including the original service call) they put a regular motor and contactor in there and it works great. This was about 9 years into a 10 year P&L that was given away free as part of the original sales promotion but nobody seemed to remember that and I couldn't prove it. The tech said I could pay him and fight it out with Trane if I wanted or I could just stay "down" and fight it out before he fixed it.

[ransley]

Low speed draw on a vsdc can be 90-110 watts, low speed draw of an Alternating Current blower is around 350-375 watts of the same size, that can be a large payback over years of summer and winter use.

[Bob Pietrangelo]

Why didn't you purchase the 10 year extended warranty. It would have cost you half of the motor and covered everything else on the furnace too.

[RickH]

Ha, the worst furnace I ever owned was a new Trane (in my old house). The best furnace I've had is my current Bryant, go figure. Maybe I just got a lemon or maybe it was mis-adjusted, it short cycled constantly in heat mode, made a loud "poof" whenver it lit up, pretty scary, and my chimney condensate increased greatly after it was installed dripping down wall under the clean out hatch, and needed several repair calls. Whereas the Bryant has been one dependable and quiet little workhorse.

[geojr]

It was your dumbass installer not the trane furnace- I'll take a trane or american standard anyday.

[Tony Hwang]

Hi, Different installer!

[geothermaljones]

Had you taken the extended warranty... had a decent tech do a yearly check up... or a pre warranty expiration check up...

The variable speed is probably saving $15.00 a month, easy. Take the blame off the mfgr & the climate & man up...

geothermaljones

[Mark]

and you get correspondingly fewer CFM...

A VSDC motor does not deliver more CFM per watt..

Mark

[Mark]

I doubt it...got anything to back that up?

Mark

[Bubba]

IF the customer is running the fan constantly, Id bet its easily saving that much. Bubba

[Mark]

Putting a conventional multi-speed motor on low speed gives the same savings without the complicated expensive failure prone radio interering electronics.

Mark

[Bubba]

Are you always "high" like this or is this just a first for you? Bubba

[Noon-Air]

Gee.... I don't seem to have a problem with RFI, nor do any customers I have installed new systems for.....several of which are also HAM radio operators.

73 DE N6OJN

[geothermaljones]

Yes... My & a few dozen others, utility bills, & we're all comfortable... A VSD in constant operation is far more efficient than even a conventional blower operating on call, in the heart of the heating or cooling season. The added dehumidification is a huge benefit as well.

See, DC is a much more efficient powersource when use in close proximity of production. Edison & Tesla & Westinghouse all new it, Unfortunately the DC supply to a power grid in an urban area would require huge quantities of copper to transmit. Now if they'd just have used more localized transformers & generation, we'd all be saving energy.

And I'd thought this string was dead...

geothermaljones.

[Dave Martindale]

DC *at the voltage you happen to need* is more efficient than AC, because there are no transformer losses. But if the voltages don't match, it's much more complicated and expensive to change voltage with DC.

There are probably only a few houses sharing the same pole transformer (and thus the same 120/240 V supply). All other distribution is done at higher voltage. To get the same efficiency (both electric and copper usage) with DC, you'd need a source for every few houses. But generators that small aren't very clean or efficient.

Centralized generation and AC distribution, using several levels of voltage, makes much more sense for supplying homes.

DC is sometimes used to transmit large amount of power long distances.

Dave

[geothermaljones]

Now that is something I did not know...

I do know the AC distribution can eat up 20-30%+ of it's power in order to boost it's voltage & keep up the flow, but I've never heard of long distance DC distribution. Any recommendations on a good read to explain it? I'd like to see how it's done...

geothermaljones