I already Googled, but didn't find any recent threads without flamewars-I need to replace my 46 year old HVAC this year, and have started gettingestimates. ~100,000 BTU, central air, a couple of grand of duct mods toinclude the addition so I can get rid of the wall furnace out here. (ductmods are expensive due to concrete cutting required for access to additioncrawlspace.) Yes, they are measuring house to do do load calcs, etc. So far,I have been quoted 7200 for Lennox 92+, and around 5500 for Maytag 90+. Newfurnace, A-frame, outside compressor, etc. I plan to call a couple othersin next week.Looking for opinions from people who do installs and repair work- given thatI don't wanna spend a fortune on this 1960 cookie cutter with originalfurnace, but I do want decent reliability, what brands should I avoid? On avanilla system like this, what brands give best bang for the buck? I won'tbe here long enough (est. 7 years) to get a payback just from the gas bills,so I do want a reputable enough brand to recover some of the cost at time ofsale. IOW, not crap, but I don't need gold plated.Any advice greatly appreciated.aem sends....

Furnace brands to avoid?

Mar 24, 2006 26 Replies

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Ed Pawlowski 8 years ago

Twelve years later it still is asked. here is a real life situation. I'm vacationing in Florida for a coupel of weeks. My Son-in-law is the maintenance manger for two apartment complexes bot about 3 years old, both have 400 units. One is all Goodman. The other is all Trane.

The Goodman building had tenants call between 8 and 18 times every day for AC problems. The Trane building had no calls. Now there wre a few calls that were tenant stupidity, but most were actual failures.

Enjoy your Goodman, but I'll go with Trane or Carrier. I'm looking at buyina hose here and they use Trane for reliability and lack of customer call backs.

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Frank Boettcher 20 years ago

Best Answer

Have built five houses for HHH, all were fun. Framing day is the best but it is all satisfying.

Just got back (Sunday)from Biloxi where I spent a week rebuilding a Katrina damaged house for a 82 year old widow. Enjoyed that too.

Frank

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Colonel Edmund J. Burke 8 years ago

All furnaces are made the same. The only difference is the printing on the label.

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Clare Snyder 7 years ago

The best furnace in your area will possibly be different than in mine. Buy the brand with the best support in your area, from the best dealer/installer in your area. It won't be the cheapest up front - but could well be the cheapest in the long term. My brother got a "lemon" from a good dealer and 4 years later got every cent back against the purchace of a new furnace of a different brand. The "lemon" was a Lennox Pulse that failed 3 times in 4 years.

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Worked on a few... 6 years ago

replying to Ed Pawlowski, Worked on a few... wrote: Preventive maintenance may not be equally carried out on the head to head property comparison and that would have nothing to do with the installers as well. Maintenance and quality thereof go a very long way in minimizing problems. Shoddy maintenance or wait til someone complains maintenance also go a very, very long way to the other end of the spectrum.

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