Troys Toy 70

A/C Compressor finally died on the house. Going to have to get new coil and outside unit, and I may do the furnace while I am at. Any recommendations or warnings of brands?

Lady72nRob71

BAck in 2005 when my compressor locked up, the two best brands were Carrier and Trane. I chose the Carrier since I did not like the louvers on the Trane unit (hard to clean).
I know a lot has changed since then (like the R type) so not sure how they stack up now.
If the furnace is over 10 years old, it might be worth replacing it. If you can inspect the heat excahnger, you would be able to see if it is rusting out or not.
I still have my original furnace that is 17 years old and it is in great shape, since we do not use much heat in TX.

66luvr

Lots of new stuff
http://www.fujitsugeneral.com/end_user_home.htm
I've heard these are super quiet and economical to operate.
The guy who does my HVAC stuff is a real car guy/drag racer and a real nice guy. Second generation owner of the family company. His advice to me, I have replaced 3 separate houses/units in the last 4 years, was "keep it simple". He says the variable speed blowers are very expensive to replace as compared to the old single speed. Also he says go with the best warranty. In my area that was Goodman. He said "I don't know that they are the best but they have the best warranty and they honor it without drama". So I used what he recommends. It is of course a very high efficency unit, high 90% range, not sure. I hope you find someone local to you can trust.

RandyS

Before you trash the old AC Compressor, check out the big Capacitor that is in the control area of the unit (outside where the wires enter the unit). About 90% of failures on AC units are due to this capacitor, they just wear out over time. The motor will not start when this part fails. You can usually tell if they have failed by looking at the ends. If you see a bulge, or soft black gooey stuff, that is a pretty good indicator of failure.
If you are even moderately handy, you can change out the capacitor yourself (put new one on my AC unit this year) and save yourself huge bucks. Of course, be sure to turn off the breaker to the unit pefore cracking it open.
The capacitors can be sourced from an electrical supply house like Grainger (Rat Shack, Lowes, HD, TV repair places don't carry anything like that). Sometimes you can even purchase them from an AC repair company. They go for around $15-$25 depending on the size needed. The AC guy will charge you $50.00 for parts and $200 for labor and trip charge to fix it. Feel free to contact me if you would like any more info.

Troys Toy 70

Furnance is about 18 years old, we live in the country and are on well gas, so it alwas burns a little hotter. So, maybe it might be ok today but next year??I guess in it is a HOME MAW type thing. Everything else is out of the way MAW. Current system is a Carrier 90% efficiency furnance back when I bought it and the A/C is a 10 SEER unit. My understanding is Carrier had some problems the past couple of years.

I have actually had the capacitor replaced twice, once a couple of years ago, and the other last week-end. The A/C hasn't kept up like it use to the last couple of years. The compressor is running, but it is not pulling anything on either of the lines.

I am waiting on an estimate from the guy that normally services the system, and He suggest American Standard, which are made by Trane.

Vern H

I have Carrier equipment that I'm very satisfied with but I feel the installation is the most important part. You could buy top of the line stuff but if it's hacked in, it'll never be right. I asked neighbors who they used and found a local guy who's been working in my area for over 20 years. His BBB rating was top notch too. Installing central a/c in my house was a bit tricky as it's a 2 story house and only had air returns on the 1st floor. The guy I used said he worked on a lot of homes like mine and he did an excellent job. We had record heat here in Chicago along with most of the country and the house was very comfortable all summer.

Troys Toy 70

Thanks Vern, I reall have not had much trouble with my carrier unit until now. However, it appears my closest carrier dealer is over 40 miles away. The local dealer I bought my current system from switch to Bryant units, I think.

citcapp

I went with trane commercial grade furnace and Heatpump 10 year warranty 5 years in use no problems. A friend is in the business and he suggested the commercial units because of his experience is they last a lot longer

Nilsson

I have had Bryant the last 2 homes I have owned. My last place it was 20 years old when I moved no problems. My currect place it is 15 years old no problems.

Vern H

Bryant and Carrier are essentially the same.

Lady72nRob71

I know in '95 they were not. My old Bryant lasted only 8 years until the valves in the compressor failed. Of course this was a cheapo "builder model". When I looked at Carrier, even their bottom of the line was much better than thatBryant I had. Of course the one i had was a heat pump, which was a stupid thing to include when I have natural gas...

Troys Toy 70

I appreciate everybody's help here. I've been looking on the internet, but I haven't found any good customer surveys/ reviews where I can get a good comparison.

RandyS- Thanks for the offer for help. forgot to say that earlier.



Nilsson- I just realized you are in Columbus, a couple of hours away. Just making it to some Olds shows this year around the state, since I got the feaver again. Maybe next summer, I will drive my car, and see you around, I would love to see your 68 in person.

66luvr-Ironton is a little farther away, but same applies.

JerseyHarold

New central air equipment uses R410arefrigerant and the older equipment used R22. 410 runs at much higher pressures than 22. The legal minimum SEER is 13 so you should change your indoor coil as well as outdoor unit. You could also run into warrranty issues down the road if the system has mis-matched components. I'd go for the highest SEER you can economically swing.

BTW, you can use a heat pump in conjunction with a furnace. It's called a dual-fuel system and you need an upgraded thermostat with an outdoor temperature sensor. Honeywell makes them. If the outdoor temp gets below the point where a heat pump is effective (realistically about 35 F), it will use the furnace instead.

Mike77

Carrier and Bryant are the exactly the same. Same factory, same parts, different name. Byrant is the "builder" model and Carrier is the " end user" model. Different marketing segments.
Buy the highest SEER rating your budget will allow. Buy name brand. Carrier, Lennox, York, Trane. They ALL have dual brands. Cheap low end and high ends stuff. Heat pumps are the way to go. If it get colder then 10*F also get a 2-stage high efficiency gas furnace with dual fuel thermostat. The heat pumps produce heat at a higher efficiency above 10*F. The gas furnace can be turned on below 10*F. It will save you a ton of operating costs. But ALL and ANY system is only as good as your duct system. If it's small and crappy you will have poor efficiency. Heat pumps and high SEER A/C like lot's of air flow. Also any good piece of equipment can be turned into a piece of crap by a poor install. Those are the basic 3 things:
1-high SEER
2-good duct system
3-Good install

Mike

Aceshigh

As was stated, the older AC units use the old refrigerant R-22 which is like liquid gold now.
The AC repair guys will charge an arm and a leg for this to recharge any system. Not joking.....
They've also resorted to pulling old AC units and draining the old refrigerant themselves
and recycling it out to their customers.

I don't know how legal that is, but it doesn't stop it from happening.
https://www.acca.org/archives/indust...s/hot-air/6509