At 02:57 PM 2/18/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Here's one for the group. What specific brands/models of gas, oil, and
>electric furnaces, heat pumps, AC equipment do people really like and really
>dislike (and why)? Is there a listing of reliability in some industry trade
>magazine I've never found?
>
>Dave Brook
I'll E-mail this as I'm not too sure how to post it to the list. I've worked
for the last 20 years in the HVAC business- mostly in commercial air
conditioning and control systems. I've never seen a reliability listing - I
don't think there's a real consumer demand for or interest in such things.
Not like "Road and Track" or "Motor Trend". I don't think "Furnace Trend"
would be a real big seller.
I look for units that are well made from quality materials. In particular I
want to see air conditioning units that use copper coils with parallel fins
- they're much easier to clean and repair. I look for easy access to
components, bearings that I can lube easily, standard fan motors etc. (
For many years York used a double ended condenser fan motor - I carried a
couple of "universal" fan motors for everything else and a also a York motor
on my truck). I like to see good quality air filters that the customer can
easily service. The point is that decent levels of efficiency are available
from all manufacturers so the issue is ease of service, availability of
parts, and cost.
I personally like Ruud and Rheem (same company) small tonnage split systems
for the reasons listed above. They're reasonably priced and easy to work on
and the reliability seems to be acceptable. Remember that there are only a
couple of manufacturers of A/C compressors - everybody buys what is pretty
much the same unit and then puts their own name on it.
Personal dislikes - I've never been fond of Carrier units as they're very
difficult to work on and the controls seem to be extremely complicated.
Many of the Lennox units suffer from the same problems.
I can't speak with too much authority on heating equipment as most of our
load here in OK is cooling.
-Never ride with anybody braver than you are.
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