May need a heat pump. Any brand suggestions?

[EE_Bota]

With a 20 year old heat pump, your summer electricity costs in North Carolina are $50 a month?

Keith

Thanks for the info, Keith.
An explanation about my electricity costs: I am single with no children. And though my house is old, it is small, and made of rock. It is fairly poorly insulated, but has right modern windows.

A wife, and especially children will run bills up considerably. I'd be happy to pay for that, but women don't like me much, so instead of torturing them with my presence, I decided that I would be kind to women, and stay well away.

On the surface, they seem to think I am a catch, but once they get under the hood and look around, they see the engineer underneath, and not knowing what they are looking at exactly, they start poking it, and poking it, and just when they think it is inert, they jab it HARD and logic spills out, and they act like they were hit with an unsolicited radioactive dung bomb. In their panic, they act like they can deal with it, but pretty soon, they start picking at that too and start testing me over and over, and then the "you think I'm dumb" thing comes up and its all pretty much down hill from there.

 

[EE_Bota]

My SIL is in HVAC. He installed a Goodman for us. I told him to buy the unit he liked because he would be keeping it running. He likes the Goodmans for ease of service and such. Turns out many parts in heat pumps are made by just a few manufacturers, and he likes the parts in the Goodmans.

Chuck

I've heard lots of folks have Goodmans and like them fine. Some reviews I read say that because Goodman sells to various people, instead of simply going though dedicated reps, that sometimes the installation may not be done well in all cases, and that gives Goodman a unfair black eye.

A buddy loves his Carrier Infinity.

Anyone know and love modern Trane XL, such at the XL16?

 

[Mickey_Fx]

We had a heat pump install at the beginning of the yr, our first. Like some I tried to gain as much knowledge as possible. Found a web site that is for HVAC reviews. Think the only thing I really learned from that site was there is no one brand with nothing but great reviews from customers. Actually didn't see any one brand stand out from another as being superior.

Found a forum where HVAC pro's gather. Found better info there than anywhere else. Again everyone has their favorites.

Do have to agree with those comment here about making selection based on local dealer's reputations and your experience talking with them. Might even be worth while to check out Angie's list for comments on local contractors.

I ended up selection a local contractor that sells Bryant (sister Co to Carrier). Will say this is same Co that our son used for his HP purchase a couple months prior to our purchase. Called out contractors from the BIG 3, Carrier, Lennox & Trane. I received the best pricing on the Bryant, beat the other's by a couple $k but then we needed to have full duct system also installed. On the Pro's site the Bryant controller on their top end model received the best comments from quite a few members.

As for our contractor, don't think you could find anyone better. They ordered in all the components before we'd even signed a contract and they seemed not to be concerned about a down payment, almost had to beg them to take my money. Install went quick, very professional and several inspections were required. Install passed all inspections. The first month or so had to call them out to check out a couple small items. Both times they were out in no more than 24 hrs.

We're very please with both our equipment and our contractor.

 

[EE_Bota]

We had a heat pump install at the beginning of the yr, our first. Like some I tried to gain as much knowledge as possible. Found a web site that is for HVAC reviews. Think the only thing I really learned from that site was there is no one brand with nothing but great reviews from customers. Actually didn't see any one brand stand out from another as being superior.

Found a forum where HVAC pro's gather. Found better info there than anywhere else. Again everyone has their favorites.

Do have to agree with those comment here about making selection based on local dealer's reputations and your experience talking with them. Might even be worth while to check out Angie's list for comments on local contractors.

I ended up selection a local contractor that sells Bryant (sister Co to Carrier). Will say this is same Co that our son used for his HP purchase a couple months prior to our purchase. Called out contractors from the BIG 3, Carrier, Lennox & Trane. I received the best pricing on the Bryant, beat the other's by a couple $k but then we needed to have full duct system also installed. On the Pro's site the Bryant controller on their top end model received the best comments from quite a few members.

As for our contractor, don't think you could find anyone better. They ordered in all the components before we'd even signed a contract and they seemed not to be concerned about a down payment, almost had to beg them to take my money. Install went quick, very professional and several inspections were required. Install passed all inspections. The first month or so had to call them out to check out a couple small items. Both times they were out in no more than 24 hrs.

We're very please with both our equipment and our contractor.

I think I found a review site where everyone with problems goes, since bad outcomes exceed the good ones.

I didn't know Bryant was a Carrier relative. I wish I knew who is related to who, since that would help a great deal. My company has different brands of an unrelated product at different price levels, and the more you pay, the better you get, but our company is unwilling to let anyone get less then their money's worth, and seeks to be the best in each price range. It could be the HVAC is similar, and you can just pick your price point.

 

[not2old]

Just make sure there are dealers within a reasonable distance. I bought an existing house and had trouble with an air circulation motor. The dealer had gone out of business and I had a hard time finding someone else to service it. Then the factory was reluctant to sell parts to a non dealer. Their nearest dealer was two hours away. I refused to pay the travel time and threatened legal action if I couldn't get the parts. The parts were covered under warranty but I had to pay the labour because I didn't use their dealer. All this high efficiency stuff is OK but the air circulation motor for this highly computerized system would have cost $550 if not under warranty. Have to admit that electricity costs of about $900.00 for the four coldest months last winter is very good. House totals 4600 square feet on two floors and I heated 660 square feet of garage to 55 degrees.

 

[Bird]

I don't know how all the companies operate, but with the one from whom I bought our new system a year ago, I paid a little more (don't remember just exactly how much) for a 10 year parts & labor, 24 hour a day, 7 day a week, warranty. The Rheem it replaced was 9 years old and the evaporator coils had rusted and were leaking.

 

[EE_Bota]

I don't know how all the companies operate, but with the one from whom I bought our new system a year ago, I paid a little more (don't remember just exactly how much) for a 10 year parts & labor, 24 hour a day, 7 day a week, warranty. The Rheem it replaced was 9 years old and the evaporator coils had rusted and were leaking.

Labor is a huge deal, I agree. Reading more reviews today, when the compressor fails under warranty, the labor is not usually covered, and the bucks are big for the labor.

I have my first appointment with my closest Trane representative tomorrow. I will see how that goes. It is pretty hot in the house, but I have a fan, so I will make out I reckon.

When it gets a little cooler out, I need to gather up the will to crawl under the house for an exploration.

 

[Sigarms]

I don't know how all the companies operate, but with the one from whom I bought our new system a year ago, I paid a little more (don't remember just exactly how much) for a 10 year parts & labor, 24 hour a day, 7 day a week, warranty. The Rheem it replaced was 9 years old and the evaporator coils had rusted and were leaking.

That could be a little misleading the way you wrote it. Usually an extended service labor agreement is written by a third party through the manufacturer to the HVAC contractor. The labor paid out to the contractor is usually (all that I know of) is at best case scenario is paid out on a flat rate basis to the contractor from the third party writer. Although your equipment may be covered for 24/7 for the amount of years specified, that does not mean your HVAC company will come out 24/7 to fix the warranty work under the labor plan. If they do come out at 3AM to fix your problem and don't charge you anything due to your labor plan, you have a GREAT HVAC company you're dealing with. Usually the HVAC company will schedule the service appointment beforehand that works best for their schedule, usually within 24 hours.

Yes, by all means, look at a 10 year labor plan. A reversing valve is about 1/3 the cost of a compressor, but PITA factor the valve is probably higher and labor wise, depending on the market you live in, could run you up to, and or over $1,000 in labor alone for either the valve or compressor. Just ensure that the labor plan being offered is "OK'ed" through the manufacturer and the contractor isn't doing the labor plan/warranty "in house" (which depending on the state you live in could be iffy at best). The reason is due to the fact that if the contractor is offering the labor agreement on his end only (not through the manufacturer) and he (the contractor) goes out of business, you're left high and dry because no other contractors has to honor that labor agreement. Usually if a Trane or Goodman (for example) offer a "approved labor" plan agreement, ANY "dealer" who uses that equipment can take over the labor agreement if the original dealer goes out of business.

 

[Bird]

That could be a little misleading the way you wrote it. Usually an extended service labor agreement is written by a third party through the manufacturer to the HVAC contractor. The labor paid out to the contractor is usually (all that I know of) is at best case scenario is paid out on a flat rate basis to the contractor from the third party writer. Although your equipment may be covered for 24/7 for the amount of years specified, that does not mean your HVAC company will come out 24/7 to fix the warranty work under the labor plan. If they do come out at 3AM to fix your problem and don't charge you anything due to your labor plan, you have a GREAT HVAC company you're dealing with. Usually the HVAC company will schedule the service appointment beforehand that works best for their schedule, usually within 24 hours.

I didn't realize it was misleading, but I meant what I said. I agree with your comments about "usually" on extended service agreements, but in this case, there's no third party involved. And yes, I do have it in writing. Now whether it will happen, I can't prove because I've not had to call for any emergency service yet. The company is A#1 Air so if we have a problem, then we'll know whether they're as good as their claims. I didn't call them, but they called me last month to schedule a routine checkup of the system, and 2 young men came to do that. Everything checked out OK, but they did wash the outside unit. No charge, of course.

 

[Sigarms]

but in this case, there's no third party involved.

Your extended labor warranty is under the GoodCare plan if done through Goodman.

I didn't call them, but they called me last month to schedule a routine checkup of the system

I am curious, are they charging you a maintenance agreement or do they come out to your home each year at no charge? If they will come out 24/7 to your place for any kind of emergency at no charge, not sure how they aren't charging you to do the maintenance. Then the question is if they are charging you, what is that dollar amount? For a company to come out at ANY time of the day or night and not charge for it (for an emergency), they're making their money somewhere, because if they aren't, sooner or later they'll go out of business.