home AC repair replace?

[ol' grouch]

nothing wrong with Goodman! They are "Contractor Grade", but you would be amazed at how many components are shared amongst all the Brands.

One of the guys at work did some major remodeling. While he was at it, he got rid of all the window units and put central heat and air in his house. He said when they unloaded the compressor assembly, there were Trane, Carrier and a couple of other brand labels to go on the housing. He had bought a less expensive brand but asked if they could put the Trane badge on. Nope, what you paid for is what you get. It has something to do with warranty.

 

[black_aerocoupe]

Soooooo, you did not like the Trane then?

Mine worked great for 5 years until I moved out of the house. Never missed a beat. Glad it did since the repairs sound like a nightmare.
Got a 10 year old Carrier on the new to me place. A cap and condenser fan in the last 3 years. Serviced myself and parts are readily available.

It's about 25 years newer than the R22 unit we replaced, and more efficient. It vibrates more. The game to get parts for it is disgusting. It's a gas-pack roof located unit. What's not to like about AC that works here?

 

[xten]

I have to bite this bullet next week. Local utility ruined my old Carrier system. It was 24 yrs old, but was just checked and working well. PSE&G was working on the pole and I lost one phase..didn't know because we were away. Come home, half the house is dead, AC won't start. It had been trying to start for days on one phase..burned out the Compressor. PSE&G don't dispute this at all. They have been slow-walking, 'losing' FAX's for months..and I give up. $9800 for a new AMANA AC unit, air handler, furnace, coil, thermostat. I got the bumper-to-bumper no bullshit lifetime warranty on parts, labor. Entire unit replacement if compressor goes bad or if heat exchanger goes bad within 15 years. 18-SEER 3.5 Ton with variable-speed compressor, furnace is 93% power-vented. The units talk to each other to find best speed, cooling/heat vs energy used and temp desired. But damn....$9800!

I got the same Amana system on the advise of our HVAC guy (cousin) because of the unbeatable warranty.. Everything but the t-stat, which was replaced 1 1/2 years prior with the Carrier system that was ruined by someone hitting a pole across the street from my house. Blew the transformer and caught the wires on fire to my house. Funny, when the Carrier was installed I remember standing in front of it and thinking "well, I won't have to worry about this for 10-15 years". Didn't happen.

 

[ZEN357]

I installed a Trane unit about 8 years ago. The Technician that did it said the newer models have a lot less moving parts and are alot better for longevity. So far so good and that 8 years ago.

 

[carr911]

I have to bite this bullet next week. Local utility ruined my old Carrier system. It was 24 yrs old, but was just checked and working well. PSE&G was working on the pole and I lost one phase..didn't know because we were away. Come home, half the house is dead, AC won't start. It had been trying to start for days on one phase..burned out the Compressor. PSE&G don't dispute this at all. They have been slow-walking, 'losing' FAX's for months..and I give up. $9800 for a new AMANA AC unit, air handler, furnace, coil, thermostat. I got the bumper-to-bumper no bullshit lifetime warranty on parts, labor. Entire unit replacement if compressor goes bad or if heat exchanger goes bad within 15 years. 18-SEER 3.5 Ton with variable-speed compressor, furnace is 93% power-vented. The units talk to each other to find best speed, cooling/heat vs energy used and temp desired. But damn....$9800!

Amana & Goodman are made on the same assembly line

 

[8pack]

Check to see if there are any rebates available in your state. Massachusetts is $1600/ton for a qualifying unit. If you get a heat pump combo and use it as your first stage in a 2 stage set up with a cut over at around 25* (outside air temp) you can get some pretty decent savings as well.......

 

[Bikefixr]

We had to bite the bullet 3 years ago when PSE&G replaced my electric meter and bent one of the tabs on the new digital unit, so I wasn't getting both phases. My AC compressor burned out trying to start over and over. It was 20 yrs old and I knew had a couple years left. New system, complete with the fancy April-Aire filter and all the options. I hammered them pretty hard. I let it stew with the company I wanted to use...then sent him a pic of $10,000 in cash spread out on my table with a caption that said "Burning a hole in my pocket." We started at $12,500 and he came down to $10.5k with a 10yr bumper-to-bumper no bull-poo warranty and a yearly service. Anyhow, it's a 2-speed AC compressor, variable speed-blower 4 ton unit. It has remote diagnostics on his phone (the unit calls him if there is a problem). Everything is Amana because it had the best warranty, Furnace is 92% efficient (NJ has excellent rebates for high-efficiency appliances) and AC unit has a 24 SEER rating and a lifetime warranty, the Coil was a 22.4 SEER, the best I could get in my space. This thing moves some serious air volume! And even though my new unit is bigger than the old 3-ton and gas and electric prices are significantly higher, my average gas/electric bills have dropped about 25%. My 55 year old home now rates in the PSEG 'efficient' range for a 2500-2800 sqft home. My typical bill is $125 less per month than my neighbors to either side. So payback will be about 5 years vs a lower efficiency unit and continue to save beyond that. Energy prices aren't going to go down. Now looking at Solar on the roof...

 

[mallard]

It was -34c with a -44c windchill here last night.

 

[grzewnicki]

My friend owns an A/C company here in Jax and recommended the York system, 10 yar warranty on everything. Had a 24 year old Trane, in great shape, thought I'll save some money in a/c costs. Got the 2 stage system, have not really seen a huge diff in our bill, but we keep a/c at 78 and don't run the heat since I have a wood stove and free firewood is always around in Florida. So far so good with the York system. I do have to go get the capacitor part numbers and contacotr numbe off of it and get some spares. those are the two parts that go often. Contactor (basically a relay low volt from thermostat activates it for your 220 volts to compressor) is a lot lighter duty than the old unit, new units don't pull as much amps.

 

[DougD]

My opinion is to avoid a "communicating" system. Leaves some proprietary crap in it, typically adds cost, and may restrict your options of smart thermostats etc.