Bypass Amana Comfortbridge

TheGunPlumber

I’m in the process of switching from AC w/ oil heat to a heat pump with propane auxiliary heat. The contractors are installing today/tomorrow. The system they’re putting in is Amana; a single stage ASZ16 heat pump and a two stage, multi speed AMEC96 furnace.   

On unboxing of the furnace, they discovered it was damaged, and the distributor did not have another of the same model.  The distributor is giving them an upgrade to modulating/variable speed at no charge. 

My thermostat is a 3rd Gen Nest Learning (local power company gave it to us for free a few years ago).  I asked the contractor about compatibility between the new furnace and the thermostat. He said it didn’t matter, since Amana Comfortbridge only needed a single-stage thermostat. 

He looked at my run wiring bundle, and said that I had plenty of wires, and he could wire it so that the thermostat controlled the staging and fan speed instead of the Comfortbridge if I wanted. 

I’ve read a bunch of bad reviews about the Nest, and I’m not against buying a new thermostat if I have to- either now or later.

My question: should I have him wire it so that Comfortbridge controls everything, or have him wire it so that the thermostat is ready/able to control?  Any warranty concerns either way?

Thanks in advance. 

HVACNUT

I'm not familiar with Comfort bridge but just did a quick search. It says use a single stage thermostat and all necessary adjustments are made by the Comfort bridge. 
I guess it has supply and return temp sensors and regulates gas pressure and fan speed accordingly. I don't know if a 2 stage thermostat could be used if you wanted to. 

unclejohn

I would stick to the single stage option as well.

TheGunPlumber

HVACNUT said:

I'm not familiar with Comfort bridge but just did a quick search. It says use a single stage thermostat and all necessary adjustments are made by the Comfort bridge. 
I guess it has supply and return temp sensors and regulates gas pressure and fan speed accordingly. I don't know if a 2 stage thermostat could be used if you wanted to. 

Thanks.  From what I’ve read, it doesn’t know what the inside temperature is. If I understand correctly, it runs a dumb cycle until the thermostat tells it to turn off, then it uses that last cycle as its parameters in the algorithm for the next cycle. 

After thinking on this (they had to put off finishing until tomorrow), I think I’m just going to let him install it with the single-stage wiring, but bundle up the extra wires in case there’s a reason to put a more sophisticated thermostat on it later. 

TAG

Remember reading about this .... they did it because people want to use the nest and other independent smart thermostats. So what you have it why they are doing it. My brother was looking at two stage Amana HP for his new to him place in SC .. I was looking into it for him

Don't think it supports a two stage thermostat anyhow -- they do have an app. You can control humidity if the thermostat has it.

My guess is it's a more advanced version of the simple timer system of the older two stage. Start on low ........if not to temp in "X" switch to high.

With sensors so cheap today -- they can do a lot right from the return to analyze the air coming back