forced air

Kirk

This questions has nothing to do with steam or hot water heat .. but I know many of you are VERY knowledgealbe with all forms of heating and cooling devices. I am helping a firend who has forced air heat .. and has to put in new units .. he has 2 quotes .. one for American Std. units.. a name I know .. and one for Comfort Maker .. a name I know nothing about .. how does it stack up to the other brands? is it reliable? the price differnece he was quoted but 2 differnet companies is only about $275 differnt for similar SEER and 80% Eff. furnaces... any info I can pass one would be great ...
Thanks everyone
Kirk

S Ebels

Hmmm where to start

You'll find as many different opinions on brands as there are people. One thing that you will find all in agreement on is that the skill and care of the installer makes all the difference in the longevity and the efficiency of the system.

A good installer will size the furnace using a heat loss calculation, make sure the duct system is sized correctly for the air flow required, test the temp rise across the HX and adjust it if needed and do a combustion test on the equipment to asure clean safe operation.

Now, what I want to know is why anyone at all is even considering installing 80% efficient equipment in this day and age?

Nick L. in Vt

amstd or cmfrtmkr

get a condensing thermopride, very reliable, efficient andwell supported.

Glenn Harrison_2

Kirk, if it helps you...

ComfortMaker is part of the ICP group, which includes Heil and Tempstar. If those are the only two choices, I would definatly have to go with the A.S. ICP units are cheaper lower quality poorly dsigned units that have always had a high failure rate in my 15 year experience.

Otherwise, I would have to go with Armstrong units. a company that is contiuously improving there units quality and reliability. I have worked on Armstrong units thru two different contractors now and have seen an extremely low failure rate on them.

GusHerb

furnace

My opinion iswhat ever you get it will be the same in relability. and ive had to replace the ignition box in every furnace ive owned. they usally last three or more years (made in china)

Larry Savino

Although I cant answer your question directly I can offer some advice , I feel that the specific unit is about 10 % of a proper replacement.

The other 90% has to go with the installation and the installing contractor.

Not all contractors are equal and that seams to be the mistake most folks make thinking we are all the same.

Did the contractor measure the home to determine what is the proper sized unit, or are they just replacing it with a similar sized unit.

Does the contractor stock on his truck repair parts for the new unit in case of a failure on a week end or after hours or will he explain "nothing i can do tonight supply house is closed" or " I will have to have that shipped do you want to pay over night shipping charges"

Does the contractor have a metal shop or is he going to make the adapter plenums on the job site with patch plates and duct tape.

Will he remove the old equipment or leave it at the end of the drive way

Do they actually perform a start up procedure clocking the meter and checking the delta T or do they think its a plug and play.

Me personally think one of the best investments in a furnace is a modulating direct vent unit. In our area we know that the unit needs to be sized that is its 0 degrees outside then the unit need to maintain the house at 68 degrees, But what happens is that we are normally not 0 degrees out and in effect the unit is grossly over sized 70 percent of the heating season. This is where the modulation or 2 stage units work best as they put out less BTU,S until they need to bring in the Big guns and full capacity

As for a direct vent unit

These units are using outside air for combustion, this means to us as home owners that the heater is not using the home air that we are trying to keep inside and just paid a fortune to heat for combustion air to go up the chimney and also we know if we are sending this air up the chimney we are putting the house in a negative pressure so all of the cold air is coming in from the outside to start the cycle all over again.

There is a lot more to a furnace replacement then just who makes the unit and if your contractor is not taking the time to educate you on this you might be missing some great opportunities to increase the comfort levels and also lessen the fuel bills in your home

Best of luck with this