asking fellow wallies

Stan W_3

It depends, if your friend wants an energy efficient furnace or an inexpensive one.
If he lives in a rural area, my thoughts are install the most popular make for your friend's area, if it breaks down, one's local HVAC or furnace repair company will have the part in stock.

Unknown

asking fellow wallies

As most of you wallies that I'm a 99.9 wethead. My good friend brought a Sears mail ordered home and fixing it up really nice for rental home. He learned that furance needs replacing and I'm asking for your opinion on which brand should he replaced with. Some say stay away from Trane. Any opinions here? Thanks and have a good weekend...

Unknown

thanks, Stan

Forgot to tell ya, its a natural gas furance replacment...

ScottMP

I think

thats good advice. Also to think about is a sfe installtion and I am thinking a sead combustion unit here. I would like to have tenants not worrying about back draft or spillage.

Scott

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Rodney Summers

Replacement furnace

Trane & American Standard are rated #1 & #2 in reliability,

American Standard owns Trane. (They are practically identical)

Who ever is telling you to "stay away" must be confused.


Robert O'Connor/NJ

Ken_40

Bob's right.

Trane and A/S make decent, el-cheapo versions - as well as high end very efficient models. Parts are widely available, nationally!

I would steer clear of Lenox or Goodman. The former being "exclusively" sold and installed by those who own the franchise, making parts or service virtually impossible by anyone other than a franchise licensee, and Goodman being the cheapest of he cheap, and a track record that suggests we get what we pay for...

clammy

byrant multi pois 90

It's been a couple of years since i have put one in but in the past i found that byrant had a good residental line of hot air furnaces my favorite being there multi postion 90 plus which i believe now is avaiable with a variable speed blower and 2 stage gas the reason more then one way to vent the combustion exhaust either left or right side make a big difference in alot of retro fits..I still have a bunch that i installed and service annually that have had no failures or promblems to speak of .To myself the product is only as good as the rest of the installation and installation of a furnace should be doen by some one who besides knowing how and why also has read through the instruction to make sure nothing has been changed .Peace and good luck clammy

S Ebels

We do Carrier and A/S

> As most of you wallies that I'm a 99.9 wethead.

> My good friend brought a Sears mail ordered home

> and fixing it up really nice for rental home. He

> learned that furance needs replacing and I'm

> asking for your opinion on which brand should he

> replaced with. Some say stay away from Trane.

> Any opinions here? Thanks and have a good

> weekend...

S Ebels

We do Carrier and A/S

I have to say the while both are excellent products, I like a few features of the Carrier better. The Carrier for example has a drip shield installed over the inducer motor on their VS 2 stage units. This is to prevent the inevitable overflow from a non maintaained AC drain pan from killing the inducer. I have had this happen on more than one occasion with the A/S units. For the most part the two brands are built pretty much in the same pattern HX wise.

paul_61

reply to question

has your friend looked into the rinnai heaters ,they are bullet proof and i believe thermopride makes a gas FHA and they have a lifetime heat exchanger.Not bad for a little over a grand.i agree with the stay away from lennox answer, the circuit board will fry at the slightest power surge and you dont carry one of them in the van at nite.LOL

tim smith

Type of furnaces

We service all makes of scorched air which is a smaller part of our business than wet side but I would lean towards either Carrier of if available the Payne sealed combustion 90%. The Payne is the builder model of furnace, less warranty and not much of a paint job but heck for the rental it would be just fine and it is exactly the same furnace as the Carrier & Bryant standard 90% furnace. Just in a different wrapper. Save you probably $300.00 or so over the main branded lines. Very quiet also. Good luck, Tim.

Tim_33

Goodman...

BTW, is usually installed by "hacks" and when the installation is poor, the name on the equipment makes no difference. The best equipment made (a very opininated, no-answer-is-right subject), when installed poorly will perform poorly. The least expensive equipment made installed well, usually performs well beyond expectations. Goodman is everywhere and if there is a component failure, parts are very easy to find.

I always recommend the customer look for a reputable installer and go with the brand that installer is most comfortable with. The reality is that there are only 5 manufactures of gas furnaces in the US, and all the "brands" are made by one of five. Competion is such that there is very little separating any one from the field. Therefor, installation and service is what should make the decision.

Christian Egli_2

Hair curling statistics

Reading from the current Appliance Magazine and their 29th annual portrait of the US appliance industry, in 2005 there were about 3.5 million forced air furnaces eaten up by the market. It was broken down as such:

UTC (Carrier), 30%

Goodman (Amana), 15%

Lennox, 14%

American Standard (Trane), 13%

Rheem, 11%

York, 9%

Nordyne, 6%

Others, 2%, all totaling to 100%

In comparison, we consumed more than 9 million water heater (all type), about 60 million computers (all types), and what beats me, about 32 million curling irons for the hair...

Furthermore, 75% of US households had a gas furnace; 7% had an oil furnace; 18% had a heat pump; and 5% had a boiler. Some may have had both. (Coded message: the steam boiler market has yet more than another full 95% to grow into - if it can:) And... only 62% of households claim a curling iron - it doesn't say a thing about your hair-do. 66% have a computer; and 30% admit to still having a black and white television set...

ApplianceMagazine.com