Comparing Heat Pump & Coil / Air Handler Brands

**DataDiva** · 10-12-2011, 10:26 PM

I took a look at this forum before I posted a new topic. I could not find a recent question like this one so I thought I might be safe throwing this out there.

We're getting ready to replace our heat pump (Rheem) and heat/air handler system (Lennox) with a more efficient system that uses the new refrigerant. The Lennox appears to be the original to the 2800 square foot house in Cleveland, OH which was built in 1977. The heat pump is not the original unit and must have been replaced a while back. It is only a 10 seer. The units both work but they do not seem very efficient. We owned this home for only a portion of this past winter and the electric bills were quite high when using this air handler. We didn't have to use it for cooling much over the summer as the house is surrounded by large trees and was generally cool enough.

We've asked for quotes from a couple of local contractors and received pricing on the following brands for a 4 ton system:

Trane
Rheem
Bryant
Amana
American Standard

The prices we've received placed Trane and Rheem at the most expensive and Bryant as the least expensive.

We wanted to ask for input from the readers here to gauge your experience with these brands and the names of any others that are worth investigating. Since this home is all electric and we don't have the option of using oil, propane or natural gas - we'd like to get a bead on the brand(s) that folks have consistently had the best experience.

Any feedback is appreciated.

Datadiva

**jimbo** · 10-13-2011, 06:28 AM

American Standard owns Trane. Bryant is made by Carrier, as is Payne. Amana is Goodman.

It may be trite to say this, but the more important consideration is to have it installed by a top-notch installer. All of those brands will support at least a 5 year warranty. But just like autos, air conditioning technology has advanced to the point where 'shade tree mechanics' are screwing things up. First there was the upgrade to 13 SEER min, and now the changeover to R410.

Within each brand, you will find variations on bells and whistles...mainly shakes out as the SEER variation. With increased SEER comes increased complexity...variable speed blowers and on and on. So WHO installs it and maintains it are important. The top installers will be cozy with the factory, so if you do get a lemmon, which is unlikely with Trane, can happen with Bryant or Goodman,.....they can get that unit swapped out if necessary.