Heating and Cooling Guys?

[cgarr]

Been out of the Cheating and Fooling business too long, have to replace the furnace since the exchanger is starting to crack. What decent high efficiency brands are out there, Looking for 80 to 100K BTU or which ones do you stay away from. This is going in Michigan so it used 6 months out of the year.

Thanks

[TimT]

What type of heat? Hot Air? Water? Steam?

I just installed a new boiler myself this year, replacing the original boiler (90+ year old) which was of unknown efficiency. I elected to steam with steam, as the cost to repipe would have been way to high, even though I do the work myself.

I ended up installing a Weil-Mclain SGO-4 with Beckett flame retention burner.This is an 85% efficient steam boiler.

If you have hydronic hot water you can get furnaces that are almost 100% efficient. The new units are tiny!!

I found a good heating help web site. http://www.heatinghelp.com Its a mix of pros and DIY people like me. The guys there were very helpful.

[cgarr]

Its a forced air Natural Gas

[scottmandue]

Originally Posted by cgarr

have to replace the furnace since the exchanger is starting to crack.

Uh, you know this is a fix ASAP thing right?

As in life and death importance.

When I was in the biz Carrier was top of the line.

Last time I checked the super high efficiency heaters needed a condensate drain for the heater.

[911Rob]

I use "American Standard" up here in Canada; they run about 9 months of the year here.
No challenges to date and price is very competitive.

LINK HERE
Hope that helps?

[ruf-porsche]

Nothing run like a TRANE

[Joe Ricard]

Bought a Lennox XP21. Heat pump and matching air handler. Perfect for our moderate climate.

It has auxillary heat option for either gas or electric.

It has saved me 50 bucks a month this winter and 75 during the summer.

House is dryer, quieter and cooler/warmer.


High efficency might cost a bit more at the front end but I save a good bit of money each month. I unit that was a few grand less would not have saved any money.

[billybek]

American Standard once owned Trane, and the furnaces are pretty much identical.
I have a 10 year old Trane high efficiency that I have not had any trouble with.
I really like the York Diamond 90 furnaces too. They look very solid and have a good reputation.

It is really hard to compare them unless you have access to some recent installs.
Some are noisier than others.
When I installed mine I used canvas connectors to reduce vibration and noise as direct drive fans are much louder than the old belt drives. I would also consider now the variable speed blower motor, much more efficient...

[JeffO]

I converted from electric to natural gas with a weil-mclain three zone. Two zones are baseboard and the upsatairs is hot air. Love it for its small size and super effiency.

http://www.weil-mclain.com/products/display/1-Ultra%20gas?show=features

[Brian 162]

Carrier, Bryant, Payne are identical and made from the same manufacturer. Easy to get parts for.
Lennox is a good product however some of their parts you have to go to Lennox and they won't sell parts over the shelf.
Keeprite, Heill, ICP are again the same furnace made by the same manufacturer.
Trane is good as well.
Any of the above makes have a good name throughout the industry and they all stand behind their product.

[nut11]

Heil forced air gas furnace. Condensation burner. 95% efficient. Installed last July. So far so good.

87 blk coupe