Any home HVAC pros in the house?

[JasonB]

Well, our 4.5 year old unit has bit the dust. Bad coils or condenser and compressor.While it's under parts warranty, labor to repair is going to be $1000+. The mfgr is supposed to be sending parts, but they can't tell us when.....

The existing unit is a 3.5 to, 10 SEER Goodman single package heat pump, electric heat. My repair guy called it a cheap unit (came with the house) and has quoted over $4k to replace with a Rheem, don't know the specs.

I don't want to sing over a grand in it if it has a likelyhood of dying again in 6 months.

Is Goodman a decent unit? What reasonable cost units would you recommend? Should I just fix this one an take the chance? As one might suspect, $4k to replace a <5yr old unit isn't in the budget....

The House is ~2000 sq. feet.

 

[ronnieboy]

Re: Any home HVAC pros in the house?

heat pumps are not as economical as high eff. units now, 98 % plus. money saved would pay for difference in cost in 3 or 4 years, so, if your gonna stay in this house , upgrade to better furnace and air 14seer, if gonna sell just fix whats there, good luck ron

 

[ronnieboy]

Re: Any home HVAC pros in the house?

stay with name brands, like lennox, ron

 

[JasonB]

Re: Any home HVAC pros in the house?

Thanks Ron. No plans on moving in the next 10+ years. Since mine is one of the "package" units with everyting in one case outside, how bad would it be to convert to something else?

I believe part of the replacement package price includes the labor for our AC guy to remove the warranty parts from our old unit since the replacements are already on the way. I have no issue with that as his time is valuable. In essence I think I'm, paying for much of the repair anyway. All things being equal, my first inclination is to repair what we have and cross my fingers to get 2 more years out of it. At that point, I should be in a stronger financial position. Decisions, decisions.... If I was confident in a couple years service from it, this would be a easier.... The service guy's feeling that this is a "cheap" unit doesn't give me the warm fuzzies.

 

[Kenneth Brown]

Re: Any home HVAC pros in the house?

Goodman is not even a cheap unit, it is a POS. You'll see 'em on Ebay quite often at unbelievably low prices. Theres a reason for that low price too. You'll see lots of them used in tract homes. You should be happy though, they usually fail at 3 years. I was going with a Goodman in the new house till I researched it. Google Goodman problems and you'll be suprised. I hate to say it but go ahead and break down, buy the Rheem, your gonna be happy ya did.

 

[SS MAYFLOAT]

Re: Any home HVAC pros in the house?

I gotta agree with KB,,,,Goodman is not one of my favorites. It won't be long before the newer units will be using the replacement gas for R22. They claim to be more cost effective on the utility bill. Starting 2010, R22 will start to be going up in price due to less production. Production for R22 will then be less each year until it is completely phased out. I was told by a rep from Copeland compressors that service calls on A/C unitls will rise in price as it did with R12.

I suggest that some research would be best. Get different quotes for the many makes of units. Carrier, Rheem, Lennox, Hier, York, Trane, and Comfortaire is a few just off the top of my head.

A unit with a schroll compressor will be less to operate IMHO............SS

 

[tomatolord]

Re: Any home HVAC pros in the house?

check out your local electric utility as well, many have financing or discounts if you move from a low unit to a higher unit efficiency.

see if you can find a local guy to service the unit instead of the name brand guys, I found one and he was hundreds less AND he knew what he was doing.

You could always sell the parts that come on ebay for your unit to offset the price.

good luck

Tomatolord

 

[JasonB]

Re: Any home HVAC pros in the house?

Many thanks for everyone's responses/

Our AC guy is pretty much a small family owned dad and son with a couple trucks. Their cost for labor seems reasonable judging by others I have used in the past.

On the positive note, after much fussing, we picked up the new coils and compressor this am, but weather was not cooperating, so install will be Monday.

After talking with the ac guy today, we are going to repair the existing unit for the moment. In the repair, we are getting a new coil, compressor, drier, and something else, so we will have a mostly new unit. I have confidence in the AC guy's ability to do the job right. He believes we should be able to get 2-3 more good years from this unit and by that time, the new package units should be in the 16 seer range instead of the available 13 seers that are the current drop-ins for what we have.

I feel a bit like we're rolling the dice with a few hundred $$$ on the line, but my gut says this is the best call and my wife agrees.

I would like to have a new unit, but that would put us in a touchy financial position and we won't borrow money short of an emergency with no other options.

We considered selling the parts on e-bay, but I wonder what realistic market there is for coils/compressor for a 5 year old Goodman unit?

When we replace, it will be something along the lines of a Rheem or Heil. Or AC guy deals in Rheem, Heil, and Ruud, but I will get bids from others when that time comes. Any opinions on Heil?

Another pierce of the puzzle is that I really want to re-eval the way this house is heated/cooled. The current 3.5 ton unit size I believe is marginal. We have a bonus room over the garage that is on an 8' rise. The main floor is ~1600 sq ft with 8' ceilings. The bonus room is about ~350 sq feet with an average 7' ceiling. It stays about 8 deg warmer than the rest of the house in the summer. It typically has the door closed off. Maybe a small compact unit just for that room to take that burden off the house unit?

 

[POINTER94]

Re: Any home HVAC pros in the house?

I am not a pro, but I will tell you that oversizing your A/C unit will cause premature failure. Just like starting your car on a cold morning over and over again will cause premature failure of the car. Longer run cycles are required and oversizing the unit will cause short cycling. With that said I would leave it to a professional to size the unit itself. Also if you want to realize the actual 13 or 16 seer efficiency you will have to change the A coil above the furnace. Nothing is cheap, but shop, get 5-6 quotes and do it before the hot season. I just had a new Ruud funace installed a couple of months ago and it cost me 2K installed but I had quotes as high as $6400. I have about 2400 sq ft to heat. But I didn't have to mess with the A/C aspect as that was functioning ok.

FWIW

February 2005
Furnace picks and pans

Buying a reliable furnace has largely been a roll of the dice, but help is at hand. New data from a Consumer Reports survey of more than 36,000 homeowners show that some brands of gas furnaces, the most common type by far, may be a better bet than others. Gas furnaces from Goodman, for instance, were among the more repair-prone of the 12 big brands in our 2004 Annual Questionnaire.

Overall, about one-sixth of all furnaces installed in the past eight years had needed repair. We found only minor differences between new installations and replacements. Among our other survey findings:

• Nearly 60 percent of repairs were to furnaces that had failed completely and stopped producing heat.

• Almost 40 percent of repairs involved homes left unheated for at least 24 hours.

• Almost 40 percent of repairs cost $150 or more.

According to our survey data, the vast majority of repairs involved a problem with the furnace itself, not with its installation. It’s important to choose not only a good installer but also a reliable brand.




GAS furnaces



Data are based on 36,181 central furnaces installed between 1997 and 2004; differences of less than 5 points are not meaningful. Data have been standardized to account for higher use in colder climates and differences in age; repairs to thermostats only were not counted as repairs. Note that models within a brand may vary. Our data cannot always anticipate design or manufacturing changes.


Best units first by CR

American Standard
Rheem
Trane
Ruud
Bryant
Carrier
Heil
York
Ammana
Lennox
Tempstar
Goodman - worst by a large margin.