Choosing the right system for you

Many consumers wonder which brand of furnace or A/C is "the best." The quick answer is, "whichever one is sized and installed properly."

Which brands do we install? - Many types depending on your needs - Read below

Most manufacturers build several lines of product types. Usually there is a basic budget line, a higher quality line, something with even more features (such as multi-stage burners) and a higher-end highest efficiency line. Inside of each category there is very little difference between brands in the components used to build the units. Every manufacturer has the same choices to be made in which components to use and most manufacturers make similar choices within each line in order to remain competitive.  So what's the real difference then?  The answer is simply marketing!  All brands have a part of their company that is trying to get you to buy their product instead of another brand.  Sometimes they're trying to make you believe that Brand A is somehow better than Brand B even when they come from the same factory line and are actually identical except for the methods of advertising.  We're happy to help you cut through the hype and install the best system to meet your needs regardless of brand.

Here's what Consumer Reports has to say about furnace brands. 

July 2003 Heating with gas A guide to choosing furnace size, efficiency, and features. Replacing or improving a furnace may not pay off as handsomely as it did during the energy crisis of the late 1970s. But it may deliver steady, modest savings. And efficient heating isn't only about money. Because today's furnaces burn less fuel to generate heat, they are less polluting than their predecessors. Some models also produce heat more continuously than older furnaces, increasing comfort. Heat pumps that wring heat from the ground or from outdoor air (and reverse the process in summer, to act as an air conditioner) are the preferred way to heat in the South and Southwest, and oil furnaces have a niche in older homes, mostly in the Northeast. But the majority of new central-heating systems use a gas furnace, the focus of this report. THE BASIC CHOICES A CLEAN SWEEP? Duct-cleaning services typically promise to rid your heating system of bacteria or other harmful contaminants. Yet there's little evidence such cleaning is needed, except perhaps as part of an allergy-control program prescribed by a doctor. If you do get the service, insist on a thorough job; in a pilot project, the Environmental Protection Agency found it took 16 to 30 worker-hours to clean the ducts of a typical home. For more information, check the Environmental Protection Agency pamphlet "Should You Have the Air Ducts in Your Home Cleaned?" at www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/airduct.html. How do most people go about buying a furnace? First, they contact contractors. To prepare this report, we did, too. More than 500 specialists in residential heating and air conditioning told us about their experiences in installing and maintaining heating equipment. The two major manufacturers of gas furnaces are United Technology (Carrier, Bryant, Heil, Tempstar, and Comfortmaker brands) and Goodman (Janitrol and Amana). Other brands include Rheem (Ruud), American Standard (Trane), and Lennox (Armstrong). All offer furnaces in a range of capacities and efficiencies, and we think manufacturers generally deliver on those specifications. Each brand offers a generally similar array of key features. The degree of similarity between manufacturers' offerings is one reason this report does not include Ratings of furnaces by brand. The most important steps in selecting a furnace, we think, are to ensure that the unit's specifications fit your needs, that it is bought from a contractor who installs it well, and that it's adequately maintained. Our survey results help confirm that view: When we asked about the most common reasons for service calls for furnaces, about twice as many contractors we surveyed cited human error--inadequate maintenance, for example, or improper installation--as cited defective equipment.

Now back to our regularly scheduled information

The things that are done by the local installing company will have the largest impact on price, as well as whether one system works better than another. Did they size it right? It's a fact that most A/C systems in the U.S. are oversized by a substantial amount. It's common in the Denver area to see systems that are almost twice the size needed to remain cool. Nothing will have a bigger effect on system performance and even temperatures throughout the home than getting the correct size installed. This is done properly with a load calculation and not based on the "square feet" of home. Ask how the size was determined before you buy.

The installation itself will have a huge effect on the longevity of a unit. Things like the methods that are used to connect piping while keeping it free of moisture and debris are very important to the life of your system. The installer that works on your house is 50% of what you are paying for. Get a good installer.

What kind of assurances does the local company give that the system will operate properly? No manufacturer sends technicians out to fix residential problems. That's left up to the local installing company. Again brand X vs. brand Z will not solve this problem. These assurances are 25% of what you are buying.

There is only 25% of the decision left to go. Now we finally pick out a unit. First off, decide which category you'd like to buy from. Budget? Quality? Performance? Highest Efficiency? Most any brand of unit will be acceptable if you've found a local company that can meet your other needs. Don't dwell too long on the final 25% if you've found a good local company to install it.

As you can see, the underlying truth is that the brand doesn't matter nearly as much as the manufacturers would like you to believe. Any dealer that tells you that one brand is best probably has a stake in saying that for some reason. After all, there are incentives (free cruises etc) given by various manufacturers for selling lots of their product.

Smart consumers buy a good design and installation instead of just brand.