I need your opinions on which brand to buy.. My husband and I are just barely starting research and obviously we want something energy-efficient and reliable. I have heard great things about Trane but nothing about any other options. Any input is greatly appreciated. We live in Allen.
Wanted to thank you ladies for your advice. Ultimately our decision came down to financing. A couple of the companies we looked at didn't offer financing or had unfavorable terms :-( but ultimately we went with the Lennox through Service Experts and it's coming on Saturday morning (since we couldn't get Friday off, go figure, but that's a whole other topic!). Will let you guys know how that goes too.
Thanks again, ladies!
***Update-- Our electric bill has been cut in half! Very good feeling; now we're using that savings to pay down our "loan." Would definitely recommend Service Experts and the Lennox heating/AC system (ours has a heat pump). They were punctual- as in they said they would show between 8-10am that Saturday and they showed... right at 8! Very impressive! The guys setting everything up were very professional and personable. Our financing for the line of credit came through, at the rate promised (once we saw our first statement). Very well done!
Caplinger Heating & Cooling
205 E Main St
Allen, TX 75002 Map
###-###-####
I highly recommend them...they are awesome and extremely trustworthy. Good luck!
C.
My husband has worked for an A/C company for the last 10 years and is now working for the HVAC department of an engineering firm. Trane is a great product but American Standard (Trane's parent company) is just as good and sometimes less expensive. Carrier is good and Ruud is as well. He chose Trane (that is what his company was selling at the time) to put into our home for the high efficiency. If you can get through the summer you will definitely pay a LOT less for your new unit in the fall! Hope this helps and any research you do will definitely pay off!
K.,
Trane has one of the best name in industry for AC units. They were owned by American Standard, so you were able to buy an AC unit with AS lable, but same quality unit for less price. However, they have since got bought by another company, so I don't know if you are still able to do what we use to do. Anyway, Trane, York, Lennox all have really good AC units now. One thing to make sure of is to get an unit with 12-14 SEER, higher the SEER number, more efficient they are.
Good Luck,
S.
My husband works in the A/C field and he also recommends Trane. Says it is the best brand by far. American Standard is a sister company to Trane so you may want to look at that option. My husband just put in two new a/c units at our house and we were trying to get the best kind for the least amount of money. When I get home, I'll double check the brand and PM you on what we went with.
We just replaced both of our units as the upstairs unit failed and both were 11 years old. We decided to do both at the same time so that we didn't feel like we were waiting for the downstairs unit to fail as well. Now we can rest assured that they should work for quite a few years without failure. The company we used installs Trane and Lennox. They recommended Lennox for our needs and they are great units. We went with a special air filter that only needs to be changed once a year and has a higher HEPA rating. We couldn't justify the cost of the Lennox Pure Air system as our allergies aren't overly severe and it cost quite a bit per year to change the special light in each unit along with the filter. We replaced the heating system as well. One thing to consider as well is the efficiency rating. The lowest is 13 SEER and goes up from there. Our previous 11 year old units were 10 SEER. We ran the numbers and couldn't justify going to the highest rating as we didn't feel we'd see the return. we ended up going with the 13 SEER and then with the new blower for the new heater, that increased the rating to about 13.5 SEER. The newer systems have a better humidity control as well. Our house feels cooler at the same temperature as the old units.
I highly recommend Collin Air (www.collinairconditioning.com)
Brian knows his business well. His staff is very responsible, on time and FAIR. He does not guage you, he will give you a fair price for your products. It is not cheap....but you get what you pay for. In the end, we spent about $15,000 BUT that was for the units, venting, furnace, etc.
We built our home in 2000 and the AC units (York), furnace were not up to the par they should have been for our home. Long story but the builder shorted us. Our highest AC bill hit $700 for our 4000 sq ft home and we were not comfortable. We tend not to watch the thermostat that much but we did during that time.
In 2003-2004, Brian and his team came out and we got TOP OF THE LINE Carrier heat pumps with a high seer (14 I believe). YES we paid for the the quality. During installation, we found out that the heat exchanger in our furnace was cracked which could have resulted in a fire or explosion of our home. We had already had 1 gas leak and 2 fires upon moving in. Dont get me started on how CRAPPY Highland Homes is. Anyway, per code, Brian could not continue with installation of our heat pumps, etc. That day, we ended up re-doing everything Highland did to get a quality, SAFE product for our home.
Brian is very fair priced. If you have any questions after installation, they are right back out to check on you. I have never had service like Collin Air.
Since the new system was installed, we just received our highest bill which was just under $400. We are thrilled with that because our daughter tends to put the upstairs temp on 72 sometimes. I was shocked the bill was not higher this month.
Our experience with Collin has been very positive and they have done everything in our home as far as heating/ac.
I agree that Trane has a good name.
I used to always go with the top name, (EX: Maytag) until Maytag faltered on the quality and now I look at all the top brands and who owns them. Brian might have Trane as well I am not sure.
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We live in Allen too.....we use a wonderful company from McKinney, Joplin's. They are so knowledgable and don't make you feel stupid when you ask a million questions. We just had ours replaced in December.....and we are so pleased! Hope that helps!
With such an investment, I would seriously consider stopping by your local library and checking the Consumer Reports to see if theyve tested differnet brands and models. People can have varying experiences but they fully test so you get a better summary plus they often discuss factors that affect an individual buyers. It takes little time and I consider worth it for such a big ticket item.
