Central air conditioning

[Stealth22]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

I was surprised as well.

I booked through Costco, so that might have had something to do with it.

I would have thought that Costco would usually cost less, not more.

[CaramonLS]

Had a 14.5 Seer York unit installed last year, 3 ton. It came to just over $4000 all in (including GST). Has a 10 year parts/labour warranty through Shift Air Mechanical.

I had looked at comparable units from Costco, HD, Apri's and a few others, but Shift Air gave me the best quote. I actually think Hevishot recommended them in this thread or another one about AC. But they did great work.

Just booted it up last night and it turned on without any issues or concerns. Central AC is a game changer.

[Stealth22]

Originally Posted by DoubleK

I was surprised as well.

I booked through Costco, so that might have had something to do with it.

Sure enough...A1 Chesney quoted about $1500 more than a competitor. Even with the Costco rebates, it's still like $1000 more.

Its not exactly apples to apples because the brands are different (Bryant vs Lennox), but the sizes are the same, as are the seer ratings. Does anyone know what brands I should be looking at?

Still have a few more quotes to get, so we'll see how the pricing comes out.

[Flames_Gimp]

Paying retail for a system is crazy, $2000 for half a day of work to install it? lol

[Stealth22]

Ugh, I'm so confused looking at some of these quotes.

Some say 2 ton, others recommend 2.5. It appears that the price difference in the sizing isn't much, but I'm still wondering what the best choice is. I'm leaning towards a 16 seer unit.

A1 Chesney (Costco) is by far the most expensive...Arpi's was significantly lower for the same Lennox unit, but their tech mentioned a 16 seer Goodman unit, and his quote is like another $1000 lower for that unit.

Is it worth paying for a brand like Lennox? Are there any CP'ers out there with Goodman A/C units?

[Northendzone]

not sure how helpful this post will be with respect to your decision but my unit is a lux air. i have had it for over 10 yrs and it has run perfectly with no issues.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Stealth22

Some say 2 ton, others recommend 2.5. It appears that the price difference in the sizing isn't much, but I'm still wondering what the best choice is. I'm leaning towards a 16 seer unit.

Get the 2.5 tonne. In my last house I was between two sizes and went with the lower sized. It had a hard time catching up if I forgot to start it early, or if I had the oven going all day, or hosting a party. In the new house I was between two sized and got the bigger one. No regrets.

[jeffporfirio]

Quick question for the knowledge base.

How often do you have maintenance done on A/C units? If you have maintenance done at all.

We have had out units for 5 years with no maintenance, and they run fine. Also, when I lived in Florida I never had any maintenance done on A/C units (unless they broke down, in 10 years they never did) and they ran 10 months of the year non-stop.

Also, do you cover your A/C units in the winter?

[DoubleK]

I've always covered my unit with the winter cover that came with it.

[Canehdianman]

We cover ours too.

I'm not sure how many tons/seer it is, but it is literally 2x the size of our neighbours unit. It can cool the whole house down fairly quickly, which I like, as I have it set to basically be off during work hours, then turn on at 430 and the house is perfect for 5pm.

Ours is a Carrier. No idea if that's good or bad. It came installed when we bought the house.

[Stealth22]

Originally Posted by ken0042

Get the 2.5 tonne. In my last house I was between two sizes and went with the lower sized. It had a hard time catching up if I forgot to start it early, or if I had the oven going all day, or hosting a party. In the new house I was between two sized and got the bigger one. No regrets.

That's sort of why I was asking the question. That helps, thanks!

Originally Posted by jeffporfirio

How often do you have maintenance done on A/C units? If you have maintenance done at all.

Along the same lines...I'm trying to figure out the details on warranties too. It seems like some distributors don't include labour in the 10 year warranty, whereas others do, but they require you to pay them for an annual checkup for that labour warranty to stay valid.

I read earlier in this thread that Action Furnace includes labour and doesn't require a yearly checkup. But I'm going to call the guy who did our quote to confirm that.

[EVERLAST]

I highly recommend getting 5 quotes.

You will see and hear a big difference between all of them and the amateurs will stand out.

Make sure all drain pipes coming from the furnace are hard pipe directed to the drain and NOT gorilla hose (clear hose) that pinches and obstructs any moisture from flowing freely.
Also, txv valves need to be nice and neat and not a mess of bent curled wire going into the coil and transition.

For 35 years I've been a furnace guy and I see so many horrible installs done in a rush, airleaks everywhere on unsealed transitions.

For my money I'd stay away from Lennox and Goodman. Why???
I condemned 9 Lennox furnaces in a row last year all installed by the same big Lennox dealer for no less than 1k more than the nearest competitor quote......all the same new home builder as well in the new community of Legacy.

Always buy an extended warranty on HVAC equipment as you WILL use it or they'll totally mess you over and make you pay the bills. Extended warranty should be no less than 7 years and as much as 10-15 in some cases.
DO NOT buy a maintenance program. Biggest scam ever!!!!

I'm in the business and I know all the scams, bad companies, good companies , good technicians and bad.

Also. Certain company's sound like they have great deals , warranty etc but beware.
One company is tearing out systems that people either cannot pay for or they broke and the companies aren't honoring warranty and charging customers fees . Total horseshirt.

Got a question ? Fire me off a pm and I'll answer or help the best I can for free. Why? No one else is that's why.

[Stealth22]

Originally Posted by EVERLAST

I highly recommend getting 5 quotes.

I've read that advice from you earlier in this thread, so that's exactly what I did. Costco was by far the most expensive, as others have said previously.

One of the other reps that came out finished his "walkthrough" and "quote" for one Lennox model in what felt like 10 or 15 minutes, and never e-mailed me after the fact about other models like he said he would.

The other three are fairly close to one another.

Originally Posted by EVERLAST

For my money I'd stay away from Lennox and Goodman

In the quotes I got, Lennox units have been on the steeper side in terms of price. But is there a reason you say to stay away from Goodman?

I ask because a few people in this thread have said they have Goodman units, and out of the "final three" vendors among the 5 quotes I got, one didn't recommend any brands other than Goodman, the second recommended either Lennox or Goodman (yay...), and the third recommends either Goodman, Bryant, or Napoleon.

Thanks in advance for offering your expertise!

[EVERLAST]

Pm.ed reply.

[jeffporfirio]

We bought our two units (Lennox 2.5 t) from Costco in 2013, and paid 3,300 for each unit after Costco rebates. Also got a 10 year warranty (5 labor).

[woob]

Originally Posted by jeffporfirio

We bought our two units (Lennox 2.5 t) from Costco in 2013, and paid 3,300 for each unit after Costco rebates. Also got a 10 year warranty (5 labor).

Do you live in a Castle??

[dubc80]

My current house has central A/C.
Installed right before we bought the place in the fall of 2016 by the old owners.

If I recall correctly it was just under $10G for both furnace and AC.

They are both York units from Trail Appliances. Pretty good high spec units from the research Ive done. If you're looking for another company to quote you could try them.

Central A/C is awesome, but we still notice a massive difference between our upstairs and the main floor on hot days.

Mid 90's house, about 2000 sq feet.

[me_dennis]

EVERLAST, sent you a PM. Thanks!

[EVERLAST]

Replied via P M

[REDVAN]

I have a Goodman unit in my house, and that's because of a few reasons:

1) My house is built in 2014 with a Goodman furnace.
2) I wanted cased coil (if you search back you will find out why, but tl;dr is that we had a bad install done with a coil and I wanted a cased coil this time so that the "technician" who installs it could not possibly mess it up.

I am under no illusion that Goodman is a "top brand" but what I do know is that the cased coil fits perfectly into my existing system, and that mattered to me due to previous bad experiences.

When my systems go out, I'll replace them with the best quality I can afford, but until then I am warm in the winter and cool in the summer.