Goodman Central Air System?

[alecmcmahon]

I've got a 1000 sq ft ranch that i'd like to put central air in.(+basement)

currently no duct work / ac at all. my heat is baseboard.

luckily, in the ranch - I've got full access to the whole house via the attic, so duct isn't an issue. except for one chase down to my basement i am finishing.

Im pretty familiar with hvac, but mostly commercial applications and not residential.

How is the newer goodman stuff rate? is it the cheapest of the cheap or medium quality?

i was looking at this system:

http://www.acwholesalers.com/Goodman_Heat_Pump_Air_Conditioner_System_p/11706.htm

...@ about 1500 shipped it seems like a great price. I'll be doing all the work myself, so no labor.

additional costs.... line set, duct, prob. a new stat, misc hardware. shouldn't be more then 500 bucks.

Can anybody comment on this brand / system ? or any other insight

thanks

 

[Rosco]

I have a Goodman on my house. In South Georgia it is running a lot, plus it is a heat pump so it runs almost all year. House is only 5 years old so cannot say much about longevity but so far not a single issue.

Not sure where it rates on quality but it is what most contractors use around here.

 

[Jim_No_Garage]

Goodman gets a bad rap because they sell to a more varied universe of installers - not just their vetted internal dealer network.

So when someone in the business comes across a hacked Goodman install they link it to Goodman instead of the hack that installed it.

It's the same with flex duct. Poorly thought out "Octopus" installs don't work well, but a well designed, well installed flex system can perform the same as a metal duct system and it installs quicker so it costs less.

I'm not an HVAC guy or a car guy, so I can give a reasonable car analogy.

Goodman is the largest seller by volume. Repair parts will be easily available for quite a while.

Good luck

Jim

 

[rickairmedic]

I sell mostly Goodman and have been very happy with it . I am getting ready to install a new dual fuel setup in my own house. There are 2 things I will tell you one you will have no warranty on your system if you buy it and install it yourself. The other issue is you will most likely have about another $1500.00 in ductwork ,lineset and misc . The ductwork alone for my house 1300SF ranch was around $1100.00 for 100% metal ducts insulated ( with me installing it ) and thats getting it wholesale so your price will probably be higher.


Rick

 

[Falcon67]

We have a Goodman unit on the house we just bought. It's 10 years old and works well. I need to get someone out to look at it since I'll bet it hasn't been serviced in several years. The internal A coil was clogged with ****. Need to borrow some coil cleaner to do the outside unit coils. IIRC, it's a 3.5 ton unit and it works good so far on a 1650 sq/ft house.

I would double check the warranty - you might want to do the set and line runs but have a pro design the duct layout and do the finish to get the full warranty.

 

[rsanter]

I have a couple of friends that do HVAC service, neither of them loke the goodman stuff.
they say its cheap and built that way

bob

 

[Lugnut64052]

Goodman is toward the low end, price-wise and quality-wise.

Does Goodman stuff work fine and perform fine? Yes it does.
Will it last as long? No, it won't.

It's rather like a Hyundai vs a Toyota. Both will run fine, but the Toyota is higher quality and will last longer.

 

[Dragster Racer]

Our installer uses almost exclusively Goodman now, and said that he has fewer call backs with their equipment. We got their highest seer rated air con uint last year, and it easily cools our 5000 sf. including basement. I thought it would cost more to cool this house than it does. Now heating it is another story all together!

 

[alecmcmahon]

1500 for duct?

I was thinking about using flex duct for each room, my house is pretty small. 40' long 20' wide.

Not looking for something that will last FOREVER, this is my first house - I dont plan on staying more then 5-6 years or so. This house is more of a long term ' flip'

 

[rickairmedic]

$1500.00 for duct,lineset,thermostat & misc. Lineset will be around $200.00 ( copper aint getting any cheaper ) Decent thermostat $50.00-$100.00 misc odds and ends probably $100.00 + ductwork also isnt cheap and you will want a full trunkline ( insulated in the attic ) with runs comming off of it to each room. You can run flex duct off of the main trunk line but you dont want to run more than 10' of flex per run as it will cut down the airflow quite a bit with longer runs.


The guys who dont like Goodman are selling Carrier,Trane ect. Easier to sell you the overpriced Trane and Carrier if Goodman is garbage . I give a 10 year parts and Labor ( Manufacturers ) warranty on every system I put in . This extended warranty costs me an extra $99.00 per piece of equipment and NO OTHER DISTRIBUTOR Trane Carrier ect. will mach that warranty at that price aaaaaaaaand I as well get much fewer call backs ( cost me money ) with Goodman than I ever did with Trane or Carrier .


Trane is also American Standard
Carrier is also Bryant and Payne and ICP


Rick

 

[Mike007]

$1500 is a good estimate for the additional materials. It adds up.

 

[Spam16v]

how would you fill the system? call an HVAC tech to come fill it w/410?

 

[rickairmedic]

how would you fill the system? call an HVAC tech to come fill it w/410?

Most systems today come with enough refrigerant for the equipment plus a 15-25' lineset . This doesnt mean the system doesnt still need to be vacuumed and purged with Nitrogen not to mention with 410A refrigerant systems the charge needs to be spot on even more so than with the old R-22 systems.


Rick

 

[Riley]

I used those guys last year replacing a 30 year old GE system, A/C and gas furnace.

One of the reasons I DIY-ed it was the mis-diagnoses on the source of the failure of the old system, paid a company to tell me it was the "A" coil unit in the air handler. Ok, lets get that replaced. Guy comes to replace the A coil and charge the system, hummm that's funny.....its really the exterior coil unit. Multiple leaks, time to upgrade. No they did not get the call the next time....

Used a Goodman, 16 Seer heat pump backed up by their 95 % efficient furnace, I know it's not that effective or necessary in my location; but there are specific requirements for the tax credit that balanced the overall costs and fuel is not going to get cheaper.

I can say it knocked my gas bills in about half, though my electric is up slightly. Overall I am quite happy with A/C wholesalers and Goodman.

Be sure they send a T shirt with your order, they're great!!

 

[cowboyjosh]

I have Goodman installed on many of million dollar plus homes, unless the homeowner specs something different, and rarely they do. I have had fewer call backs and warranty issues then we had when we were installing Lennox garbage. From a home builders perspective, the system is only as good as the person who installed it.

 

[Cobra6]

Goodman manages/owns several companies.

some of the units are Amana or Maytag - I think it depends on which line you get into - some of it is good, some of it is junk - they already discontinued several models in their 2011 Amana catalog and cut vendors loose because of quality issues.

Sounds like they might be turning things around, or could be an "efficiency reduction"

 

[JCoggin]

Installed a Trane system in my house when it was built in '91, NOTHING but problems with the furnace, coil and condensing unit. Ended up replacing the furnace with a Rheem Classic 90 with a new A coil because the Trane A coil drain pan had rusted out in just over 10 years. Rheem did a fine job for a few years until natural gas in my area went sky high. Ripped all of that stuff out and replaced it with a WaterFurnace Geothermal System, could not be happier.

Unit that handles my rarely used upstairs is a 3-ton Heil heat pump. It's now pushing 10 years old and has never required a service call...

JC

 

[Orangestang]

I have two systems in my house one is a 80% Goodman installed in 98' and 13seer condensing unit and its worked flawless I almost forget its there. The second is a 90% Carrier installed in 02' I got for free as a take out it was only a year old and it gives me the fits about every other year. I hate the thing. When I do do change outs I put in Goodman units.

 

[Spam16v]

Most systems today come with enough refrigerant for the equipment plus a 15-25' lineset . This doesnt mean the system doesnt still need to be vacuumed and purged with Nitrogen not to mention with 410A refrigerant systems the charge needs to be spot on even more so than with the old R-22 systems.


Rick

So the unit is pre-charged with valves to the lines or just comes with a small bottle of refrigerant? I have an automotive vacuum pump, a nitrogen cylinder, just no experience with 410A

 

[rickairmedic]

Most new systems come with enough refrigerant inside the condensor for the system including a 15-25' lineset ( depending on manufacturer. There are also new R-22 units being produced as they have found a loopole in the new regulations that lets them build the R-22 units and ship them with no R-22 in them . They ship with a nitrogen charge in them and must be charged with R-22 when installed.

Rick

 

[klhitman]

$1500.00 for duct,lineset,thermostat & misc. Lineset will be around $200.00 ( copper aint getting any cheaper ) Decent thermostat $50.00-$100.00 misc odds and ends probably $100.00 + ductwork also isnt cheap and you will want a full trunkline ( insulated in the attic ) with runs comming off of it to each room. You can run flex duct off of the main trunk line but you dont want to run more than 10' of flex per run as it will cut down the airflow quite a bit with longer runs.


The guys who dont like Goodman are selling Carrier,Trane ect. Easier to sell you the overpriced Trane and Carrier if Goodman is garbage . I give a 10 year parts and Labor ( Manufacturers ) warranty on every system I put in . This extended warranty costs me an extra $99.00 per piece of equipment and NO OTHER DISTRIBUTOR Trane Carrier ect. will mach that warranty at that price aaaaaaaaand I as well get much fewer call backs ( cost me money ) with Goodman than I ever did with Trane or Carrier .


Trane is also American Standard
Carrier is also Bryant and Payne and ICP


Rick

you know how you stop a trane?


put power to it

and thats pretty bad as i kinda work for them

 

[JCoggin]

you know how you stop a trane?


put power to it

and thats pretty bad as i kinda work for them

You got that right...My wife used to say "it's hard to stop a Trane BUT it's a LOT harder to keep it running....."

 

[ddrewyor]

We built our house in 1999 and we had a Goodman HVAC setup installed. It's 96% eff and 13 or 14 SEER. Has been working great and it is down in my crawlspace. Ignitor went bad the first season - my installer said it may have been jarred when they installed the furnace because it was a tight fit into the crawlspace. Replaced for free. I put a similar unit in my garage (No AC though ) It has been working perfect for 6 years. Overall great experience with Goodman - price is excellent and parts are readily available should I need them.

Dave

 

[Riley]

A minor correction from my earlier post, I used Ingram's at "betterwayac"dot com. Goodman equipment, still happy with it and them.

 

[mpire]

Is there any reason why I couldn't install my own a/c system?

The only thing that seems complicated is getting the charge right and making sure the coil has enough air flow, right?

I watched the neighbors get a new one put in, and it didn't seem like rocket science. Some 18 year old kid was cutting up a bunch of foam board for the intake. Thats about it.

That I can do.

 

[rickairmedic]

The main reason not to do it yourself is you will have NO Warranty . That was ductboard by the way and it is fiberglass and ***** . They use alot of it in Fla. The stuff will make you itch like crazy.

Rick

 

[csp]

The only thing that seems complicated is getting the charge right and making sure the coil has enough air flow, right?

Do you have a vacuum pump and the ability to purge the system with nitrogen?

 

[billspit]

The guy who does our AC work works for a company full time, but does stuff like ours on the side. He installed two Goodman units, before they were actually putting their names on the outside of the unit. He said there were two companies making all the ACs in the country and Goodman was one them. They just put everybody elses name on them. The oldest unit has been in 10 years and we just had to replace the blower in the air handler. Otherwise, its been trouble free (as I knock on wood). These replaced two York units. I wouldn't use a York now if you gave them to me. The builder of our neighborhood put Yorks in most of the houses, and I can recall only one that lasted very long.

 

[mpire]

Do you have a vacuum pump and the ability to purge the system with nitrogen?

Actually yes, but I think the warranty part was the obvious answer.

Whats truly strange, is that I have two condos that were build back in 74 and they both running the same GE air conditioner.

One unit started vibrating like crazy. It would shake the floor of the condo something fierce and it was rather noisy. I was thinking it was on its last legs. However, I opened up the inside air handler and pulled out the blower motor and squirrel cage fan thing. It was caked with **** after 35 years of service. The mounts for the motor had ripped away from the sheet-metal on the squirrel fan, so it was just flopping around in there when it was running.

So I fixed it with some aluminum strips and some JB-weld epoxy. Ironically its been running like a champ every since and it doesn't vibrate or anything. Sounds like a new system. Really needed a cleaning though, wow there was lots of **** in there!

Also, the a/c will spontaneously lose all the Freon overnight, but will run like a champ the rest of the year. My a/c guy just tells me people are sucking in my Freon to get high and thats the only explanation he come up with because I don't lose any pressure for months and then suddenly its damned near empty.

So other than that, and a few drain problems, these two ancient systems are by far the best air conditioners that money can buy!

 

[rickairmedic]

The sad Truth is you cannot buy a system like those old GE's today . They were without a doubt the best systems ever made . They had the best compressors ever made and those compressors are not made today . They also most likely had all alumninum Evap coils ( something else you wont find in house sized systems today ) .


Rick

 

[toyotadriver]

I have a Goodman heat pump in my house. 3 years old. I maintain it regularly but the only problems that I have had with it were installer related (installer was an idiot). Once I got the bugs worked out, it has worked great.

The wife and I are planning to build a new house soon and I intend to install a dual fuel heat pump...heat pump and propane 95% propane furnace. We will install Goodman in the new house.

 

[alecmcmahon]

Thanks for the comments thus far.

Still got my eyeball on this one.

http://ingramswaterandair.com/goodm....html?osCsid=f60fe1680d6398af45aac35dbbfa5804

$1,670 shipped to your door. Still need to buy lineset plus duct work and misc, assuming another 1000 bucks or less ( small house )

With that package though it says the air handler is multispeed, ( not variable speed ) does that mean you have to select the speed you want it to run, and that's the only speed it will run at ? or does it have 3 speed settings like low med high, and it will ramp up according to load?

 

[rickairmedic]

Multispeed means it has 3 or 4 speeds which can be selected from . What this means is you have 3 or 4 speeds you can select from but will only actually have 2 speeds available one for heating and one for cooling.


Rick

 

[alecmcmahon]

Multispeed means it has 3 or 4 speeds which can be selected from . What this means is you have 3 or 4 speeds you can select from but will only actually have 2 speeds available one for heating and one for cooling.


Rick

This will be an ' ac only ' system, since i already have hot water baseboard heat, ... so that now means the air will only be one single speed?

 

[rickairmedic]

Yep but you do get to pick the speed .


Rick

 

[alecmcmahon]

Yep but you do get to pick the speed .


Rick

sounds like a no brainer and just pay the extra few hundred for the variable speed air handler eh?

 

[5lima30]

We have a 3ton Goodman heat pump unit that is almost 2 years old. No problems with it and the electric bills have been VERY reasonable. Last months which included quite a bit of cold weather was $81 (we do have supplemental gas logs as well). I've been pleased with it and as a side note it seems much quieter than the RUDD heat pump we had in our last home. YMMV.