No Heat in house, new system needed!

[930dreamer]

Well it's probably going to snow tonight/tomorrow and the heater went out. No use putting a band aid on the 20 year old system. Some of the estimates are 14-20K with completely new ducting. I know we can save some money using the old ducting but some is metal with insulation and some is flex, it's really cobbled together. No way to dodge this bullet. This would be a good time to have installed the woodstove insert. What are your recommendation's for a duel fuel heater and A/C?

Edit: issue is circuit board failure, pilot light, heat exchanger rusted through etc.

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

Im a goodman fan myself,Id look into a gas furnace/heat pump combo.

 

[mygarageone]

For now you can install the new furnace and do the duct work later , the new furnaces have blower motors that adjust to the static pressure developed in the duct work to compensate .
Not the best way to go but for now it would get you by.

And the goodman products are at the bottom of the list for quality units. I have installed a few because of customer demand for cheap.

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

Warranty,warrantee,waranteehttp://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...S70YBg&usg=AFQjCNGjyff3awNbiBTd_8_QHTBS3t3e_Q

 

[CNGsaves]

I'd say get best A/C since you're in hot Amarillo, TX. Multi-speed is a must for any new system. Furnace part is easy peeesy in TX.

Spend your money on proper ductwork. A/C will work oh so much better with proper airflow. Good luck.

 

[Falcon67]

He'll need decent heat up there. People from Amarillo say that the only thing between them and the Rockies is a couple of barb wire fences and those blew down a while back. We're on 13 years with a Good man and its hanging in there.

 

[930dreamer]

No central heat for at least a week, it's only suppose to snow 1-3" Sunday.

 

[mygarageone]

Warranty,warrantee,waranteehttp://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...S70YBg&usg=AFQjCNGjyff3awNbiBTd_8_QHTBS3t3e_Q

Big deal they warranty there equipment , that doesn't mean they are not at the bottom of the quality list.
You don't know how many brand new 1,2,and 3 yr old units I have worked on for warranty work.
I am a Rheem dealer and out of the last 30 units I've installed in 5 yrs , Went back on 2 units for warrenty and one of them was our fault.

Nothing wrong with Goodman but they are not made like Bryant ,rheem,carrier , trane , Lennox .
Goodman can sell there stuff warranty it and still come out ahead , the numbers are with them. But the quality isn't.

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

Big deal they warranty there equipment , that doesn't mean they are not at the bottom of the quality list.
You don't know how many brand new 1,2,and 3 yr old units I have worked on for warranty work.
I am a Rheem dealer and out of the last 30 units I've installed in 5 yrs , Went back on 2 units for warrenty and one of them was our fault.

Nothing wrong with Goodman but they are not made like Bryant ,rheem,carrier , trane , Lennox .
Goodman can sell there stuff warranty it and still come out ahead , the numbers are with them. But the quality isn't.

I used to be a rhuud/rheem/weather king dealer up till about 3 years ago when I retired,Ive never had a problem with them.Ive installed plenty of goodman equipt without problems over the years also.Hell Ive even sold/ installed 3 frazier Johnson furnaces over the last couple years without any issues.(and Im no York fan by any means!)
carrier/Bryant are a big joke,have been for years.no quality there ,just a good advertising campaign.
Trane wreck and lennox make good stuff(it should be for the price)but theyre hard to get parts for/pain on the *** to work on.(trane condensors)

 

[Jackfre]

how big is your house? How is it laid out?

 

[Falcon67]

We updated our carrier furnace at the last house with a Rheem 10 seer scroll AC unit back in 1998. Its still running well for the new owners.

 

[Kevin54]

we went from a Rheem to a Lennox. I actually hate the Lennox, but we had a first year model and nothing but problems. The flex ducts, I hate those also. The wife and I were just talking yesterday about possibly getting all new duct work ran, and run metal ducts that can be cleaned. For some reason, we have a hell if a dust problem, and I think part of it is the flex ducts. They are the returns, and also the supplies. We have blow in insulation in the attic, and one of the returns came off of the plenum and I believe it sucked dust in and now it hangs in the supplies

 

[CNGsaves]

Another "gotta do" with new ductwork is make sure all joints are SEALED.

There was cool This Old House episode where they pumped air-borne sealer into all ducts and sealed entire house ductwork from the INSIDE of pipe. Said it was around $1500 and dropped air losses to near zero.

 

[east_tn_emc]

If you are going the route of new ductwork and everything else......make sure they perform a manual-j calculation for proper sizing...do not rely on X-square-feet needs Y-tons of cooling.

I have an American Standard (same as Trane) and am happy with it....going on ~13 years.

 

[zmaxmotorsports]

Theres only so many sizes of furnaces out there(btu output),unless you live in some sprawling house with 3 stories and 15 bed rooms hvac guy should generally be smart enough to size up your needs by looking at the house and checking some common sense things like insulation/windows and trees.

 

[mygarageone]

I used to be a rhuud/rheem/weather king dealer up till about 3 years ago when I retired,Ive never had a problem with them.Ive installed plenty of goodman equipt without problems over the years also.Hell Ive even sold/ installed 3 frazier Johnson furnaces over the last couple years without any issues.(and Im no York fan by any means!)
carrier/Bryant are a big joke,have been for years.no quality there ,just a good advertising campaign.
Trane wreck and lennox make good stuff(it should be for the price)but theyre hard to get parts for/pain on the *** to work on.(trane condensors)

We agree on all accounts , I just didn't want insult all the other franchise dealers
But I have had a lot of goodman calls the last 3 yrs

 

[specklehunter]

Goodman quality has improved greatly over the past 5 years. As far as Carrier/Bryant goes.......I'm not sure if they would even make a good fish hurdle! Why not change the heat exchanger and control board? Assuming its not an antique and worth fixing this would get you going before the bad weather and save you a pile of money.

What I really want to know is this.......What in the heck are you getting for 20k? My goodness you must going all out for that price. How many units are you installing?

 

[Falcon67]

Another "gotta do" with new ductwork is make sure all joints are SEALED.

There was cool This Old House episode where they pumped air-borne sealer into all ducts and sealed entire house ductwork from the INSIDE of pipe. Said it was around $1500 and dropped air losses to near zero.

I sealed our flex ducts - joints and air ducts to drywall - with a tub of duct seal and my hands for under $20.