Replacing the AC unit

[Lavey29]

I know there have been a few threads recently in this area. I had a bad week. First the fridge went out at the Havasu house and now the AC unit is going out at my Cali house. There has been an ongoing issue with a slow leak of freon (R22) and when we got home no cold air at all from the system. The AC unit is 18 years old now and all the houses on my block seem to be having similar issues and are replacing their AC units and furnaces completely. I did get mine up and running with like a 7 pound charge so probably good till the end of summer at least.

I am not very knowledgeable about the new systems that are out there. I know from internet search that Lennox or Trane seem to be the top brands and quite pricey. My AC guy is recommending a Bryant Preferred system with a 2 speed compressor and 2 speed furnace also. I would appreciate if anyone that has any knowledge about this brand or perhaps works in this type of business can comment or give any suggestions on what I might look at as far as complete replacement. My AC suggested this because it was middle pricing level and I would not have to do any internal thermostat change in the house.

Any info is appreciated :thumbsup

 

[River Lynchmob]

Bryant and Carrier are basically the same. Like Chevy and GMC. All of the major manufacturers use a majority of the same parts to build their units. Typically guys will "recommend" the brand they have ties with. To give you a proper recomendation there are many factors to take into consideration. I'm sure Riverbound will be along shortly to give his advice.

 

[RodnJen]

Do a search on here for "Trane, Lennox" and a couple of very useful threads should appear. I'm hoping to do this in the off season as well. My guy recommended American Standard for what it's worth.

 

[River Lynchmob]

Do a search on here for "Train, Lennox" and a couple of very useful threads should appear. I'm hoping to do this in the off season as well. My guy recommended American Standard for what it's worth.

American Standard is the same as Trane.

 

[Riverbound]

Installation plays a much bigger part than the sticker on the product.

 

[rlamoreaux]

I recently replaced 2 packaged units on the roof of a 2 story house. I had SEER 16 multi speed units installed. Little did I know that the thermostat wiring in my house only had 4 wires, you need 6 for multi speed to work. I was able to run new wire for the upstairs but it was not cost effective to run new wire downstairs. I found a wireless thermostat from Honeywell that did the job downstairs for less than $200. My evenpay power bill in Las Vegas went from $225 every month to $139. What a savings!!!!

 

[Flying_Lavey]

I'd recommend talking to Riverbound. He has a lot of experience in high efficiency residential systems. I completely agree with him though that the installation makes all the difference in the world.

 

[Melloyellovector]

If it's primarily your outside condenser going. Iv got a 5 ton unit ( works fine no issues ) I'd give away for couple hundred bucks. Unit is only 3.5 years or so old. I only changed it out for a slimline unit to be able to put on limited space side of my house. Otherwise if doing everything contact RB he da man

 

[Riverbound]

I recently replaced 2 packaged units on the roof of a 2 story house. I had SEER 16 multi speed units installed. Little did I know that the thermostat wiring in my house only had 4 wires, you need 6 for multi speed to work. I was able to run new wire for the upstairs but it was not cost effective to run new wire downstairs. I found a wireless thermostat from Honeywell that did the job downstairs for less than $200. My evenpay power bill in Las Vegas went from $225 every month to $139. What a savings!!!!

Most multistage units will auto stage if you don't have the needed number of wires or non multi stage stats.

 

[Riverbound]

I know there have been a few threads recently in this area. I had a bad week. First the fridge went out at the Havasu house and now the AC unit is going out at my Cali house. There has been an ongoing issue with a slow leak of freon (R22) and when we got home no cold air at all from the system. The AC unit is 18 years old now and all the houses on my block seem to be having similar issues and are replacing their AC units and furnaces completely. I did get mine up and running with like a 7 pound charge so probably good till the end of summer at least.

I am not very knowledgeable about the new systems that are out there. I know from internet search that Lennox or Trane seem to be the top brands and quite pricey. My AC guy is recommending a Bryant Preferred system with a 2 speed compressor and 2 speed furnace also. I would appreciate if anyone that has any knowledge about this brand or perhaps works in this type of business can comment or give any suggestions on what I might look at as far as complete replacement. My AC suggested this because it was middle pricing level and I would not have to do any internal thermostat change in the house.

Any info is appreciated :thumbsup

Why would you go through the expense of a multistage system and then not change the thermostat? Thermostats are cheap.


Bryant is a brand of carrier product. In their lineup it's cheaper than the actual carrier branded product. For the most parts it's the product line that non carrier dealers get to sell. They will tend to have lesser sound deadening equipment lesser quality controls, safeties, etc. basically it's a stripped down carrier to meet a specific price point. Same guts though. In all reality that's the name of the game in hvac. You will have your higher end lines. Mid lines and cheap lines.

Like I posted earlier. The installation is a much bigger consideration than what product you're installing. If he gave you a quote let me review and I will tell you if it's a good deal and what items he's excluding that are required. More often than not smaller residential guys will skirt the permit in order to be able to cut a lot of the work out. They don't like to meet title 24 requirements. The only person this helps is the lazy contractor who got away with not doing a big part of his job. The homeowner is then stuck with a poor install that has leaky ducting, improperly sized systems and numerous installation problems that will drastically affect efficiency.

 

[Riverbound]

If it's primarily your outside condenser going. Iv got a 5 ton unit ( works fine no issues ) I'd give away for couple hundred bucks. Unit is only 3.5 years or so old. I only changed it out for a slimline unit to be able to put on limited space side of my house. Otherwise if doing everything contact RB he da man

If he's got a unit that's leaking I would venture to guess considering the age it's probably micro leaks in the indoor coil. Lots of junk coils from that era. There's a stop leak product we use that we have had great success with. 90+% of the time we do the additive and a recharge and we don't see the customer again. Been using the product religiously for 5+ years now. It's always our fist step with a leaking system.

 

[jones performance]

years ago i replaced the ac in my house i used to have in hesperia with a york unit. it was multi speed around 17 seer if i recall and worked awesome for the time i lived there. the unit was also super quiet which was nice.