Some brands are very popular in some areas, and some brands are almost none existent in others. Even within one brand there is a large range from low end builder's grade to the very high end types of equipment.

Here is some information that you may not know. Carrier and Bryant are the same equipment, and so are Trane and American Standard. The same holds true for Rheem and Rudd. Within sister brands they only thing that is different is the nameplate. Not every model is available in every sister brand, but most are.

Buying what someone may recommend as a good brand does not guarantee you won't have problems. The best equipment will never work properly if it is not sized and installed correctly. Do a search of HVAC contractors in your area and see what they sell. That will narrow down the field.

I personally think you should choose a family owned business that specializes that is an authorized dealer for one brand. Stay away from box stores or big companies. I also don't care for the one man operation that will install any brand you choose. In my opinion I think you are better off with someone who installs the same equipment everyday.

Thank you both. Looks like the units we have are accurately sized for our house, so we will be replacing the same specs. We have several more estimates scheduled from family owned companies so sounds like we are on track. Will see what they say I guess......

The devil is in the details. Configurations, design, equipment (models).

This is what you should pay close attention to.

As far as hiring a one man operation, the advantage is that you don't have a slew of strangers coming thru your house and the one man has more experience in all facets of repair, service and installation. You deal with one person as opposed to many with different opinions.

Two sides to every coin, unless you're a magician with trick coins.

Take your time, follow your gut. If you can't live with how things are done at the beginning of the process it probably won't get any better with time.

I service the Katy, Texas area

Keep in mind efficiency of new systems being quoted especially furnace versus your old furnace being replaced...

IMO

I used one of the larger but highly regarded contractors in my area when I replaced two complete systems of natural gas furnaces and AC. My experience was excellent. What do you get with a larger company? Internal resources and multiple people for the installers to talk to and learn from when unusual situations are encountered in doing the work or even when it's being bid. Weekly staff meetings for skill development and safety tips. Yada yada.

A family owned business? What other options are there? Contractors own their own companies either alone or with partners.

Personally, I stay away from one man operations for stuff like this for the reasons stated above. Multiple people in the house? I appreciated that. My job was 3 days for 5 guys and a 4th day for 3 guys. It would have taken 3 weeks if done by one guy - no thanks.

I'd suggest you avoid Lennox. I've paid for my Lennox unit twice in repair costs. The Lennox Facebook page used to have owner reveiws, but they were so consistently bad that Lennox removed them from their Facebook page. On Consumer Reports, AC owners rated Trane, American Standard and Carrier high for reliability. Trane and American Standard are part of the same company. Two HVAC manufacturers, York and Daikan (Amana, Goodman) offer company sponsored 10 year labor warranties in case repairs are needed. Daikin owns Amana and Goodman. I've read a lot of comments from people that have had reliability problems with York and Goodman. Maybe that's why they offer the extended labor warranty, to offset their reputation for breakdowns. Amana calls their extended labor warranty program "Asure" and here's a link to their website if you want to read about it.

I've never in 10 years of running my company, ever had an installation job that has taken me 3 weeks to finish. The longest one was 6 days, mainly because there was more than just replacing equipment and the outdoor unit had to be relocated. There were 2 other companies (concrete & electrical) involved in the project and the primary reason I got the job was that I was in charge of the whole project.

The customer didn't want excuses as to why this or that wasn't done or why it was taking so long to be completed. So I was in charge of the whole project start to finish.

You can see what this 6 day project looked like by watching an animation, just scroll down to bottom of page. Click Here.

Most of my install jobs are 1 day, with a few taking 2-3 days.

I service the Katy, Texas area.

I really have no response to your comment, but to say that the biggest time commitment was crawlspace work (most of which with stand-up access) on nearly 200 linear feet of metal ducting - replacing segments, removing asbestos, mastic sealing all joints and connections and then when done putting on new insulation. Two AC systems were installed where none existed before. The contractor I used was the middle bid of 3 but all said it would be the better part of one week with multiple techs each day. This was done two years ago. I'm thrilled with the results and I believe I did the right thing with the right contractor.

Elmer,

The only reason I responded to you was to dispel the notion that because I am a one man AC company that this some how causes inferior service or delays installs to 3 weeks.

Every job is different, but people typically don't realize this.

This isn't to knock the decision you made, but to clarify that people have more than a few choices in who they decide to use as their HVAC service contractor.

Some people like to be able to call someone directly without a bunch of hoops to jump through (dispatch or worse an answering service or worse still voice mail), some people like to know who is going to come to their home up front with no guessing games. When you use a one man company you have those benefits as well as one opinion to deal with as opposed to in many cases multiple opinions.

I am not big enough of a company to become everyone's AC man. I am looking for the 'select few' who want better service and only have to deal with one person.

I've gone to great lengths to show my potential customers the work I do before you spend a nickel with me. You can visit me at my youtube channel here. If you can't use me with confidence, then don't use me.

So my response to you was only to clarify how I run my company, it wasn't to knock your decision.

My company tag line or trade mark if you will is:

Better Service. Done Right. On Time. Guaranteed.

I take each one of those words seriously, they are not there for decoration.

I serve the Katy, Texas area.

I'm glad you do a good job and take your responsibilities seriously. In my area, building contractors are reasonably regulated because we have state licenses for almost all trades and serious restrictions for what unlicensed workers can do. Even with that, contractors seem to come and go and while a license affords some protection, it doesn't of course control all attitudes and practices. For that reason, I've found I have better experiences using larger concerns (all still local) that have been around a long time and who work hard to protect and enhance their reputations in the community. More bench strength, among other things, and better training and screening of the people who wind up knocking on the door to do the work.

I would have absolutely no problem using a one man company. My husband is essentially a one man company in a different industry and I know the high level of service and work he provides his customers!

Our next round of quotes are all in line with each other, and each are highly rated local family owned businesses. We are now down to deciding on brand.

Lowest quote was Coleman. This is the friend connection discounted price and its substantially lower than the others. Husband said the reviews and articles he has read on Coleman/York ie Johnson Controls coil lawsuits has them out of the running.

Midquotes were virtually the same

Trane

American Standard

Highest were also virtually the same

2 different Lennox bids

Is the $1000 cost difference worth it between the 14 and 16 seer? Gut would say yes, but I've read some conflicting opinions about it.

In the southern states the minimum allowed SEER rating is 14. That means the lowest of the low end model must be able to achieve that rating in order to be sold. The additional $1000 in addition to the better efficiency is mostly likely giving you better equipment and more features.

It is hard to say whether spending the extra money without knowing the model numbers. When you are done to 2 or 3 choices post the all the model numbers if you want opinions.

"I would have absolutely no problem using a one man company. My husband is essentially a one man company in a different industry and I know the high level of service and work he provides his customers!"

Besides having more confidence in the technical skills of the bigger operators, the small guys tend to come and go in my area. I've done two major remodeling projects with what (at each time) were well regarded general contractors with good references. Both are no longer active in the area, and the same is true for about half of their trade subs.

Some HVAC contractors provide extended "warranties" on their own (sometimes for labor, beyond what the manufacturer offers). That's of no value if the little guy's business fails or s/he decides to move somewhere else. In my case, I asked what their supplemental warranty was, and the answer was "as long as you own this house and the equipment is within its expected useful life, we will make sure you're happy with how it works and with us".

If the 16 SEER option is a 2 speed and wired properly with 2 stage thermostat then yes. Otherwise maybe not depending on warranty terms and so on.

The problems facing Johnson Controls branded units is that all the lower end equipment typically use a controversial equipment design: "Micro Channel"

The main benefit to this design is lower up front installation costs, that often lead to expensive repairs.

With that said you can search reviews on any AC brand and they all rank around 1 to 1.5 stars. (If the review site is brand affiliated, the harsh comments are often filtered.)

Warranties are a convoluted problem: Extended (labor) warranties require regular maintenance by installing contractor. Otherwise this warranty can be pulled by issuer.

In some cases on extended labor warranties large repairs may only be covered 1 time. You'll have to read the terms of the policy.