Starting my research on a new furnace.

[Chainsaw13]

I'm starting my research on a new furnace for my house. My furnace is 29 years old and still working ok, but I'm beginning to think its time to at least get the research out of the way before I'm under the gun. I have a small (700 sq ft), 2 bedroom home. The current furnace is a Trane, 95k BTU unit. I had a tech out today to fix my chimney cap that came off during the high winds we had last week. I figured since he was here, might as well get an idea of what a new unit would cost. A new Carrier, 95% unit installed would be around $3500, including a new humidifier. We would use my existing AC unit. He said with the higher efficiency, I would only need a 60k BTU furnace. I also got some prices on a new water heater since that's about the same age as the furnace. Might as well do it all at once.

Will a higher eff unit, but with less output be enough? The reading I've done so far suggests having a load test done to determine the right size.

Are two stage units worth the added expense? Will it work well in my application?

What manufacturers should I concentrate on researching? I've been reading some review sites already, but looking for real world experience.

Anything else I should know?

[icehog3]

Interesting in hearing what others have to say, my Singer furnace was manufactured in 1972.

[omowasu]

2-stage is always worth the extra money - with a home that size, it could really save you some coin. I had a Trane system once (furnace and CAC) that lasted 28+ years. Carrier used to be pretty good too, but my Trane CAC units held up better than the Carrier CAC units I had.

You can probably get a better price if you shop around. 3500 seems about 1000 too high to me, but not sure what the building and furnace codes are in your area.

Of course, one other option is to buy the furnace on your own, and then have a contractor from Angies List install it. Then you arent getting railroaded on the furnace cost.

[Chainsaw13]

Thanks for the info. I'm definitely going to get multiple quotes before I make a decision. Hadn't thought about the buying on my own route.

[T.G]

If you buy your own and hire someone to install it, you can can basically kiss your warranty goodbye if it fails. Everyone will start pointing fingers at everyone else.

[JenksAnejo]

Bob,

Me and my dad co-own a HVAC business; however, I'm fairly new to it but have been around these things all my life.

As stated above a 2-Stage furnace can save a lot of money. Say you purchase a 95% 2 Stage 100,000 BTU Furnace

In low heat (1st stage) it may run at 70% which would use 66,500 BTU.

In high heat mode (2nd stage) it will run at 100% which is 95,000 BTU with the other 5,000 BTU going out through the vent.

Of course your furnace will run in 1st stage when it is mild compared to 2nd stage when it's freezing cold.

If you looked at an 80% single stage unit it would be using 100,000 BTU all of the time. Since its only 80% efficient it will lose 20,000 BTU through the vent.

We mainly sell Rheem and American Standard equipment. Rheem is going to be the most expensive, but in my opinion it is by far the best. They are much easier to work on and fix problems.

Just another thing for you to think about is the humidifier. We only have 1 builder that installs humidifiers with the furnace. We have about 5 builders that we do work for. The reason they do not like to install humidifiers because it can potentially rust out your equipment. All of this is based on preference though, there are pro's and con's to both sides.

Are you replacing the coil as well? $3,500 seems a little high for just a furnace change-out, but the equipment may be more expensive in your area.

Let me know if you have any questions and I'll do my best to help you out.

[CigarNut]

Just went through this over the summer... The blower motor on my (Day n' Night) furnance failed after 25 years. We took pretty good care of it and had had it maintained but it was time. We had the option of just replacing the blower motor or the whole thing. We opted for the while thing (furnace, AC) because we had some cracks in the heating element and did not want to be replacing parts piecemeal.

We ended up with a Carrier. We have had it since Summer and it seems to work well. Much, much, much quieter than our old unit. Cost us an arm, leg and left nut, but we are happier now.

[Chainsaw13]

Thanks for the info Jarrod. The initial cost quoted was with using the existing AC coil. Now that I think about it more, the cost also included a new chimney liner for the water heater exhaust. Currently my furnace and water heater share the same one out the chimney. I need to talk to them again about why that would need to be replaced. Maybe the current liner, shared by the wh and furnace, wouldn't be sized properly for just the wh.

[JenksAnejo]

I'm guessing you have a 2 ton?

[Chainsaw13]

Originally Posted by JenksAnejo

I'm guessing you have a 2 ton?

How can I tell? I haven't a clue.

[JenksAnejo]

How can I tell? I haven't a clue.

You can take the doors off your furnace while and look to see how many burners are on the heat exchanger. For the most part 2 burners= 2 Ton, 3 burners = 3 Ton, 4 Burners = 4 & 5 Tons.

I was just wondering so I could give you a price of what we would charge so you could compare.

[Chainsaw13]

Originally Posted by JenksAnejo

You can take the doors off your furnace while and look to see how many burners are on the heat exchanger. For the most part 2 burners= 2 Ton, 3 burners = 3 Ton, 4 Burners = 4 & 5 Tons.

I was just wondering so I could give you a price of what we would charge so you could compare.

I looked yesterday and there's four burners. 4ton?

Scott, thanks for the info. With both you and Jarrod advising against the humidifier, I'll skip that and go with a stand alone unit.

[JenksAnejo]

Bob,

I'm sure thats what it is assuming your square footage. I'll check some prices and should be able to quote you a American Standard and Rheem price for comparison. Let me know if I can answer anymore questions for you!

[Chainsaw13]

Originally Posted by JenksAnejo

Bob,

I'm sure thats what it is assuming your square footage. I'll check some prices and should be able to quote you a American Standard and Rheem price for comparison. Let me know if I can answer anymore questions for you!

Thanks Jarrod. I'm still waiting to hear from my financial advisor about my cash situation before I go forward with having companies out for quotes.

[shilala]

I worked in HVAC service, then design/build for about 20 years, Bob.
Jarrod is right on the ball. I just wanted to chirp my reluctance in adding a humidifier to the furnace. They all suck. They calcify, fail, leak, run water all over everything, and are generally junk right out of the box. They don't work worth a damn, and require constant maintenance.
I'd suggest to you a nice big console humidifier. We run one upstairs and downstairs all winter and they work great. You could easily get away with just one for the size of your house, I'd think. You just fill the jugs when they're empty and replace the wicks halfway through the season.
You can get the humidifier, wicks, and destinkerizer juice at Lowe's. Easy peazy, under 200 bucks and they last forever, so far as I can tell.

On the furnace, there's lots of brands, and at a time they were most, if not all, made by York, which is a really nice furnace. That's what I'd go after, personally, but there's no big difference across brands nowadays. Just try to find one that's well made. Rheem is, as Jarrod suggested.
The only brand I'd steer you away from is Trane. They use proprietary parts in their furnaces so that only Trane guys can get parts to fix them, and they charge you out the wazoo when they do. You, as the owner of the furnace, could not even buy parts for it at one time. That may have changed, but I've not heard anything about it. Maybe Jarrod can add more to that.

One more thing, I'd steer you away from anything that uses hot surface ignition. The ignitors fail constantly. They heat up red time and time again to light the furnace, then simply crack. Then you're in the cold. It's been a long time since I've seen them used in a furnace, so I'm guessing people in the industry have forgotten what a failure they were and started using "new, improved" ones by now. That's how the industry rolls.

[Chainsaw13]

Scott or Jarrod, would a single console humidifier work to humidify my entire house if I kept it in the basement? I understand the basement will get the bulk of the humidity it pumps out. But will it work it's way throughout? I'm leary of having multiple gallons of water in a unit on the main floor.

[Chainsaw13]

Resurrecting an old thread of mine. Never did replace my furnace two years ago. Fast forward to a couple weeks ago and the blower started acting up. Missed a couple heating cycles where the blower never came on, plus was squeaking at low speeds. It only did it that one day. Still, I Had a tech come inspect it, showed me a couple spots on in the heat exchanger that could develop into problems, so asked for a quote. I'm having other contractors come out and give me quotes. Guy shows up today, looks at it and tells me he wouldn't replace it yet. Still works, isn't putting out any CO (I just put a second detector in the house per his recommendation), so why spend the money. Also points out its a 80% efficient unit, not the 60% the other guy did. And decodes the date code to show it was produced at the end of 85, not 83 like the first guy. I have to say his candidness to not make a sale caught me off guard. This is the same guy who helped me fix my moms furnace a while back over the Xmas holiday. I'll likely use him when I do decide to replace it.

I've got two more quotes coming but may just wait until it finally does die before replacing.