What Brand Should I Buy?
When considering a heating and cooling system purchase, the most important brand name is the name of the company installing your system.
The Pope could install your new furnace to within a Gnats ass to how the installation manual requires, but that won't make a furnace any better than the quality of the components it was manufactured with. certain brands have board issues, others have motor or pressure switch issues. the name on the side of the truck doesn't mean a thing if you buy a poor quality piece of equipment.
Two very good points but I dont think one rules out the other. In all of our estimate templates we state:
"
all the above to be installed in a workmanlike manner..."
A legal term in the Colorado Market actually inserted into the Denver Building Code Ammendments. Workmanlike is defined by the City and County so theres no guesswork involved and one of the key points to that definition is
"
...a working knowledge of installation code and practices as well as product knowledge of performance parameters... "
This translates from
Denverese into You need to know how to operate the machine and be able to install it according to code. This is coupled with Denver Code that
1. It is UNLAWFUL to operate an unsafe appliance.
2. That the heat plant MUST be adequate enough to heat the living space.
3. That it must be installed according to manufacturers specifications.
4. The appliance must be U.L. Listed, AFUE rated, AGA approved.
The bottom line on Equipment is you as an HVAC business are only as good as your parts supplier. If you put in poor quality equipment that fails multiple times in the first five years you have destroyed any and all that you hoped to achieve in your marketing and advertising strategy and it will be talked about for years. What happens in the furnace closet goes on Facebook and is already viral before the tail lights of the install truck have disappeared down the street. Crap Equipment is LONG remember far past any perceived savings a cheaper bid gave your customer. In retrospect paying a little more money and getting a trouble free reliable HVAC appliance will be shared with family, friends, and neighbors. I've given several bids on change outs for equipment less than 8 years old just on the basis that the homeowner has lost faith in both the brand installed AND the company that installed it.
Company Name IS an important factor in the event that a poor installation results in property damage or loss of life. There isn't an underwriter in Colorado who will pay one cent towards a property damage claim from an insured homeowner if that furnace and or A/C was installed without a permit and subsequent inspection.
Let's bring that closer to home: Joe Smith wants an air conditioner installed because its hot on the second floor of his home. He doesn't like the quotes hes received from selected HVAC contractors so he gives old uncle Henry on his wife's side of the family a phone call because he knows he was a pipefitter for 25 years and together they put in a Goodman air handler in the attic and a Goodman condenser right beside the 5 ton Carrier already out behind the house. Henry has a buddy whos an electrician and with some new Sylvania Circuit breakers and a 100' of romex they take care of everything. They do a good DIY project but as is typical they don't pull a homeowners permit, they don't put a ceiling saver pan under the air handler, they don't lay a platform down across the ceiling joists, they dont put a filter fitted return air register in the ceiling, and they run one 3/4" PVC line over to the soffet and stub it out down the outside wall.
A few years go by and Joe gets terribly ill and passes away and in the interim nobody climbs up into the attic and changes the filter. Since it was A/C only he only changed the filter in May never showing Momma or Jr. what to do.
One fine day while the Missus was out of town the coil loaded up and the impacted dust plugged up the single condensate pvc pipe that by know had bowed creating low spots as it meandered across the joists outside and the coil began to overflow eeking out onto the drywall ceiling. In just a short time the ceiling became saturated with water and sometime around 2 in the afternoon the weight became to much and two full 8 X 4 sheets of saturated drywall let go over Moms upstairs home office taking the computer, the flat screen tv AND crushing the 55 gallon aquarium which sent not only a couple of pets to that great ocean in the sky but also flooded the upstairs while raining water downstairs as well thoroughly soaking all furniture and appliances underneath.
Mom comes home, calls Farmers, adjuster surveys the damage, and lo and behold the Claim is denied. Sound fanciful? True story. We got the Mechanical bid on the restoration. Now here's the fun part, we get that played out all the time because disreputable HVAC companies can and do install equipment without pulling permits either because they were asked not to by the homeowner, they are trying to keep costs low by avoiding code constringent requirements like a dedicated circuit, ceiling saver pans, two PVC drain lines, etc - or they've just had too many issues with building inspectors. And once a company has that kind of reputation with the building department they're on a downward spiral. Rest assured that every crap job that gets discovered by an mechanical inspector is common knowledge to the insurance industry. Indeed in the Denver market many building permit inspectors are also freelance insurance inspectors on contract to the city so in this case who puts your unit in can make a HUGE difference. :det:
