HVAC recommendations

[LuvOrlando]

So armed with all the information I went to Home Depot and can you believe they farmed out the entire process to a third-party. Now I expected that they would use another local company for installation but it was completely unexpected that a totally different company just called me ( left the store 20 minutes ago) saying that " this is ---- from ---- on behalf of Home Depot" and I just happen to catch it and ask her who exactly it is she works for. they would be completely responsible for everything about it other than using Home Depot's credit card and financing. Means if it breaks if there's a defect no matter what and this company goes out of business it's not Home Depot's problem it's mine. I'm annoyed this is very underhanded... I'm now curious if this is what the other companies are going to do too.

 

[3boymthr]

I can't recommend anything as we don't have central air nor gas but I can tell you that DH is an HVAC guy. Starting in April all he does is complain about Mitsubishi units and how much of a PITA they are. In winter he works primarily on Oil Boilers and Furnaces but in the summer he spends 1/2 of his time fixing the Mitsubishi units and 1/4 of his time on the phone trying to get Mitsubishi to give him an answer about what the crazy problem codes mean. Half of the time when working on a Mitsubishi unit he ends up either replacing the unit entirely or replacing all the computer parts out of it. His company is a also licensed installer for Trane and I've never heard him complain about their units.

 

[LuvOrlando]

Never heard of a Mitsubishi hvac but thanks

 

[aquabone1109]

The mitsubishi is a high end room unit (ductless). We run it at night and shut down the rest of the house to save on electric. We love our unit and never had any issues.

 

[LuvOrlando]

How does the ductless system work? Also what you mean by high end, what is the price range? it seems to me all the hvac systems are very expensive although admittedly I haven't been looking for long

We have very high ceilings in my bedroom so all the summer heat & humidity in the house collects there, which is miserable at bedtime. I found that using individual units in the top floor rooms has helped. What was happening before was the main floor would be absolutely freezing just so I can make the top floor bearable because cold air sinks and I didn't have a barrier between the floors. If there is something out there that would allow me to control the temperature on the different floors without wasting energy I would happily do that, even better would be room to room because my kids are leaving for college soon and it seems ridiculous to keep a whole house of air cooled for a handful of rooms I'm going to use. For now the best method I found was $100 window units in the bedrooms and keeping the doors shut through August. Believe it or not this actually kept my monthly costs down.

 

[aquabone1109]

We paid about $2000 each to have ours installed. Basically there is no duct work for those units, there is a small unit outside which feeds the blower/unit installed in the wall

http://www.mitsubishicomfort.com/ar...tages-of-ductless-cooling-and-heating-systems

 

[LuvOrlando]

Oh I just took a look & it seems like these are more intended for homes that don't have an existing central air system. I think my aunt had something like one of these in the 70s, her older home didn't have ducts and the retrofit installation of ducts throughout all the walls was prohibitively pricey so she did this instead. Seems like a good fit in older homes but probably not ideal for my situation since I already have the ducts set up, if I don't have air going through them I'd probably end up making an unintentional squirrel habitrail

 

[aquabone1109]

Oh I just took a look & it seems like these are more intended for homes that don't have an existing central air system. I think my aunt had something like one of these in the 70s, her older home didn't have ducts and the retrofit installation of ducts throughout all the walls was prohibitively pricey so she did this instead. Seems like a good fit in older homes but probably not ideal for my situation since I already have the ducts set up, if I don't have air going through them I'd probably end up making an unintentional squirrel habitrail

We have existing duct work but decided on this. We have 4 bedrooms but only 2 are occupied. We have these installed only on those 2 rooms. No need to cool the whole house at night. It saves a lot on our electric.

these are the same concept as those old school units. These consume a lot less electric and and fully programmable. Also FP&L was doing a great rebate on these when I had them installed....$1000 each rebate since they are energy star. Many people who do install these have existing duct work but choose to only run this to save electric

 

[LuvOrlando]

Curious, how did you manage the fact they are visible from outside of the house? Did you install only towards the backyard? I do seem to remember my aunt having issues with mold inside the walls from an unnoticed leak but this was a long time ago and maybe they have improved the way they do things. Can the units themselves be easily replaced or slid in and out once the unit is installed? If I remember correctly back then the unit itself was leaking and replacing it was not simple.

 

[aquabone1109]

Curious, how did you manage the fact they are visible from outside of the house? Did you install only towards the backyard? I do seem to remember my aunt having issues with mold inside the walls from an unnoticed leak but this was a long time ago and maybe they have improved the way they do things. Can the units themselves be easily replaced or slid in and out once the unit is installed? If I remember correctly back then the unit itself was leaking and replacing it was not simple.

One unit is facing the back of the house and it's behind some shrubs. the other unit is on the side of the house between some palms. Each is on a small concrete slab. They did have to cut into the home and the units can be removed if necessary and the hole can be plugged. I never had any leaks with them. I also have a 12 year warranty on the units and free servicing for 7 years (come out 3 times a year for cleaning, tuning, etc...)

 

[Bree]

So armed with all the information I went to Home Depot and can you believe they farmed out the entire process to a third-party. Now I expected that they would use another local company for installation but it was completely unexpected that a totally different company just called me ( left the store 20 minutes ago) saying that " this is ---- from ---- on behalf of Home Depot" and I just happen to catch it and ask her who exactly it is she works for. they would be completely responsible for everything about it other than using Home Depot's credit card and financing. Means if it breaks if there's a defect no matter what and this company goes out of business it's not Home Depot's problem it's mine. I'm annoyed this is very underhanded... I'm now curious if this is what the other companies are going to do too.

I'm not sure why you are surprised it was subcontracted out to someone. You were told by me and at least one other person that is what Home Depot & Lowe's will do. I can't remember where I was talking to an electrician, but he works for an electrical company, but also performs work for Home Depot as a second job. They contact him directly and he can take the job if he wants it or turn it down.

 

[aquabone1109]

I'm not sure why you are surprised it was subcontracted out to someone. You were told by me and at least one other person that is what Home Depot & Lowe's will do. I can't remember where I was talking to an electrician, but he works for an electrical company, but also performs work for Home Depot as a second job. They contact him directly and he can take the job if he wants it or turn it down.

Yea I would stay away from any of those big box stores for AC installation. You end up paying more. The only advantage I can see is being able to finance. Other than that go with a local HVAC company.

 

[tvguy]

So armed with all the information I went to Home Depot and can you believe they farmed out the entire process to a third-party. Now I expected that they would use another local company for installation but it was completely unexpected that a totally different company just called me ( left the store 20 minutes ago) saying that " this is ---- from ---- on behalf of Home Depot" and I just happen to catch it and ask her who exactly it is she works for. they would be completely responsible for everything about it other than using Home Depot's credit card and financing. Means if it breaks if there's a defect no matter what and this company goes out of business it's not Home Depot's problem it's mine. I'm annoyed this is very underhanded... I'm now curious if this is what the other companies are going to do too.

My wife's 2 nephews manage Lowes stores. They haven't done their own installations since the economy tanked in 2009. Even then they still subcontracted out about half the installs.

 

[LuvOrlando]

No no no, you guys misunderstand I always knew the labor- installation- is subcontracted out what I'm telling you is the sale itself the equipment the hardware purchasing is subcontracted out now, this is new.

I had same thing happen to me at Best Buy where and I purchased a washer and dryer last year. I walked into the store and paid with my Best Buy card picking out something on the floor. Without explaining they handed me onto some third-party who completely botched the sale and when I called Best Buy to complain they told me it wasn't them and I canceled everything. I thought it was only them but it seems to be a trend.

 

[tvguy]

No no no, you guys misunderstand I always knew the labor- installation- is subcontracted out what I'm telling you is the sale itself the equipment the hardware purchasing is subcontracted out now, this is new.

I had same thing happen to me at Best Buy where and I purchased a washer and dryer last year. I walked into the store and paid with my Best Buy card picking out something on the floor. Without explaining they handed me onto some third-party who completely botched the sale and when I called Best Buy to complain they told me it wasn't them and I canceled everything. I thought it was only them but it seems to be a trend.

That's a new one on me. Home Depot and Lowes have driven so many independent appliance sellers out of business, I'm surprised there are any left for them to subcontract to.

 

[MrPTato]

Both our HVAC unit and unit outside the house, I think called the condenser, are Lennox. They are about 9 years old and run great. We get them tuned every two years and the guy always says how clean they look when he takes them apart.

 

[LuvOrlando]

That's a new one on me. Home Depot and Lowes have driven so many independent appliance sellers out of business, I'm surprised there are any left for them to subcontract to.

It's weird then right? Not just me thinking it? I got the impression it's almost like what happens when you visit Amazon when sometimes you're buying from Amazon & sometimes you're buying from a vendor that uses their virtual storefront except now it's happening in concrete stores. Big stores are turning into sort of fleamarket's, which is underhanded to me because without realizing it the customer is agreeing to another company's service contract policies and such.

Funny that this particular practice might be what actually makes people turn to small businessmen again because if I'm dealing with a small businessman I'd at least like to find somebody reviewed by a neighbor, on Angie's list or yelp. What I'm definitely not going to trust is a corporation vouching for a small appearing business

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

How does the ductless system work? Also what you mean by high end, what is the price range? it seems to me all the hvac systems are very expensive although admittedly I haven't been looking for long

We have very high ceilings in my bedroom so all the summer heat & humidity in the house collects there, which is miserable at bedtime. I found that using individual units in the top floor rooms has helped. What was happening before was the main floor would be absolutely freezing just so I can make the top floor bearable because cold air sinks and I didn't have a barrier between the floors. If there is something out there that would allow me to control the temperature on the different floors without wasting energy I would happily do that, even better would be room to room because my kids are leaving for college soon and it seems ridiculous to keep a whole house of air cooled for a handful of rooms I'm going to use. For now the best method I found was $100 window units in the bedrooms and keeping the doors shut through August. Believe it or not this actually kept my monthly costs down.

My brother does HVAC. It would cost more but it sounds like what you're wanting is separate zones. My brother did this for my parents at their shore house which has high ceilings and the upstairs would hold a lot of heat while it was freezing downstairs. So now they have 2 thermostats. (Yes 2 condensers outside.) Each unit runs independently according to its own thermostat for that zone.
I wouldn't consider this unless you plan to stay in the house at least 10-15 years.

 

[uromac]

Reviving this thread as my upstairs a/c zone has died - Any recommendations on HVAC brands - Carrier, Trane, Rheem, Lennox? Our Lennox one died, but is was the newer one 11 yo (and our other downstairs Lennox zone still going after 23 years). Help - it's getting very hot in NJ this week - and if we're going to suffer through this heat and humidity I'd rather be in WDW!!

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Reviving this thread as my upstairs a/c zone has died - Any recommendations on HVAC brands - Carrier, Trane, Rheem, Lennox? Our Lennox one died, but is was the newer one 11 yo (and our other downstairs Lennox zone still going after 23 years). Help - it's getting very hot in NJ this week - and if we're going to suffer through this heat and humidity I'd rather be in WDW!!

Our Lennox lasted 20 yrs and was still working well when a tree fell on our house and crushed it. Whenever my brother would service it he would take the panel off and wow over how well it was made and how newer units have so much more plastic for parts that used to be solid brass. Since it seems that's the trend for all manufacturing, I'd just be wanting someone who can replace it soonest. It will be 105+ heat index here in NJ today and tomorrow.
At those temps I don't even think I'd be picky. (Or I'd be booking a hotel room until the new unit is installed.)
It cannot be repaired?