May need to replace furnace and A/C. Help!

[Chicago526]

We were planning on doing this in the spring but DH doesn't feel too confident about the furnance making it through the winter. He saw an ad in the paper about a complete heating and a/c system for $3100 and 0% financing for 5 years (which we would do, no sense in turning down free use of someone else's money), which is half the price we were quoted by another company last spring (we were hoping they could fix the A/C, they couldn't). I told DH to call them and set up a consultation apointment with the company we saw in the ad.

I've never bought anything like this before. What kind of questions should I ask, and what kind of research should I be doing? I don't want to hire this company and have them hand me a bill for double the cost because "well ma'am, we ran in to trouble and..." or even worse "that quote didn't include instaltion, delivery etc." and I also don't want some low end piece of junk that I have to replace again in 5 years. I'm willing to spend the money if I know I'm getting quality.

Any and all advice is both welcome and appreciated!

 

[Frantasmic]

What SEER rating is the AC. The higher the better. You probably need a 12 or higher where you live.

Is the heat portion a heat pump or pure gas/other type furnace. If it is gas, can you choose all gas all the time (generally cheaper and hotter than electric pump).

What type of warranty?

How long have they been in business?

Have you heard of the AC unit they are installing?

Do they have references?

Unless you have a small house, $3100 to me sounds a bit on the low side. I'd bet that they have a "better deal" for a house "your size."

 

[Chicago526]

What SEER rating is the AC. The higher the better. You probably need a 12 or higher where you live.

Is the heat portion a heat pump or pure gas/other type furnace. If it is gas, can you choose all gas all the time (generally cheaper and hotter than electric pump).

What type of warranty?

How long have they been in business?

Have you heard of the AC unit they are installing?

Do they have references?

Unless you have a small house, $3100 to me sounds a bit on the low side. I'd bet that they have a "better deal" for a house "your size."

Thanks! Our house is 1300 sqft so the smaller model they quoted in the ad might actually work for us, although we will of course check that out. I'll be sure to ask those questions.

If anyone else has any advise, I'm all

 

[Muushka]

We went through this 3 years ago.

We called someone we knew and someone who was recommended.

Got 2 totally different answers.

As usual, despite being frugal, we went with the more expensive system, from the company that was recommended to us. Why?

The less expensive one was a strictly gas furnace/AC unit (all in one). The proposal he gave us was to replace the current furnace/AC unit with a new one, period. I think it came to about $4500 (our house is about 50% larger than yours).

The second more expensive one had the salesman actually go into the basement and he snooped around at what was existing as far as heat/AC distribution. He pointed out several problems that the builder did not bother to address or consider when the original was installed. In addition to the new heat/AC unit, we had several adjustments to exisiting flues and dampers to make it much more efficient.

He offered what the other guy offered (only a better unit for somewhat more $$) and he took the time to explain why an even more expensive one, with a heat pump, would be the best option. We opted for his recommendatio and I must say, it has been so much less expensive to heat/cool our house with this new system.

So, in conclusion, after this very long winded report, I am suggesting to not look solely at the price of a unit, but to look at the whole picture. Make sure they go into the basement (actually they should do this anyway, should not have to be told how to do their job) and look at the layout down there. As mentioned, check out the SEER rating. Make sure they back up their product. The warranties vary greatly. On the less expensive unit, it had a (I think) 5 year warranty, the one we bought was 20 (again, I think).

We ended up paying $7500 for ours. But we have saved probably $600 so far on this very efficient unit. If a heat pump is recommended in your area (you may be too far north), I highly recommend them. Here in NC it works great with the gas back-up. Good luck

 

[Nancyg56]

We replaced our furnace and oil tank, and added central AC 18 months ago. Our house is about the same size as yours and we spent $12,000.