The Most Reliable Brand Of HVAC Equipment

When you work in a profession you will inevitably develop a bias for certain products based on experiences and the world of HVAC is no different. I wish I had a dollar for every time someone asked me which brand is the best. Every one of them can be good and every one can be bad, this blog is going to explain why.

The word "best" is very subjective so I'd like to list the top 3 qualities that help to define it, and then we will compare those qualities to HVAC equipment. When I think of the best HVAC equipment, I think of these three qualities... last a long time, will heat/cool efficiently, won't break the bank both at install and in repairs

Did I just about cover the three most important subjects at least to get started? Some might say warranties should be on that list and we will get there and I will explain why it's not, bare with me.

Let's start with the first one and that's a system that will last a long time. The untimely death of a system typically starts with the manner it was installed and is finished by the manner it was maintained. I have proven this by installing a brand that was synonymously known in our industry as the worst equipment, and had absolutely no issues with it. I've talked about installation practices before and I can't stress enough how important it is to properly size equipment, ensure that the refrigerant lines are clean prior to installing new equipment, flowing nitrogen while brazing, proper pressure testing, proper evacuation, and proper commissioning. When equipment is installed without ensuring ALL these key elements are followed, the system is doomed for an early grave. Notice I capitalized the word "ALL". We can't pick and choose most of those elements and expect a good outcome. Every step is so gravely important that even one left out is a method for disaster. The last key to a long running system is maintenance. If you drive a car without ever having the oil changed you can expect the engine to fail. HVAC is no different yet many never have routine maintenance of their systems and wonder why they have multiple issues. When I have a client that has a preference for/against a particular brand I love to ask why. If they say they had good service from one, I typically asked "did you have it serviced on a regular basis" and the answer is usually yes. The exact opposite is true when they don't like a certain brand and to no surprise, they'll say they only called when something went wrong. Unfortunately manufacturer's have no control over how equipment gets installed or maintained. Duct work is a big big big part of this as well. The blower motor in every unit has a finite amount of power to push air through a duct system. When the ductwork is too restrictive for the application it leads to premature blower motor and compressor failures which are very expensive repairs leaving homeowners with a distaste for a "brand" even though the brand had nothing to do with it.

Our second typical concern is efficiency and we typically associate this with the equipment's impact on the electric bill. In the HVAC industry equipment efficiencies are measured by SEER (seasonal energy efficiency ratio) or EER (energy efficiency ratio). Basically, the higher those numbers are, the less the equipment SHOULD cost you to heat/cool your home. As of the time of this article the government minimum standard in the southeast region of the US is 14.3 Seer2. Every manufacturer produces this equipment from York, Carrier, Goodman, Trane, Daikin, American Standard, Rheem... They all also produce higher efficiency equipment all the way to 26 Seer2. A good rule of thumb is as the equipment becomes more efficient, the price goes up. I will say this that the price is going up and typically the quality goes up as well. Manufacturers understand that if a consumer is going to purchase "expensive" equipment then there's an inherit expectation that the equipment should likewise be more durable and serve the needs of the consumer better. The manufacturers typically take a greater sense of pride in the construction of these systems by using thicker gauge metals, better compressors, better motors... They make these systems outperform their economy lines as another way to entice consumers as they should.

Our last category is the hardest to breakdown as we will have to make some assumptions here based on few facts. When it comes to saving money we have to look at every way our HVAC systems can cost us money. The obvious is the initial cost of install. To compare apples to apples, we would need to compare the average cost of each manufacturer's economy line installed. I'm here to tell you now, that every manufacturer understands their competition and purposely prices their equipment almost identical to each other. It's when we get to the higher end equipment that we can start seeing a noteworthy spread, but that typically only accounts for less than 8% of total sales, so I don't think it's a very good metric to take into account. Adding to the cost of install is going to be the contractor. We have no way of knowing each and every contractor's labor burden, overhead, and operating costs as each of these are going to vary greatly, but our focus of this article is the best equipment brand, not the best contractor... The second cost associated with any equipment is going to be warranty. My uncle once told me that anything mechanical is going to breakdown, it's just a matter of when. YOUR NEW HVAC SYSTEM IS GOING TO NEED REPAIRS! I've yet to find a mechanical cooling system where the manufacturer states that the system will never breakdown and that's because that would be an absolute lie. So warranty falls into our discussion here and warranties can help you save on repairs. Every manufacturer offers a standard 5 year warranty (not registered), 10 year warranty (registered), and a select few offer 12 year warranties (registered by preferred distributer). Warranties being almost universal makes them an almost void topic. Frequency of repairs can and will impact "total cost" and this is one of the unknown metrics until it's too late to make a better decision. The frequency at which your HVAC system will need repairs is going to depend of the quality of the equipment (did you purchase the cheap 14.3 Seer2 or something better), how good of a job did the installing contractor do of protecting your investment, and how good of a job you did by having the equipment routinely maintained. This has nothing to do with the brand, it all boils down to you and your contractor equally.

I purposely wrote this article without singling one specific brand because with all my years of experience I have found that they are all good and they are all bad. Not a single manufacturer went into business thinking that they would produce a "junk" product and hope they make it. They spend millions per year testing and trying to destroy their products in hopes of correcting any and every flaw they can. Unfortunately they have no control over the future of their equipment once it leaves their facility. It's up to you and me to make the right choices and ensure that you are getting the best bang for your buck.