How does a variable sped blower help even out hot and cold spots? The blower doesn't know what part of you house is hot or cold. All it can do is vary the amount of air going into the plenum.
Hi, My home is almost 100 years old. 3 floors, finished basement, main & top floor. We've got old cast iron ribbed radiators heated from natural gas, no forced hot air. There are a few cold cold spots. Any recommendations as to 1, 2, or modulating furnace? Thank you.
What is the long-term (15 year) total cost of ownership including maintenance and repairs for each? Unless energy costs are through the roof, I suspect a single stage system is the most cost effective long-term once you factor in maintenance & repairs.
While you certainly need to be sensitive about repair costs on over-complicated systems, be careful not to swing too far the other way. At a normal 12 cents per kwh, upgrading from a single stage to a higher efficiency dual stage saves me around $60/mo in 80/90degree weather. You really need to do the math for your own situation. If you're way up north and barely use the AC system, then yea a cheapo single stage probably makes sense. The farther south you go and/or if you're considering a heat pump system the more you use it and then the more it makes sense to go more efficient....to a point you dont need to take out a loan just to fix the thing.
Yes someone told me get a multiple speed keeprite furnace esu model i checked it out says single stage multiple speed i dont know furnaces but know he told me its still efficient and doesn't break down like the others it is more reliable and 95 efficiency afue
Still have a Lennox Pulse? I installed quite a few back in the early 80’s as I worked for a Lennox dealer. I thought all of those got replaced because of the “lifetime” warranty on the heat exchangers.
@@rodgraff1782 it had a new heat exchanger installed in 1996 free of any charge from lennox the gas company guys came to work on my gas meter and they both have one they all say that people that take em out miss the sound i love it .if i could i would buy another one with out a doubt its been running since 1982 its a better product than those tinney heat exchangers !
@@realtruth172 yes,I remember those heat exchangers. They looked like a motorcycle cylinder hooked up to chamber that looked like a flow master muffler. They had a flapper valve assembly and a spark plug. They made a droning noise, and had a special gas flex. Pulse combustion is a totally different technology. They were way ahead of their time.
@@rodgraff1782 built our house in 1967 the 120,000 btu mueller climatrol was a piece of shit then i saw a picture of the pulse on the cover of popular science or one such other magazine they said that lennox bought the invention from the germans for $200,000 they showed them running it with ear muffs on . well they were on the right track with those fins on the combustion chamber . but i accidentally discovered a way to quiet a snowmobile down to practically nothing in 1988 doing something similar to those fins every body was amazed at how it took 90% of the combustion noise away ! i bet that if it was applied to that furnace it would work . this 80,000btu does the job down to - 20 below maybe some other company will make them . did they quit making them because of the noise or did they last too long i wish new . i would be willing to pay a big price if they made them again .
How do I now if an oil furnace is RF Certified and not a RF interference unit. I'm a amateur radio operator and I cannot have any RF interference being emitted by products.
When we had our mid-efficiency furnace serviced the guy told me for the first ten years you don't need a service plan. It's a waste of money. The one they offered was $25/mth so $300/yr. After five years the motor went it cost us less than $400 to replace. So we saved about $1200 not taking their plan. We're planning on replacing our furnace now it's ten years old and getting a high-efficiency. It'll cost us because we have to have a hole knocked out to put in an air intake vent. Probably tack on another $300-400 to total cost.
Wish I had seen this earlier could have saved u a couple bucks...you could rent the drill and bit from home Depot ..takes about half hour to drill through the brick..cost about 40 bucks
HELP. We are negotiating the sale of a home. We had inspections done and it is debatable if the 1954 Arcoliner furnace is needing replacement. The owners and oil company who has been servicing their furnace said its a good furnace and no reason to replace. Our inspector said its end of life. My father in law said it could last forever but he would replace it. The point is we want the owner to put a new furnace in. This could be a dealbreaker for the purchase of the house. This is a 1954 Arcoliner furnace. Oil furnace. Water radiators. What do we do?. Im very nervous about having such an old furnace and even if it seems to run ok, what would you do?. Insist on a new one or accept taking the house with this old one.?. THANK YOU!!!! Read more REPLY
Insist on new one. If it goes your on the hook. It's a old furnace period. Do you want to pay for the upgrade in a year or two? Why take the risk. Who knows what else is wrong or not up to code on a house that old. Why hire a home inspector and not listen to him.
We insisted on a new one after spending $1000 on a full home inspection. They canceled the deal. We are out $1000 but we didn't end up in a house that had a 65 year old boiler. We are now looking at a house with a 20 year old peerless boiler. Our offer was accepted , I just hope the house AND boiler checks out well.
Typical contractor recommendations that fail to consider repair costs. Multiple stages of anything are going to be more prone to failure and exponentially more costly to repair. Yea, my variable speed compressor will be more efficient, but if it costs 3 grand to fix it out of warranty after 10 years, are you really going to drop that cash on a 10+ yr old system? Also, typical contractor recommendations that fail to provide any real good way to compare different fuel sources and/or efficiencies. I suggest people find the EIA calculator
Would a repair on any of these complex systems run $3k though or is that exaggerated? Are you a consumer with first hand knowledge or a technician with work experience? Just curious. Never heard such a high dollar amount for any repair.
@@johnnyh64 I'm a consumer with firsthand knowledge. To start, when my variable speed blower (not the compressor mind you) was replaced on my old system, the blower motor part cost was $1200. When I helped my neighbor who has a variable speed heat pump compressor go out and while it was luckily still under warranty, the tech indicated that the cost to replace one out of warranty would be on the order of 3grand. When I researched my new system, I called quite a few parts suppliers and techs regarding variable speed compressor replacement and $3000 was middle of the road. I guess it shouldn't be surprising when the system cost on a new system seemed to be about $4 grand more than a single stage system. I would suggest you call around to either local techs and parts suppliers and ask for ballpark numbers on replacing a variable speed compressors to prove it to yourself for your locality, but in general, it is fairly common knowledge that variable speed anything is usually magnitudes more expensive than single or dual speed.
Horseshit advice that furnaces are like bluejeans. Different brands have different reliability. Look at Consumer Reports. Ruud is the best for reliability where Lennox is near the bottom. Don't listen to these falsehoods, do your own research.
I cant find the issue of Consumer Reports that has furnaces/boilers reliability. Can you tell me the month and year. The house we are now bidding on has a 20 year old Peerless. Not sure how that brand rates. Thank you
Based on what? We've had a 120,000 BTU Rudd 80% furnace for 31 years. Still going strong without any cracks in the heat exchanger and zero parts replaced. As I understand it, all furnaces of the same AFCU use the same parts so it all depends on the occasional rare part failure you experienced.
Going to make this very simple for you. This is what I tell all my customers. Forget about the high efficiency furnaces! Biggest waste of money there is. First off the cost is more than $500 more for these than the 80%. Also get the single stage gas valve. Much more reliable and you are not going to save anything by running the furnace at reduced output rate, ask yourself this, what’s the difference if I run the furnace balls out for 10 mins or I run it at 1/2 power and it runs twice as long??? Always adhere to the KISS principle, Keep It Simple Stupid! You want a furnace with as few parts as possible, thats fewer things that can go wrong. Parts for high eff furnaces cost more, they are less reliable and allot more things can go wrong period! Oh and by the way, don’t let anyone tell you that brands like Goodman are shit, thats bullshit. They say you can’t stop a Trane, well I got news for you, you can stop a Trane just as easy as any other brand, and when it comes time to get parts for a Trane, we’ll good luck pal. Unless your dealing directly with a Trane service company, ya good luck. And also how much you think your going to pay to deal with a Trane dealership. May as well buy your car from a Bentley dealership while your at it. And yes of course there are those out there that are like, well Bentley is a very well built car. Ok if that’s the case, why can you buy a used Bentley for 10%of what a new one cost???
2:25
"If the answer is yes, then you probably don't need it.
BUT if your answer is yes, then keep listening."
Thank you very helpful .
Currently I have a Rheem outdoor HVAC. It is 15 years old so I need to look at upgrading.
How does a variable sped blower help even out hot and cold spots? The blower doesn't know what part of you house is hot or cold. All it can do is vary the amount of air going into the plenum.
How about Hot Water Boilers for baseboard heating , 6 zones ?
Only 9 years old and can't get a part .Amana is off my list .
I think who you are buying from might be more important than the brand of furnace.
Hi, My home is almost 100 years old. 3 floors, finished basement, main & top floor. We've got old cast iron ribbed radiators heated from natural gas, no forced hot air. There are a few cold cold spots. Any recommendations as to 1, 2, or modulating furnace? Thank you.
If you have radiators then a furnace won't help. Boilers are used for hot water heating systems such as radiators. Furnaces are for forced hot air.
What is the long-term (15 year) total cost of ownership including maintenance and repairs for each? Unless energy costs are through the roof, I suspect a single stage system is the most cost effective long-term once you factor in maintenance & repairs.
While you certainly need to be sensitive about repair costs on over-complicated systems, be careful not to swing too far the other way. At a normal 12 cents per kwh, upgrading from a single stage to a higher efficiency dual stage saves me around $60/mo in 80/90degree weather. You really need to do the math for your own situation. If you're way up north and barely use the AC system, then yea a cheapo single stage probably makes sense. The farther south you go and/or if you're considering a heat pump system the more you use it and then the more it makes sense to go more efficient....to a point you dont need to take out a loan just to fix the thing.
Yes someone told me get a multiple speed keeprite furnace esu model i checked it out says single stage multiple speed i dont know furnaces but know he told me its still efficient and doesn't break down like the others it is more reliable and 95 efficiency afue
my 1982 pulse still works more efficency than what he is selling 99.6 efficency
Still have a Lennox Pulse? I installed quite a few back in the early 80’s as I worked for a Lennox dealer. I thought all of those got replaced because of the “lifetime” warranty on the heat exchangers.
@@rodgraff1782 it had a new heat exchanger installed in 1996 free of any charge from lennox the gas company guys came to work on my gas meter and they both have one they all say that people that take em out miss the sound i love it .if i could i would buy another one with out a doubt its been running since 1982 its a better product than those tinney heat exchangers !
@@realtruth172 yes,I remember those heat exchangers. They looked like a motorcycle cylinder hooked up to chamber that looked like a flow master muffler. They had a flapper valve assembly and a spark plug. They made a droning noise, and had a special gas flex. Pulse combustion is a totally different technology. They were way ahead of their time.
@@rodgraff1782 built our house in 1967 the 120,000 btu mueller climatrol was a piece of shit then i saw a picture of the pulse on the cover of popular science or one such other magazine they said that lennox bought the invention from the germans for $200,000 they showed them running it with ear muffs on . well they were on the right track with those fins on the combustion chamber . but i accidentally discovered a way to quiet a snowmobile down to practically nothing in 1988 doing something similar to those fins every body was amazed at how it took 90% of the combustion noise away ! i bet that if it was applied to that furnace it would work . this 80,000btu does the job down to - 20 below maybe some other company will make them . did they quit making them because of the noise or did they last too long i wish new . i would be willing to pay a big price if they made them again .
How do I now if an oil furnace is RF Certified and not a RF interference unit. I'm a amateur radio operator and I cannot have any RF interference being emitted by products.
rpgiuliani de Km6ond, I’m looking for a new furnace. I haven’t found any data on any of them. Have you. Seems like they are all full of noisemakers.
When we had our mid-efficiency furnace serviced the guy told me for the first ten years you don't need a service plan. It's a waste of money. The one they offered was $25/mth so $300/yr. After five years the motor went it cost us less than $400 to replace. So we saved about $1200 not taking their plan. We're planning on replacing our furnace now it's ten years old and getting a high-efficiency. It'll cost us because we have to have a hole knocked out to put in an air intake vent. Probably tack on another $300-400 to total cost.
Wish I had seen this earlier could have saved u a couple bucks...you could rent the drill and bit from home Depot ..takes about half hour to drill through the brick..cost about 40 bucks
HELP. We are negotiating the sale of a home. We had inspections done and it is debatable if the 1954 Arcoliner furnace is needing replacement. The owners and oil company who has been servicing their furnace said its a good furnace and no reason to replace. Our inspector said its end of life. My father in law said it could last forever but he would replace it. The point is we want the owner to put a new furnace in. This could be a dealbreaker for the purchase of the house. This is a 1954 Arcoliner furnace. Oil furnace. Water radiators. What do we do?. Im very nervous about having such an old furnace and even if it seems to run ok, what would you do?. Insist on a new one or accept taking the house with this old one.?. THANK YOU!!!!
Read more
REPLY
Insist on new one. If it goes your on the hook. It's a old furnace period. Do you want to pay for the upgrade in a year or two? Why take the risk. Who knows what else is wrong or not up to code on a house that old. Why hire a home inspector and not listen to him.
We insisted on a new one after spending $1000 on a full home inspection. They canceled the deal. We are out $1000 but we didn't end up in a house that had a 65 year old boiler. We are now looking at a house with a 20 year old peerless boiler. Our offer was accepted , I just hope the house AND boiler checks out well.
Typical contractor recommendations that fail to consider repair costs. Multiple stages of anything are going to be more prone to failure and exponentially more costly to repair. Yea, my variable speed compressor will be more efficient, but if it costs 3 grand to fix it out of warranty after 10 years, are you really going to drop that cash on a 10+ yr old system?
Also, typical contractor recommendations that fail to provide any real good way to compare different fuel sources and/or efficiencies. I suggest people find the EIA calculator
Exactly what I was thinking. I suspect most systems will be repaired at somepoint, so do you want a $500 service call, or $3,000 service call?
Would a repair on any of these complex systems run $3k though or is that exaggerated? Are you a consumer with first hand knowledge or a technician with work experience? Just curious. Never heard such a high dollar amount for any repair.
@@johnnyh64 I'm a consumer with firsthand knowledge. To start, when my variable speed blower (not the compressor mind you) was replaced on my old system, the blower motor part cost was $1200. When I helped my neighbor who has a variable speed heat pump compressor go out and while it was luckily still under warranty, the tech indicated that the cost to replace one out of warranty would be on the order of 3grand. When I researched my new system, I called quite a few parts suppliers and techs regarding variable speed compressor replacement and $3000 was middle of the road. I guess it shouldn't be surprising when the system cost on a new system seemed to be about $4 grand more than a single stage system. I would suggest you call around to either local techs and parts suppliers and ask for ballpark numbers on replacing a variable speed compressors to prove it to yourself for your locality, but in general, it is fairly common knowledge that variable speed anything is usually magnitudes more expensive than single or dual speed.
Horseshit advice that furnaces are like bluejeans. Different brands have different reliability. Look at Consumer Reports. Ruud is the best for reliability where Lennox is near the bottom. Don't listen to these falsehoods, do your own research.
I cant find the issue of Consumer Reports that has furnaces/boilers reliability. Can you tell me the month and year. The house we are now bidding on has a 20 year old Peerless. Not sure how that brand rates. Thank you
September 2016. Peerless not listed.
Great!. The house inspector said it was a midline brand, whatever that means.
Rudd is junk
Based on what? We've had a 120,000 BTU Rudd 80% furnace for 31 years. Still going strong without any cracks in the heat exchanger and zero parts replaced. As I understand it, all furnaces of the same AFCU use the same parts so it all depends on the occasional rare part failure you experienced.
Going to make this very simple for you. This is what I tell all my customers. Forget about the high efficiency furnaces! Biggest waste of money there is. First off the cost is more than $500 more for these than the 80%. Also get the single stage gas valve. Much more reliable and you are not going to save anything by running the furnace at reduced output rate, ask yourself this, what’s the difference if I run the furnace balls out for 10 mins or I run it at 1/2 power and it runs twice as long??? Always adhere to the KISS principle, Keep It Simple Stupid! You want a furnace with as few parts as possible, thats fewer things that can go wrong. Parts for high eff furnaces cost more, they are less reliable and allot more things can go wrong period! Oh and by the way, don’t let anyone tell you that brands like Goodman are shit, thats bullshit. They say you can’t stop a Trane, well I got news for you, you can stop a Trane just as easy as any other brand, and when it comes time to get parts for a Trane, we’ll good luck pal. Unless your dealing directly with a Trane service company, ya good luck. And also how much you think your going to pay to deal with a Trane dealership. May as well buy your car from a Bentley dealership while your at it. And yes of course there are those out there that are like, well Bentley is a very well built car. Ok if that’s the case, why can you buy a used Bentley for 10%of what a new one cost???