Any furnace experts out there?

[LS short box]

So getting ready for winter and we had our furnace inspected. Come to find out the heat exchanger in the furnace has a quite bit of rust. Not just surface rust, rust the looks like it will eat thru the sheet metal.
The furnace was installed in 1992. It's a Trane XL 90 forced air LPG. We are going to replace it with ?
Our house is a split level about 2000 square feet. Central MN.
I'm inclined to go back with a Trane.
Any other options? Are Trane furnaces good or are there better options?

[Ziegelsteinfaust]

I only know commercial brands since I did commercial hvac. Home brands are more varied too. So let's take your favorite Trane may have 2 or 3 sub brands. Such as Carrier with BDP, Bryant, Payne, ICP, and Day and Night.

My personal favorite are Trane, Lennox, Rheem, and Carrier. I would stay away from York, and Goodman. They are not the worse units out there, but of the major manufacturers in my opinion I have dealt with a few too many stupid items on them. Most notably with Goodmans ECM motors.

Being from Minnesota as you are probably all to familiar with. Gets cold 10 maybe 11 months a year. Have you looked into hydronic heating? It was popular out here in the late 70's early 80's. It is not the best on recovery time, but where you are you practically run the heat 24/7 for several months. So that downside may not be there. Consult local heating companies for calculations. I have done it out here to a few houses in the San Diego area where they had heat pumps, and no natural gas. It was much cheaper then a heat pump to run, and a 5 year payback roughly.

Hydronic heating is where you use your hot water heater or even a boiler to heat water. Which then is circulated into a coil in the air stream.

For the people in San Diego. Typical savings was about 200-250 a month. These houses were in canyons, and would stay cold for days at a time.

I plan to do one at my sister's house in Victorville as she is on propane, and heating is quite pricey. So when I install a new unit. I will go all out of efficiency. It gets down to the 20's typically I think. No where Minnesota.

[Low Elco]

We had a super duper double throwdown high efficiency York installed when we got the house in 05 for the same reason. It's been a solid unit but a lot of little PITA niggling things. We had a Goodman for 6 years in the last house that was fantastic, but it was the simplest cheapest one you could get. YMMV.

[FleetsidePaul]

I have a Goodman and I'm not impressed. It's louder than my ex wife and runs my electric and propane bills up. But that's what the house came with.

It's not working right now. I think the smoke from the fire clogged the filter and blew out the blower motor. It had a new filter in it. Not the first time I've had smoke kill a new filter.

For now I just use my wood burning stove. Old school technology at it's best. It works great.

[LT7A]

I have a buddy who works for the local gas utility. He was over and checking out my setup. I have a small house and use an on-demand water heater and have an 80% efficiency furnace. I told him that the 80% was the best balance of cost and efficiency at the time but I wish that it was better. He said that when he replaces his furnace he's going to go with an 80%. he said that in order to get to 90%, there is a lot more maintenance necessary... Personally, I'm all for taking care of the environment, but how much carbon gets released in the manufacturing, acquisition, and installation of those extra 10% parts on an ongoing maintenance basis? Not to mention, does one really save any money, considering those factors? Just some thoughts from my experience.

BTW, thanks FS Paul for reminding me to change my filter, haha.

[Big Kev-O]

90% efficient furnaces do require more maintenance because they produce a lot more condensation. They usually have more drain lines & traps which need to be inspected & cleaned quarterly. If the condensation backs up it can prevent proper combustion. Most techs will agree 10% is not worth the hassle.

Like "Ziegelsteinfaust" stated Trane, Lennox, Rheem, and Carrier make reliable products. I like Trane because most of their products are made in USA.

[LS short box]

Thanks for the replies. I'm 90% sure we will be going with Trane.

[bnorth]

Put a Trane in this spring as it was a brand that was recommended to us but what sealed the deal was the service from the Trane dealer. Go with someone you feel good about that you can trust to do the install properly, address your concerns and will offer good service work for years to come.

[LS short box]

I agree with above in regards to service. Locally we have two really well regarded heating companies we are considering. One provided all the heating service for the company I used to work for and the owner lives just down the road.
One more question. If you have one how do you like the thermostat that has wireless capability?

[Yukon Jack]

I have a Nest thermostat and it's awfully handy to be able to use my phone to change the temperature and mode.

[FleetsidePaul]

Originally Posted by Yukon Jack

I have a Nest thermostat and it's awfully handy to be able to use my phone to change the temperature and mode.

I don't know if I'd want that because my wife would mess with me and turn the heat down when she's not even home. She likes to play.

She went to the store and I was in my garage alone when the door started going up and down. I thought it had gone crazy. It just kept going up and down.

Then she called laughing. And I knew that I had been had. She was using her phone to do it.

She got me on that one.

[LT7A]

Originally Posted by LS short box

Thanks for the replies. I'm 90% sure we will be going with Trane.

You only really need to be 80% sure, haha. JK

[Big Kev-O]

I love my EcoBee and prefer it over the Nest. I started with a Nest but it wouldn't allow me to change the deadband/sensitivity and is not Homekit compatible so it won't work with voice commands on your Iphone. I like to be adjsust the deadband to 1.5*-2* so my AC system doesn't constantly cycle on & off. Excess cycling is hard on your AC compressor and not very energy efficient. I also like to tell Suri to turn on the heat in the morning without reaching for my phone.

[bnorth]

We had an ecobee with our old furnace and really liked it to start but after awhile just kind of settled in on a constant set point and didn't adjust it much. The only time it gets used is to turn the heat or AC back up after we were away for an extended period otherwise we are in and out of the house too much to bother.