To those of you with heat pumps (air source)...

[Dexter]

How did you decide on which brand?

I have narrowed it down to two contractors, similar pricing.
One swares by Amana and one American Standard. Both diss the other...

I just don't know how to make this decision!!!

Thanks.

[mdharris68]

Originally Posted by Dexter

How did you decide on which brand?

I have narrowed it down to two contractors, similar pricing.
One swares by Amana and one American Standard. Both diss the other...

I just don't know how to make this decision!!!

Thanks.

Ask for a list of customers and ask them what they think about their finished job. Amana is the brands top of the line. American Standard is made by Trane so it's the brands second line. Both will work equally good as long as they are installed correctly. You need to figure out who will install it as it should be installed and go with them

[starjj]

I agree the contractor is important part of it. If you have read up on the systems and both are equally qualified then the contractor and his work is the deciding factor. BTW I HATE when contractors diss each other. I think it shows a lack of integrity.

[tyusclan]

I have no experience with Amana, but I can tell you that the American Standard will be very expensive to repair down the road. Nearly all their parts are proprietary and they're designed very complicated so that they are nearly impossible to make run without the OEM part.

Ask them both to give you a parts list and price breakdown so that you can look at what the difference would be in a comparable repair on each unit down the road. No matter what brand you buy it will need to be repaired at some point.

[agmantoo]

American Standard are built by Trane and therein lies the expensive to repair part. Trane is now owned by Ingersoll Rand and IR does not know how to build anything that has reasonable prices for repair. Amana has less bells and whistles and seem to be more serviceable by the homeowner that has some awareness to heatpumps. Parts for the Amana are more easily found off the shelf. I did have an Amana PTAC and needed to contact the factory. The factory was very helpful and sent the part free of charge. I doubt that American Standard/Trane would talk to a home owner and you would have difficulty finding a phone number.

[Dexter]

Thank you for all of these!
The AS installer was the one dissing the Amana, suggesting they were noisier and "cheap", and meantioned the AS was the "top of the line".

Both have excellent references.

[cfabe]

Amana is the "higher end" brand of Goodman Manufacturing, which targets the low end of the HVAC market. Some call it cheap junk, some call it good value without all the unnecessary bells and whistles. I installed a Goodman furnace and found it to be good quality, looks like it will be easy to repair, and most of the parts are generic type parts.

In your situation I would go with the Amana.

[tamsam]

Are we talking electric or gas? If electric then ask around for someone in your area that has one. In NC I had one electric and will never make that mistake again. Below a certain temp the back up kicks in which is only a big electric heater. Good luck. Sam