Keystone State Thread

2006-present is okay; They have Copeland Scroll compressors in them. Pre-2006, like the one my Grandma had, is garbage. All but two of the houses in my neighborhood have two separate systems for upstairs and downstairs; One house with two systems had one of them fail and now has a Goodman and what appears to be a Rheem or a Ruud unit. That house is about six years old like mine and was probably four or five years old when the A/C unit failed, which is surprising.

 

I’ve just got one unit being a rancher here. I replaced the cap, contactor, and added a hard start kit last spring.

 

Heat pump or straight-cool?

 

no heat pump. The HVAC unit is 90% efficient forced air natural gas.

 

My house has two 90% efficiency gas furnaces; 2.5-ton A/C for 1st floor and 2-ton A/C for 2nd floor. No idea what the furnaces are. For some stupid reason, the furnace for the 2nd floor is in the attic. My old house had 2-zone as well, and both of the furnaces were in the basement.

 

the inducer motor bearings did take a poop about 2 winters ago, that was a cheap fix though.
https://youtube.com/shorts/vxoWkPTFDdA?feature=share

 

Goodman is not terrible, and then Amana is a slightly more expensive rebadged Goodman; NORDYNE is the worst. My parents bought a brand new house in North Wales, Pennsylvania (Montgomeryville) in 1990, which is like a 15-minute drive from where we are now. It was built by the now-defunct David Cutler Group, and the A/C system it had was a Comfortmaker A/C unit matched up with what I'm presuming is an 80% gas furnace. They did have 90% gas furnaces in 1990, but they were generally high-end, and 1990 was before both the EPA and pretty much every township in Pennsylvania stepped in. 90% efficiency has been mandatory in my area for as long as I can remember, but if a house was built before these rules took affect and has an 80% furnace, then it is legal to replace it with a new 80% furnace.

 

I've been cranking the little Coleman brand central (old R22 unit) unit the past couple days. Was about a 50/50 shot of it actually still working. It's a small unit and pretty friggin' old but still works!

Tried out the AC in the 2014 yesterday, nice and cold too. Much better than my 2009 and just as good as the 2021...

 

@6 gearT444E

So, I think you would agree with me with HVAC equipment longevity is a crapshoot. My parents bought the house new in 1990 and we lived there until 1996; In six years, we never had a problem with the A/C. Back then, a company called Snyder General sold residential equipment under the Arcoaire and Comfortmaker names; Ours was Comfortmaker. EPA didn't mandate a minimum of 10 SEER until 1992, so it can be assumed that our unit was about an 8 SEER. Again, the A/C never had to be serviced in six years. My parents sold the house in 1996, and the guy who bought it from us still lives there; He happened to be in the front yard when I drove past one time and I stopped to chat. Among other things, he has renovated the kitchen and finished the basement; The original Comfortmaker A/C shit the bed in 1999, and then the second unit went in 2006 or so, purely because of bad luck. The house currently has a 2006-2008ish Bryant A/C unit; All of the houses in that neighborhood were built between 1990 and 1993, and most of them have had the original HVAC equipment replaced; At least one house has gotten an addition and now has two Carrier Infinity Series units.

However, I last drove through my old neighborhood in early 2022 and was amazed to see that a couple of the houses still have their original Comfortmaker A/C units when the one at my old house supposedly shit the bed before the start of the 21st century! Like I said, it's a crapshoot...

 

My friend sold his parents' old house in 2020, and when we helped him clean the place out, I ended up getting a snowblower and a 1987 Carrier window A/C unit for like $40; The Carrier had been sitting unused in the office space above the detached garage probably since the 1990s, as my friend's dad passed in like 1998 and the office had been relegated to storage space. I planned to just scrap it if it didn't work, but I plugged it in onsite, turned it on, and got ICE COLD air. I was going to put it in my room to supplement the central air in my house (I have autism and one of my sensory issues is that it has to be cold when I'm sleeping, and I do not sleep well when it's really warm). My parents weren't wild about having a window unit sticking out of the house, but I didn't want it to go to waste; My other friend had just bought a 19th century house with no central A/C, and he needed a window unit FAST. I "sold" it to him for exactly what I bought it for (twenty bucks) and nearly two years later he says this old Carrier is still the best window unit he has!

 

@6 gearT444E

The old Snyder General units were quite distinctive; Completely round in shape, they resembled the venerable Carrier "Round One" units manufactured from 1968 to 1988. Carrier ended up buying the rights to the Arcoaire and Comfortmaker names and slapping them on units manufactured by their company International Comfort Products, and the newest Snyder General unit I've ever seen was from 1994 so I'm guessing that's about the time they went defunct...

I still continue to see these in operation in 2022, and they are obviously quite durable and well-built, but I've talked to HVAC techs and it would seem that they seem to be more of a pain in the ass to work on and find parts for as they get older; The newest units still in service are now 28 years old as of this post! While they last, these units seem particularly vulnerable to rust compared to more well-known brands (Carrier, Lennox, Trane, York, etc), but it would seem that the people who continue to run them have the same attitude as me; As long it keeps the house cool and the electric bill isn't particularly obscene, why fix it if it ain't broke?!?!

 

This is what I'm afraid of happening. Really don't feel like taking apart my dashboard!

 

Took my boss's 2015 Escalade to get an oil change just now and found out that the A/C isn't working; Not even 55K on it!

 

Sorry about the rain East Coast PA cats. Washed the 4Runner and the Tacoma yesterday.

 

I'll bet your A/C works though...

 

Mine works great too, but I'm a bit miffed that the A/C in a 7-year old Escalade shit the bed; I also worry about my boss because he's in his 70s, so I made an appointment to get the A/C fixed ASAP...

 

Just couldn't wait until I was done with work; Luckily I foresaw this and parked by the back door!