Should I replace a 21 year old furnace and AC?

[Linda_d]

Originally Posted by eggalegga

I replaced my 31 year old furnace & my 12+ year old swamp cooler in June of 2010. I wanted to replace the furnace while it was working. Didn't want to have to replace that in January with ice/snow on my roof--which is where the intake/exhaust pipes would have to be routed. I also wanted to add a whole house humidifier and central a/c.

My 95% efficient gas furnace and my 15 SEER A/C unit seemed like a good idea at the time. But since I was switching from a swamp cooler, my power consumption as REALLY increased with central a/c. I've kept spreadsheets for yeeeeears tracking my usage and costs of all my utilities. I have yet to see much economic gain from replacing my old equipment.

Keep what you have as long as you're comfortable and have annual inspections/servicing to ensure proper working order. If you don't have to worry about extreme heat in summer or snow/ice issues in winter, you could probably replace when one goes out. Not really sure about efficiencies b/t old and new a/c units as I was replacing a swamp cooler.

Just curious, what is a "swamp cooler"?

When I moved into my house in cold, snowy Jamestown, NY in 2003, I replaced an ancient gas forced hot-air furnace (probably at least 30 years old) with a new high efficiency gas furnace and added a medium efficiency central air unit since I don't use central air that often. The old furnace was noisy and I lived in fear that first winter that it would die when the temps were in the teens, so it went that summer.

Actually, it was a good thing that I did replace the furnace since the old one was probably leaking carbon monoxide (I forgot what part of it was bad but the installer showed me where it had rusted so badly there were holes in the part). If you have a gas furnace, it's important to have CO2 detectors and to have your unit checked annually. While I significantly cut my heating bill, I think having piece of mind in not having to worry about waking up to a freezing house in the middle of a winter night or to a CO2 detector squawking is priceless.

[Pink Jazz]

Originally Posted by Linda_d

Just curious, what is a "swamp cooler"?

A swamp cooler is a cooing system that works by evaporation of water, rather than by refrigeration. They are common in dry climates such as Albuquerque, Tucson, and El Paso due to the way they work, but are ineffective in high humidity, which is why you will never see them on the East Coast.

Strangely, they are less common here in the Phoenix area than in the Tucson area, despite the average humidity being lower in Phoenix. More often than not, homes with swamp coolers here in the Phoenix area will also have air conditioning, where the swamp cooler is used for spring and fall cooling.

More information here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaporative_cooler

[3John3]

Finding an honest furnace or air conditioner review is hard because everyone is biased in one way or another. I decided to write this furnace review to give my opinion with facts that I have accumulated over the years.
I have been repairing and installing furnaces and air conditioners for 27 years so I have a good amount of experience in the subject.
I have found that furnaces have evolved over the years to a point now where all of the manufacturers are offering a high quality product that will last many years. When high efficiency furnaces first came out, each manufacturer had its own idea on how to build a furnace and by trial and error they slowly worked out the problems to where now they are all are building a good furnace.
The furnace manufacturers actually just build the heat exchanger, cabinet, housings etc. They buy the circuit boards, motors, burners, controls, limit switches, draft inducers, pressure controls, gas valves, ignition controls, and hot surface igniters from the companies that build parts like GE, Emerson, Honeywell, White Rodgers, Robertshaw, etc.
You generally read comments about furnace brands that have a negative slant. This is because people who have had a bad experience tend to have the drive to tell the world about it while the people who are satisfied are content to leave it at that. The truth is every brand has to be repaired now and then and since the manufacturers who build the main working parts of the furnaces build them for every furnace manufacturer, I do not see a big difference in number of repairs from one brand to the next.
Then how should you choose which furnace brand to buy? It is important to purchase your furnace from someone you can trust to install it properly and who will back up the warranty if something should go wrong later on. I recommend that you try to buy locally so you are important to the business that you are buying from and not just another anonymous customer who does not matter. The manufacturer’s warranty is a big factor to look at. If the furnace does break in the future, you don't want to be stuck with a large repair bill. Today you can find lifetime warranties on heat exchangers and 10 years on all other parts. If they don't offer this warranty, keep looking because most do and it is better to let the manufacturer pay for the repair instead of you. After all if they spend all of that money on advertising trying to convince you to buy their furnace let them back it up with a good warranty!
Don't pay for your furnace over and over again with high gas bills. There are two somewhat standard efficiency ratings on furnaces that are sold today, 80% and 96%. You can think of the difference as being this: for every dollar that you pay your utility company for natural gas for your furnace, with the 80% model, 80 cents out of every dollar heats the house and 20 cents is wasted up the chimney. The 96% efficiency model only loses 4 cents out of every dollar out the vent. So can see over time the amount of money you can save by installing a 96% furnace will easily pay for the difference in price over the 80% model and save you money every year after that.

All furnace manufacturers have websites that you can review their products. The thing to watch out for while you look for a new furnace is not to be dazzled by a celebrity who is trying to convince you that one brand is better than the next without telling you the things that matter like warranty and price.
I hope this clears up some of the confusion in trying to pick one brand over another.
John Schuebel
Schuebel’s Heating & Air Conditioning
Woodbury furnace furnaces