AboutJ Cook Expertise With 25+ years experience, I am familiar with residential, commercial, and industrial HVAC equipment including but not limited to boilers, chillers, reciprocating and screw compressors. I am trained in all manners of control wiring.
Experience I currently have three HVAC licenses and Refrigeration license by the State of North Carolina. I have been in this field for over twenty years. I have been a service technician for a contractor and also worked at a state college in the repair and maintenance of steam lines and equipment. I am currently the Building Maintenance Superintendent for a municipality.
Question We have a Carrier 58sx-120 propane gas heater(furnace) that is out. We were told it is roughly 20 years old and should replace it with a High efficiency heater (Amana GMV). To repair it will cost a few hundred dollars to correct a leaking valve or pipe and a week or two to get the part. It will cost about 3500 for the new system. Worth the investment? We plan on living here for a number of years.
Answer I personally would replace the system at this age on any gas furnace, however in my opinion I would not install an Amana. I just have not not had good service from Amana or York. In the past year I replaced both of my aging Carrier units with Goodman. They have a full 10 year warranty on every part and for an additional $99 I have an extended 99 year compressor warranty on the a/c unit. The ulimate decision is yours, but I would get prices from other contractors as this is a large investment. Also in my opinion, the very high efficiency units are not worth the upfront cost as over the life of the unit, the parts are much higher and the repair and upfront cost can not be recouped in energy savings. A variable speed fan motor on a high efficiency unit can cost almost $1000, the same three speed motor on a 13 seer unit is about $100, just one example of the parts cost difference. Thanks and let me know the results, J
