Originally Posted By: Gebo
Thanks for your input. I was hoping you could recommend or steer me clear of certain brands. Maybe in today's market, they are all the "same"?
I was reading consumer reports or some such magazine and was amazed at how many HP have the same "guts" but are being put in a different shell. I've about decided a Goodman propane furnace would be perfectly fine...
A trusted friend is a 20+ year HVAC installer. He swore up and down that Goodman was junk and their AC coils were bi/tri-metal and would rot out in a heartbeat. Also claimed the heat exchangers were too thin and would crack. He installed a Rheem for us and we have no complaints.
However, all you see being installed in my area is Goodman with no complaints from the owners. Guess we will see in 20 years. Surely there are federal standards/minimums these things have to meet?
Originally Posted By: 5AcresAndAFool
Natural gas is the way to go if you have it available, but many in the country dont. The thing about propane is the prices are so volatile. I remember a few winters ago there was a propane shortage in Indiana. The price was over 4.00 a gallon and the max you could get was 200 gallons. Electricity is much less volatile. After seeing people deal with that nonsense, I was completely turned off propane. I have had it before and the prices can vary so much.
I don't know how it works in your area but our propane company offers a summer fill special. You can contract the summer price for the winter and you can contract and prepay for $0.05 per gallon savings. A contract allows you to simply lock in the price for X number of gallons. Contract and prepay locks the price in with a discount. In 30+ years we have only been burned once by locking in the price and cash price actually went lower that year.
