We're probably going to get one of these furnaces. Carrier Infinity
58MVB060 or Lennox G61MV070. Both are two-stage, variable speed DC fan
blower, about 95% efficiency. No air conditioning, we're on Vancouver
Island.

Dutifully reading newsgroup posts, I came across the advice that all
parts on these furnaces, especially the electronics and the DC motor,
are more likely to blow than on an old-fashioned furnace (the furnace
being replaced, a late 70s Airco, had no electronics at all), and can
be very expensive to fix. For example, $us 800 to replace the DV
motor. Several posters suggested "go for the 10-year warranty".

It seems that in Canada, the standard is a 5-year warranty on parts
(from the manufacturer) and one year labour from the dealer. My dealer
said he'd get back to me on the prices for warranty extensions.

I'm wondering if any other readers have (or have installed) these
furnaces, how old the installations are (I'm guessing that none are
older than 5 years), what if anything has broken. What I probably
won't get to know is how much it cost to fix, because everything will
still be under warranty. Or is there a website which tracks the
reliability of furnace components?

TIA.

--
Jonathan Berry

writes:

We're probably going to get one of these furnaces. Carrier Infinity
58MVB060 or Lennox G61MV070. Both are two-stage, variable speed DC fan
blower, about 95% efficiency. No air conditioning, we're on Vancouver
Island.

Dutifully reading newsgroup posts, I came across the advice that all
parts on these furnaces, especially the electronics and the DC motor,
are more likely to blow than on an old-fashioned furnace (the furnace
being replaced, a late 70s Airco, had no electronics at all), and can
be very expensive to fix. For example, $us 800 to replace the DV
motor. Several posters suggested "go for the 10-year warranty".

It seems that in Canada, the standard is a 5-year warranty on parts
(from the manufacturer) and one year labour from the dealer. My dealer
said he'd get back to me on the prices for warranty extensions.

5/1 appears to be the standard here in the US too. But 10year P&L is
available.

A Carrier dealer quoted me $350 for this extended warranty. A Bryant
dealer had the warranty baked into the quote already. It's been
installed for a few days and works great so far. ;-)


--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

shopping for new furnace here what costs for new furnace installed?

i know stuff varies all over the lot but am waiting for home depot to
get out and do estimate.

just looking for ballpark costs

shopping for new furnace here what costs for new furnace installed?

i know stuff varies all over the lot but am waiting for home depot to
get out and do estimate.

just looking for ballpark costs

" writes:
shopping for new furnace here what costs for new furnace installed?

i know stuff varies all over the lot but am waiting for home depot to
get out and do estimate.

This varies a lot based on home size of course. You could be in a
mansion or a townhome.

I can offer a datapoint at least from quote activity this month. A
95% Carier or Bryant system with variable speed blower, 2-stage,
Evolution Control (which I wouldn't necessarily rush to recommend),
and a 10yr parts/labor factory-backed extended warranty for a 2500ish
sq ft house in suburban Chicago came with quotes from $3700-$4700 from
reputable, factory trained shops. Bryant is offering a $150 rebate
right now until Nov for whatever that's worth and is the exact same
factory/parts as Carrier with different paint and labeling.
80,000/52,000 BTU 94.1% AFUE units by the way, which replaced a
100,000 BTU 65% efficient unit.

Drop the Evolution control and you pay $325-450 less. Drop variable
speed and you pay about $800ish less. Go down to 80% AFUE and you pay
about $1000 less.

just looking for ballpark costs

If you go through Home Depot, add some profit marging for them over
what a local hvac shop might do. They just subcontract the stuff out
anyway. At least that's the way it seems to work on a lot of their
other installation services.

--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

Todd H. wrote:
writes:

We're probably going to get one of these furnaces. Carrier Infinity
58MVB060 or Lennox G61MV070. Both are two-stage, variable speed DC fan
blower, about 95% efficiency. No air conditioning, we're on Vancouver
Island.

Dutifully reading newsgroup posts, I came across the advice that all
parts on these furnaces, especially the electronics and the DC motor,
are more likely to blow than on an old-fashioned furnace (the furnace
being replaced, a late 70s Airco, had no electronics at all), and can
be very expensive to fix. For example, $us 800 to replace the DV
motor. Several posters suggested "go for the 10-year warranty".

It seems that in Canada, the standard is a 5-year warranty on parts
(from the manufacturer) and one year labour from the dealer. My dealer
said he'd get back to me on the prices for warranty extensions.

5/1 appears to be the standard here in the US too. But 10year P&L is
available.

A Carrier dealer quoted me $350 for this extended warranty. A Bryant
dealer had the warranty baked into the quote already. It's been
installed for a few days and works great so far. ;-)


--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

The cost of the warranty extension is $475, Canadian funds. But it
comes not from the manufacturer nor from the dealer but from an
insurance company. I'm probably going to go for it, but need to find
out some details first. For instance, if I sell the house, the
warranty should go with the furnace. That's completely logical, but it
wouldn't surprise me if the insurance company had it different. Given
the uncertainties and high parts cost of these high tech units, I think
that $475 is a great price to increase the labour warranty from one
year to 10 years, and the parts warranty from 5 years to 10 years.
And, no, when I buy a TV or a stereo component, I *never* take the
extended warranties they offer.

--
Jonathan Berry

writes:

The cost of the warranty extension is $475, Canadian funds. But it
comes not from the manufacturer nor from the dealer but from an
insurance company. I'm probably going to go for it, but need to find
out some details first. For instance, if I sell the house, the
warranty should go with the furnace. That's completely logical, but it
wouldn't surprise me if the insurance company had it different. Given
the uncertainties and high parts cost of these high tech units, I think
that $475 is a great price to increase the labour warranty from one
year to 10 years, and the parts warranty from 5 years to 10 years.
And, no, when I buy a TV or a stereo component, I *never* take the
extended warranties they offer.

Yeah, I don't buy extended warranties on anything, but I wanted it for
this given what labor costs can be on an invasive part failing. Who
knows if it'll pay off.

--
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/

Turns out that the extended 10-year warranty *is* from the Carrier
factory. Officially, it's non-transferable, but according to the rep,
he hadn't heard of anybody being denied extended warranty service on
the account of a change of ownership of the house.

--
Jonathan Berry