I looked at the electricity cost savings when selecting my Heil 2 stage
furnace in 2006, and the payback was just not there to justify a variable
speed DC motor on the much more expensive model. The slower blower speed on
the 2 stage Heil draws about the same current as the slowest speed on the VS
DC model, and neither runs at the higher speeds much / most of the time
anyway.

I felt the extra electronics and extra cost were liabilities, and went with
the 2 speed with an AC blower motor which switches taps when the higher
burner output is called for. This seems like a much better value and fewer
problems, in my opinion.

Perhaps the Trane has a different break-even / payback situation than the
Heil, but I doubt it.

Incidentally, I live in a part of the country where electricity cost is very
high, so my payback on a VSDC motor would have come quickly if in fact there
truly were a savings when the motors are compared at their slowest speed of
operation.

Smarty
"ransley" wrote in message
ups.com...
On Oct 31, 8:30 am, http://www.thehvacmedic.com/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl
wrote:
On Tue, 30 Oct 2007 20:20:58 -0700, wrote:
Yeah, the Trane is a great furnace until the motor goes out. I was
quoted $1000 plus labor to replace the motor. That's One Thousand
Dollars! Yow, that hurts. The disappointing thing is the motor
probably failed about 3 or 4 years ago... when it was still under
warranty. But we didn't notice that is was no longer capable of
anything but the low speed given the mild climate in Oregon. Now that
the motor works properly we can see that it hasn't been this way in
years. It was installed 7 years ago so no luck on the warranty. The
good new is that the replacement motor is guaranteed for a whole
year... One Whole Year! Wow.

Nothing Runs like a Trane wreck.

I wish I had done the due diligence seven years ago. There would
certainly not be a Trane in my basement today had I done so.

Live and learn.

All Trane reps will offer a 5 or 10 year parts and labor warranty. Now
you know why.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

The motors were redesigned a few years ago so they now last alot
longer, if you never need more than low speed , you were probably
oversized. The 10 yr warranty option should always be taken with vsdc
motor. Depending on your Kwh cost over the past years you likely
already have saved alot of the replacement cost on the motor from
electric savings, my payback on vsdc is maybe 6 years. You might
benefit from having a surge protector on your furnace and home, there
are alot of electronics in your furnace.