They used to be known as Janitrol. They were so bad, people called
them Junkatrol. But they've cleaned up their act and taken the name of
the parent company Goodman. They have a good warranty now and it's a
decent brand. But they are priced cheaper to gain back some market
share. If you Google, you'll see a lot of posts regarding problems
with ignitors. That's true. But, if you dig deeper, you'll find that
everybody had problems with ignitors back then. Lennox had a huge
problem with their electrostatic ignitor. You'd have to have a service
guy clean the electrode every year before heating season or it
wouldn't fire up. These days, most manufacturers use ceramic hot
surface ignitors and the majority of the problems are gone.

But you have to keep in mind that the big name brands only sell to
certain dealers. So, unless you're a Lennox "dealer," you can't buy
that brand. To become a dealer you have to sell X number of units per
year and agree not to sell any other competing brands. But every major
manufacturer has a "no-name" brand to compete price-wise.

For example, York has the Luxaire brand. Carrier has the Bryant brand.
So, if you're an idenpendent heating guy that isn't a dealer for the
big names, you install those no-name brands and the Dealers take pot
shots at you. The Goodman brand is carried by Ferguson, a nationwide
wholesaler to the plumbing/heating/AC trade.

If you buy it, make sure you read the warranty registration. If you
register online within 20 days of installation and it's installed by a
pro, you get a longer warranty.

On Tue, 20 May 2008 20:17:46 -0500, "mark" wrote:

Has anyone here ever heard of the Goodman brand of HVAC? My nephew is
looking at units, and his friend sells Goodman units. Me personally, I never
heard of 'em. Any feedback? Thanks, Mark