On 4/2/2012 9:14 AM, Vic Smith wrote:
On Mon, 02 Apr 2012 05:50:25 -0400, Ed wrote:

On Sun, 01 Apr 2012 22:52:41 -0400, wrote:



Tonight I did find this article (see link below) from a company which
apparently offers (only) aluminum and not copper heat exchangers /
coils, and they offer claims that aluminum is superior, but I am not
convinced. If they offered both and showed the relative benefits of
each, I might find it more convincing.

I guess I am both too old and also too old-fashion to get very excited
about an all aluminum solution. Since Trane is the only A/C manufacturer
using it as far as I know, I have to believe it is not the obviously
better solution, especially given the relative costs of copper versus
aluminum.

Thanks again for replying.

http://www.hydro.com/en/Subsites/Hyd...um-and-copper/

This, IMO, is the most important line of the story:
"Thus, together with the cost savings of replacing copper with
aluminium, the accumulated benefits of switching to all-aluminium heat
exchangers are considerable."

It about the money.
It's always about the money, but saying that doesn't tell you much.
Silver is a better conductor than copper.
I don't have a Trane system, but I wouldn't avoid one because it uses
aluminum coils.
Trane markets their Spine-fin aluminum coils as a selling point.
They've been selling them for outdoor units since 1968.
The coils are only one part of a system.
I don't know the cost difference between the manufacturers.
I would grill some *good* HVAC guys to find out about his.
You don't want somebody selling you a crap system with a lousy
compressor and inefficient operation because he brags
"This unit has copper coils." BFD.


In this thread it's said aluminum heat exchanger manufacturing cost
eats up the savings vs using copper.
http://hvac-talk.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=139016
But that thread is from 2007, when copper prices were lower.

Here "something" more. Probably all marketing BS.
http://www.sapagroup.com/pages/26202...hite_paper.pdf

http://www.alcoil.net/applications.htm

Anyway, there are SEER ratings, and HVAC guys who have long experience
with this.
Whether it's aluminum or copper is just one thing to consider.
My furnace and central air is Rheem.
Except for getting the main board replaced, it's all worked fine for
13 years.
Why do I have a Rheem?
Because my brother was a GC then, needed the work, and had a HVAC
installer sub who needed work. They decided I got Rheem..
Maybe I could have done better on the cost by shopping, maybe not.
But hey. what goes around comes around.

--Vic


Thanks Ed and Vic for your replies and comments. I agree with the basic motivation being financial, but really have no good way to compare reliability and failure rates in any other meaningful way. Consumer Reports seems to be silent on the whole matter of central A/C reliability. And even if they published historical data, the move to Purson and these much higher pressures may change the game entirely in terms of who has the better components in the long term.

Like most things, it will be a bit of a coin toss in the final analysis,
but I wanted to see if this whole aluminum versus copper thing was a
"red herring" thrown out by a dealer whose profit potential or other
motives makes him sell both Lennox and Trane, and then recommend Trane
for this specific reason of aluminum coils.

Thanks again!