On Saturday, April 18, 2015 at 10:44:04 PM UTC-4, mangino wrote:
replying to Smarty , mangino wrote:
nobody wrote:

I have spoken with several HVAC contractors regarding replacement of my
old Lennox central air conditioning system. All of them are Lennox
dealers except one who also carries Trane products.
The dealer who also carries Trane was trying to switch me from my
original Lennox preference, stating that the Trane coils, which are 100%
aluminum, rather than the Lennox coils, which use aluminum fins and
copper tubing, provide a better, longer lasting design.
He felt that Trane was superior in other ways also, since they used
"composite plastics" in the outdoor condensing unit case rather than
steel to ensure that no corrosion or rusting would occur.
The basic claim was that Trane, using aluminum for all of the
refrigeration loop, had a longer life expectancy that Lennox, given the
newer Puron refrigerant.
Does anyone have any experience with Trane, and is there any science to
support this type of claim or any other prior experience to say that
Trane is somehow better?
Thanks for any advice.


My Carrier air conditioning units are almost 9 years old and the copper
evaporator coils are totally rusted. I have an air conditioning guy that I
totally trust and he told me something interesting. He said that Carrier
knows that there are issues with the coils rusting out prematurely.
Carrier use to have all aluminum coils and aluminum never rusts. Carrier
and other manufacturers realized if they switched to copper coils their
customers would have to replace their coils approximately every 6 to 8
years (10 years if you were lucky). So it all comes down to what's called
"Planned Obsolescence" and you see it practiced with almost everything you
buy these days. It just puts more money back in the pockets of the
manufacturer and repair industry.

He also told me that Carrier and others are starting to bring back
aluminum because of the backlash from customers. I am now getting aluminum
coils installed.

--

Seems kind of odd that Carrier would switch to copper from aluminum
on the theory of making some more money. If your evaporator goes
at 8 years, how many customers are going to go with another Carrier
or even an evaporator replacement? At that point, most people are
going to get a new system and it likely wouldn't be Carrier. Also
given the cost delta between copper and aluminum, I find it hard
to believe it's even true that Carrier went back to copper coils,
unless there is some other valid reason for it.