York and American Standard

July 1, 2015   |   Author: Gary Kirkendall   |   No comments   |   Categories: Air Conditioner   |   Tags: •

York and American Standard combination

Once in awhile you mix and match the equipment, meaning the indoor coil and furnace, like this York and American Standard match up. And usually its because the existing furnace is fairly new like this York 80% gas furnace that's only 9 months old. As long you have the proper airflow and your equipment can match up physically without causing improper air flow it will work just fine. Keep in mind you should still match up your indoor coil and air conditioner.

 American Standard Color

I have to admit that somehow the folks down at American Standard have picked the perfect colors for their equipment. I have yet to see one of their air conditioners or heat pumps  stick out, they seem to always match up to the home. I wish the refer pipe cover would come in the same color, well at least its paintable.

 

American Standard Air Conditioner

I can not tell people enough how much I prefer American Standard over any other brand, usually I will install a less expensive piece of equipment IF the customer is on a budget, its a manufactured home and or American Standard simply will not match up to the existing furnace. I feel American Standard is a better built piece of equipment, that's just not my experience talking but also consumer reports over the last 6 or so years.

York gas furnace
York and American Standard

Carrier Heat Pump Replacement

June 16, 2015   |   Author: Gary Kirkendall   |   No comments   |   Categories: Heat Pump   |   Tags: •
American Standard Heat Pump

Carrier Heat Pump Replaced

The Carrier Heat Pump never worked right

Sometimes things are not always as they appear, at first glance this looked like a straight forward Carrier Heat pump change out. The ducting is there, the line sets and the electrical. So I took some measurements, took some pictures and went back to the office to work up a bid.

 

What caught my eye

What caught my eye is what changed everything for me on this project. I noticed the motor HP and amp draw had been changed on the manufactures label. There is only one reason a technician would change motor HP ... duct issues, specifically return duct issues. After talking to the home owner and listening to all the problems they where having It had become perfectly clear ... the unit has never moved enough air.

 

Just not enough ducting

Unfortunately in this older farm house increasing the return duct work would prove to be impossible, and I am sure that is what the original installation company faced as well. Fortunately American Standard makes a variable speed air handler that can overcome duct issues such as these.

After replacing the indoor unit, outdoor unit and the line set we where ready to test our theory out .. and sure enough the new American Standard air handler performed perfectly.

Carrier Heat Pump
Carrier Air Handler

Conclusion

When you are faced with ducting issues in a situation where increasing the ducting is impossible but you need the air volume? Use a variable speed piece of equipment. Of course there are limits to what these variable speed units can do, BUT they will help dramatically in cases like these.

 

American Standard 95

June 11, 2015   |   Author: Gary Kirkendall   |   No comments   |   Categories: Furnace   |   Tags: • • • •
American Standard Furnace

American Standard 95

American Standard 95 .. again

I love upgrading customers equipment, here we upgraded our customer from a single stage 80% to a new American Standard 90 to 95 variable speed 2-stage gas furnace. Not only will this furnace run much quieter than their existing furnace, but it will also save them 5% more on their heating bill.

 

American Standard  is a Trane

The first picture is the older furnace and hot water heater. The Trane unit was and still is manufactured by American Standard.

 

Bradford White Tank

As you can see we also replaced the existing hot water heater with a new Bradford white water heater. I have installed many brands of hot water heaters, I prefer Bradford White. I will usually discount the hot water tank when replacing the furnace at the same time.

American Standard 95

American Standard 95

Lennox to American Standard

May 27, 2015   |   Author: Gary Kirkendall   |   No comments   |   Categories: Furnace   |   Tags: • • •

Lennox to American Standard

Years ago I use to be an Lennox furnace dealer ... and way before that I use to install Lennox furnaces for a local company.

Lennox Pulse

Lennox Pulse

I can not tell you how many Lennox pulse furnaces I have installed, but I can tell you I absolutely hated the Lennox pulse because of the noise it produced. Because of the way it burns its fuel it creates a pulsing/knocking sound that is so annoying it will drive you out of your home. We literally had to install mufflers and vibration pads to try to help bring down the noise.

Here we have a 100,000 btu Lennox pulse, the grand daddy of noise makers. Seeing this old knocker reminded of my early days installing when I was in my early 20's. Fortunately for my customer there is the new American Standard 95% Variable 2 stage gas furnace that is mouse whisper compared to the pulse.

 

Lennox to American Standard  ... Cont.

 

Lennox To American Standard

American Standard furnace

I had to replace the existing venting with larger 3" PVC, do a few duct changes and added a Honeywell 4" pleated filter bank. Other than that the job went fairly smooth. And because the existing thermostat location could not be moved easily we went with a Honeywell wireless thermostat. If you want to move your thermostat location but cant because of wiring issues ... use the wireless... very cool.

 

Payne Furnace Replacement

May 27, 2015   |   Author: Gary Kirkendall   |   No comments   |   Categories: Furnace   |   Tags: • •

Payne Furnace Replacement To American Standard

Why Alpine Heating

I would say about 80% of my customers that do furnace replacements choose Alpine Heating And Cooling because they have been our customer for years and trust us, the other 20% do their due diligence on equipment before selecting us. Its always a nice feeling when a customer comes back because we carry American Standard and they want a quality piece of equipment.

 

Now you obviously can not tell just from the photo, but this furnace was just a little undersized for the home, fortunately the base can and the rest of the ducting was sized for the home. This made it fairly simple to do the replacement. It is not uncommon for heating companies to use the same base can for every application, this makes it easier for the fab shop and the crew setting the base can.

 

The new American Standard 95% Variable 2 Stage fit right on the older base can, I simply had to make a offsetting transition and reconnect. The venting had to be rerouted to the other side of the garage and a condensate line added, but other than that this was a fairly simple replacement.

 

Now in this case and well as many others We offered a discount to replace their hot water tank at the same time as I replace the furnace. In this case I replaced the older hot water tank with a new 50 gallon Bradford White Tank.

 

Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.

Payne Furnace Replacement
New American Standard furnace

American Standard AC

May 25, 2015   |   Author: Gary Kirkendall   |   No comments   |   Categories: Air Conditioner • Furnace   |   Tags: • • •

Installing a American Standard AC

This older RHEEM 80% furnace has lived its life and ready for the scrap yard. In fact my customer not only wants a better quality furnace but one with a higher efficiency rating as well. And lets not forget about air conditioning.

 

American Standard fits the bill

The American Standard 95% Variable Speed 2 Stage with an American Standard air conditioner fits the bill perfectly. American Standard is IMO the best furnace on the market today, I talk to a lot of technicians as well as personally service many brands myself... hands down I really do not think you can beat the quality.

 

Install the American Standard Air Conditioner

The new American Standard furnace sits perfectly on its matching indoor coil, the new PVC venting runs up and out through the roof ... and the condensate runs into a simple condensate pump. The refer line set runs up, over and down the wall to the new AC unit. With the help of a preformed pad the AC installation happens rather quickly. In fact most of our installations take less than 8 hours.

Need a American Standard AC, Heat Pump, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.

Older Rheem Unit
American Standard AC coil
American Standard AC

American Standard Furnace

May 25, 2015   |   Author: Gary Kirkendall   |   No comments   |   Categories: Filtering • Furnace • Water Heater   |   Tags: • • •

American Standard Furnace 80%

Like for like 80%

Here we have an American Standard Furnace 80% that was replaced with a new American Standard Furnace 80%. What we call "like for like". It is by far one of the easiest types of replacements, especially if its located in the garage.

Older Trane Furnace

Older Trane Furnace

Now in my opinion this furnace should have lasted a lot longer. One issue that caused a short life was a poorly sized filter system, a small filter gets clogged way to fast making it difficult for the owner to keep up with and then eventually causing high limit failures(over heating). Also if the furnace had been vented with double wall pipe instead of galvanized single wall pipe, there would have been less internally corrosion (white dust) that clogs up pressure ports and causes excessive wear on the inducer. We find this a lot in very cold garages.

Like for like 80% cont.

Here you see the new American Standard furnace and a Bradford White hot water tank installed. The new equipment is vented with type B double wall venting that will eliminate internal corrosion. We also added a Honeywell filter system.

New American Standard furnace 80% and Bradford White 50 gal

New American Standard furnace 80% and Bradford White 50 gal

And as you can see the Honeywell F100 4" fits perfectly on top and usually provides annual protection but I do recommend checking every 6 months.

Need a Heat Pump, Air Conditioner, Furnace, Boiler or Tankless Water Heater? We install them all over Skagit county including Mount Vernon WA, Burlington WA, Anacortes, Sedro Woolley, La Conner, Stanwood WA, and on Camano Is.

Pulse To American Standard

March 27, 2015   |   Author: Gary Kirkendall   |   No comments   |   Categories: Furnace   |   Tags: • •

Pulse To American Standard

When I was much younger and still learning about this trade I was installing many Lennox Pulses. The foreman made sure we where loaded up and ready to go before starting the furnace. Reason being ... THEY ARE LOUD.

Lennox Pulse Furnace

Lennox Pulse Furnace

I remember we use to place bets to see whether or not the customer would phone the shop before we got back. And if the unit was installed in the home ... we seldom get out of the driveway before the complaining started.

Pulse To American Standard ... cont.

Pulse to American Standard

Pulse to American Standard

My customer called me about adding AC to their existing system, once I explained how much they would be saving on labor by installing a new American Standard furnace at the same time they where sold. With a little transition work we got rid of that old freight train pulse and installed an American Standard 95% single stage furnace.