Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler OT: Need good contractor in LA

Hey man -

Everyone has their opinions, but my dad's Trane turned 17 this year w/out an incident.

Congrats on the house! That's been the smartest thing I've done in a loooong time. ha.

My favorite part is just sitting on the driveway.

Enjoy,
^billy

Some more tips:
-Don't put too much money into the place until you're certain you're going to stay there a long time.
-Hardwood floors can only be re-finished once or twice (I heard, don't know for sure).
-You may want to slap your stereo in before you commit to the hardwood floors. You're going to a smaller room AND to hardwood floors? My vote would be for some super soft, deep carpet.
-Hardwood floors are high maintenance if you're a picky sort.

Craig, as you are so quick to recommend Hsu, Hsu, Hsu, and Rotel, Rotel, Rotel, I will jump in with my recommendation of Carrier, Carrier, Carrier. They are about 4 to 5 years ahead of the competition with current technology and experience. Let me explain:

Central air conditioners use a chemical that most people know as “Freon”, or “R22”. Freon is a HCFC (HydroChloroFlouroCarbon) that has been in use for at least 40 to 50 years. The problem with Freon is the “Chlorine” element, and is one of the major causes of Ozone depletion in the atmosphere. It has been legislated to be replaced with a “Chlorine Free” refrigerant within the next 6 years.

This is where things get interesting. About 10 years ago, Carrier contributed about 9 million dollars, and along with Allied Signal and Dupont, developed R410a – a Chlorine free refrigerant for residential applications. No other HVAC manufacturer was involved in the development of the new refrigerant. Carrier patented the name “Puron”, and installed their first Puron units in 1996. This was a full 4 years ahead of the first units from Trane and Lennox. Most of the competition is still in their “learning curve”.

Other Carrier highlights:

Silencer System – 4 design elements to reduce noise levels and alter sound pitch to be less irritating than conventional A/C’s. They consist of: 1) A low-speed fan with large diameter blades. 2) A computer modeled fan shroud to reduce air turbulence. 3) A compressor vibration isolator plate. 4) A compressor sound jacket or blanket.

Ceramic Coated Screws – Other Mfg.’s tout using stainless steel screws. The problem is that the base and cap are made of galvanized steel. With dissimilar metals reacting, corrosion is inevitable. Ceramic coating the screws eliminates this problem.

Reliability – Carrier’s scroll compressor design has the most trouble-free performance record of any scroll compressor on the market today.

Hopefully this helps. Sorry for the grammar.

Shawn.

i noticed on your profile that you are in sales..

you dont sale Carrier AC units by any chance, do ya'??

bigjohn

Great info real80sm.

Yes Freon is sticking around although is getting phased out. Another great idea gone bad. Our friends at Dupont really need to do a ton more testing before releasing products en masse.

puron,like all other refrigerants must be recovered because of the ''what if'' factor ,although there are no negatives against it as of now, 5-10-or even 15 years from now they might find out something bad about it.r-12 was the greatest thing to happen to the a/c world along with r-22,then they find out the damage it does to the ozone,,who knows,maybe they will find out down the road that puron causes a third arm to grow out of your nose..i install and service trane-carrier and york units along with some others.and trane seems to be the better built and most reliable...just my opinnion....ron

Freon may be getting phased out, but you'll still be able to get it, a bottle of DDT, and your Viagra right across the border in sunny Mexico.

(Not suggesting you need Viagra, Chess.)

The problem comes in getting caught with it Bigwill.
Those crazy border guards are real funny about metal canisters with weird chemicals in them these days.

In reply to:

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Those crazy border guards are real funny about metal canisters with weird chemicals in them these days.

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No kidding - Olympia beer is on the Canadian banned list - it contravenes the trades descriptions act, legally they have no right to call that beer.

Bren R.

BigJohn, you are a pretty bright fellow. I'm a sales rep for a Carrier dealer. (I used to install) My father was a Lennox dealer here in Ontario, so I grew up in the business. Lennox head offices are in your neck-of-the-woods.

Ron, thanks for your input. I'm not too familiar with Trane, as they just started trickling into Ontario a few years ago. So far, they haven't made many inroads. Carrier & Lennox are the big names here.