Gas and Oil Home Heating Furnaces - Purchasing a air unit

I am getting ready to replace my old unit and have had two estimates.

The most recent estimate was for a 2 ton 12 seer Gibson.
Is anyone familiar with the Gibson brand? This is the first I had heard of it.

I have thought about buying a unit off of the internet. Is this a good or bad idea? Seems like I could save close to a $1000 dollars. If I did purchase a unit off the internet would the warranty be valid?

thanks, michael

Buying your own unit would be a huge mistake. For starters unless you have tons of the right tools and are certified you can't put it in. Another any reputable service co probly wont do it and if they do there will be no warranty then if something happens you're stuck.

Go with a good A/C company. Get at least 3 bids and be sure they do a heat loss/gain calculation on the house. That's very important. The installation is more important than the brand.

As for the Gibson line I've been out of the field for 5 years but they have been around for a while. You'll get many opinions on preferred brands here from techs with alot more experiance than I.

Good Luck.

Like MAT said get 3 bids and a heat cool load ran. Find out how long the hvac guys been around. You want one thats been there by you for a long time. So what he sells and put in you know he will back it. Buy off the web NO NO.Add ship tax and all, who will put it in for you, if it dont work what now. You dont save anything going that way
As for me I like Trane and Rheem;) ED

You could buy a unit off the internet and there are pros and cons to this. You should be mechanically inclined. If you install it yourself, you'll need tools that could easily add up to over $1000.00. Best way to purchase the tools you'll need is via Ebay. If you read between the lines, most HVAC contractors frown upon you doing this because by purchasing the unit online, you just removed 1/2 of their profit. They don't make as much profit if you buy the unit from an online vendor. The only way for them to make that profit back is by charging you twice the going labor rate. The warranty is valid if you buy online as the warranty comes from the manufacturer not the company that installs it. Two companys that you could look into is www.orderacdirect.com and www.seminoleair.com. Good luck and let us know what you decide to do --Bill

Thank you all for your advice/