Heat Pumps and Electric Heating - Heat Pump Brands

Hi

I just bought a 14 year old house (2900 sq ft - Bucks County, PA) with an original Carrier heat pump. I'm in the process of getting some quotes on replacement.

Does anyone have thoughts on which brand to go with? I have some contractors who swear by Carrier, others swear by Lennox and other Trane.

All quotes have some in around 6k to 8k for a complete replacement with a 14-15 seer and variable speed air handler. So, at this point I'm trying to determine which brand to go with.

Thanks for the help!

We install Rheem, and have had very good luck with them. lots of techs don't like them cause they are on of the very few company that energize the reversing valve in the heat mode instead of the cooling mode, but around here the cooling season is longer them the heating season so why use the energy to hold the valve over all the time in cooling.

They also offer 14+ SEER with varible speed blower with dehumidify options if you are in a humid area.

6 t0 8K? isn't that high? i thoight it should have ben around 4.5K

oh, don't buy kenmore!

snow dog,

you live in PA right? if you want a heat pump reversing valve to fail you would
want it to fail to the heat. carrier, goodman, and janitrol all will fail to the heat side. trane, although one of the best systems, it requires only factory certified
techs to take care of any problems (think $$$$+) , and to keep in warranty, they need to be pm'd at least twice a year ($$$). not that i'm against keeping any system pm'd, the carrier, goodman, janitrol systems seem to me to be forgiving if you miss a pm. another thing, what type airhandler do you have?
i've been working on heat pumps, gas packs, straight air, apollo systems, etc. for over twenty years (and i still learn something new every day). this is some thing i can tell you, pick a fail to heat system, then go to your local ac,hvac supply store, tell them the sq ft of heated space, buy the thing and then have it installed (unless you are certified in this) . make sure they know the type of air handler you have. you can buy anything at these places except freon (unless you are certified) 99% of these guys will be more than happy to help you in getting you the right system for your needs, and by you picking out the system, you more than likely won't be screwed by the 40% markup that installers will charge. me myself prefer goodman heat pump units
i've got a 800 unit property that has all the syestems that we'ved talked about. the only ones that i have had to replace are the rheem/ rudd units
i hopes that some of this info helps
barry

I have two 18 y.o Trane heat pumps (1st and 2nd fl) that are about to die (but maybe will last another year or so). I only had one contractor to come out and look at it and he quoted me $7,000 to replace the whole system. I was ignorant and didn't ask for brand name, but he assured that this is for a good brand, not budget one. People tell me this is impossible, too cheap, and that he meant for each one not for both. So, what's a good price for two Trane heat pumps (furnace located in the basement) SEER 12-13 for 3,500 sq ft house?

I understand that precision is impossible here, but just for a ballpark figure.