WG, I am building a new house in Arizona, it is 1500 SF we put a total electric RHEEM on it, 3.5 ton with a heat strip for the winter as heat pumps are good to cool but when it gets real cold they don't do so good. We had the heat strip installed, if the tempitures gets to cold, there is a switch at the thermostat so you only use it when you need it for cold weather. I live about 30 miles from a small town, the guy that put in our unit is 30 miles away so maintenance was also a factor, and there is a Rheem parts dealer in that town. It sounds like you had a Rheem for 30 years and it worked ok so maybe that would be a good one. Cost was $6500.00 and that included all the duct work on our new build and installation. Cost of our unit is about $2200.00 on the internet that doesn't include installation or duct work. You can do a search on the internet for the units you are looking at and find out what the cost of the units are, might help in your decision. I have been told to always add .5 ton to any unit to make sure it is enough for the hot temperatures, that's what we did as most of the bids we got were for a 3 ton unit. I also upgraded our insulation to help we have R22 in the walls R38 in the attic and R30 in the floor above the livable part of the house, our 1500 SF house sits on a 1500 SF garage.
Good luck.
