Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Furnace pricing - seems high?

Seeing as we have several other threads on heating stuff....I'll add one more. My parents had a furnace/AC guy out today and the price quote seems high to me, but I've not done any recent research. They liked the guy and were wanting to sign a contract today, but I convinced them to get at least one more quote. He was frustrated when I came on the scene and told him we wouldn't be signing today.

House is a split-level around 2500 sf. The guy said he did a heat calc (I wasn't there for that) and would install a 140,000 forced air (nat. gas) 80% 2-stage Amana furnace as well as a 4.5 ton 13 SEER Amana air conditioner to replace similar Trane system that is 16 years old. The furnace access is easy, right off the garage and A/C access is also easy and close to furnace location. Total bill would be $14,300.

Seems for that price it would include a higher efficiency furnace. From what I can find online, it seems that the components (furnace, A/C and coil) should cost around $2500-$3300, but I could be off, as I didn't find anything with current Amana pricing. Thoughts about system pricing and Amana components? Also, if you have installer recommendations for Colorado Springs, would love to hear them.

That does seem high.

Anyone recommending an 80% furnace is trying to rip you off....

I'd say 5k would be good furnace (90+%) plus ac unit installed w/o doing to much duct work. A couple grand more for a air exchanger unit too if you want that.

With the little residential HVAC experience I have, it does seem high. Is that quote with new ducting? You can usually get a high efficiency indoor unit and outdoor unit for under 5k. So 10k to install just the furnace and coil and condenser seems excessive. Would definitely get a few other quotes.

Get more quotes, AC Heating is the biggest rip off business there is. Get his quote, go to AC Supply house, see what equipment costs. That will tell you a lot right there. If the old unit is a R-22 unit, the R-22 Freon is valuable because you can’t get it anymore. They will recover the R-22, sell it for a good bit.

Very high, that job around here would be between $4000, $6000.

Just had a similar size Amanda 16 seer heat pump installed with a gas furnace. The gas furnace was a new installation as the old system used electric heat strips. Total cost was $9K. Your system should easily be $2k less.

13 SEER???

im not an AC pro, but damn I didn't they even allowed the manufacture of anything that low of efficiency. 13seer is like 1990s type efficiency.

But I don't know for sure.

My buddy replaced a 27 year old unit this winter for $4000 in Idaho.
I don't recall the size, but his house is 2700 sf.

I just put in a new 4 ton 14 seer Trane Heat pump packaged unit....I paid 1400 Hundred bucks Wholesale for the unit.....AC Guy wanted 5000 for the unit and 2000 to install it.....I installed it in 2 Hours....

Someone is trying to rip off your parents.

This!!!

4 years ago, I had a new 5 ton American Standard installed along with a new gas heater. It is a 15 or 16 seer unit. It is the highest seer rating before you have to go to a dual stage compressor system. All ducts were changed. New plenum, and added 3 ducts and registers.
Also, my original evaporator/heater was in the wall. We moved it to a horizontal type unit in the attic. I also had to move the condenser to the other side of the house and run electrical to that side with a breaker box/disconnect. My house is right at 2300sf.

Total job cost me $6700. Your parents are getting ripped off.

Clyde

A friend of my grandson's parents are in the business and he's done that work all his life. He advised my son to get a American Standard unit. Their warrantee is the best in the business according to him.

I appreciate the responses. No ductwork is being replaced, other than what is needed to connect the new furnace to the existing. A mention of an "air exchanger" was made above....I'm not familiar with that. Are they cost effective? Appreciate the R-22 tip. I'll check the existing unit to see which refrigerant the unit has. The technician may have mentioned R-134, but not sure. Is there a recommended website for finding trade pricing? The several I've tried all need an account to get into the pricing areas, which I assume you need to register as a HVAC contractor.

Can't comment on the price, but when I got my HP replaced almost 8 years ago, the efficiency was, IIRC, 15/16. My electric bill went way down over what it was with the old, smaller unit. Surely there's a more efficient option.

I have American Standard too. It’s been in 20 years, no problems with it.

We had our 28 year old failed 4 ton GE A/C unit replaced around three years ago with a brand new 4 ton Trane unit. As I recall total cost of new unit and installation was between $ 3500 - $3,800. Label on the new Trane says it's rated at 14.0 - 15.5 SEER. I would guess if we had replaced our natural gas furnace with a new comparably efficient model as the new A/C at the same time it probably added no more than another $1200 - $1500 to the total cost.

You need to get more quotes. Building codes today, in most states, require 15 seer as a minimum and I don't think anyone even makes a 13 seer as current production. Some supplier may have an old stock unit around that is 13 seer and is just trying to push it off on you. As others have said, $5000.00 to $6000.00 is what the job is worth.

+1

I didn't even know you could buy an 80% efficient furnace anymore and 140,000 BTU seems like overkill for that size house. Maybe he is trying to move some old inventory.

Get a couple more quotes and don't let the new contractors know how much the existing quote is.


Jerry

11 months ago I had a Rheem 94 or 6 or-something efficiency furnace and two Rheem high efficiency air conditioning units installed. The price was 12K, which was high but I also had them move a 1 year old 80% unit from the stairway (yes the stairway: I renovated a duplex) to a room adjacent to the stairway so I could continue the renovation back to single family. They soaked me for that move. I was also able to recoup $2,025 from the power company for buying high efficiency units and thermostats.