What’s a good A/C brand that y’all would recommend?

Most of my neighborhood here in Houston runs Carrier.

Shop first for a quality installer over the brand of equipment - there is no consensus that any one HVAC manufacturer has superior equipment over another. There are 5 HVAC manufacturers in the USA that produce over 75 brands of HVACs, but of course there are different grades/quality of HVAC equipment within each line. Trane=American Standard, Carrier=Bryant, Rheem=Ruud, Goodman=Daikan.... and by equal I mean these brands are basically identical units made in the same factory with the same components, with just a different color paint and name on the unit - but you’ll typically pay more for the most widely known name. For example, you may pay more for a Trane than an American Standard although the equipment might be identical.

I’d want a unit made/assembled in the USA vs Mexico.

Ask if the installers if they conduct a manual J heat load to size the unit for your square footage of conditioned area. 3.5 tons sounds to be way over-sized for 1600 sq ft unless the house is old, leaky (air infiltration) and has poor insulation. You likely need no more than a 3 ton, and likely smaller, but that what the manual J heat load calculation tells you. Here is a free calculator you can use LINK to calculate it yourself. Many installers will just quote you replacing the size unit you already have, or use a 1 ton per 500 sq ft rule of thumb - that’s not the proper way to size the unit you need for your house.

The biggest problem HVAC techs say they see with homeowners with home comfort issues is oversized HVAC equipment (tonnage) with undersized ducts.

Good luck - maybe you can find a quality HVAC company that has installation techs that look like Hailey Outland.

trane is the best and lennox is second best, but after that there really is very to no difference in the rest

Hard to stop a Trane...

quote:

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lennox is second best

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I had a 4 ton Trane unit installed 18 months ago and am very pleased with it. The one before that was a Heil and it lasted me 22 years and still working when I swapped it out for the Trane.

My house is now 11yr old.

It has 3 units. When we bought the house they were all Goodman units and from the 1st year we had nothing but issues with them.I replaced more capacitors than you can imagine.

2yrs ago, 2 of the 3 units finally gave up the ghost and we replaced them with Carrier. Those 2 have been really good in that time.

the 3rd goodman is on its last leg and will likely need to be replaced this fall.

I will shite on goodman every chance I get. Can't stand them.

American Standard

Rheem