re: Carrier vs Ruud in the thunderdome. Decision is soon.

Trane all the way! I have a great AC guy in Houston. Not sure of your tonnage but get the 14 SEER Trane for $7500.

Trane is top of the line. Lennox was good until they started putting in bad coils from Mexico in 2012 which resulted in a huge lawsuit. People are still having to replace coils and all new 410a Puron after new units 2-3 yrs old.

Carrier is having similar issues just not as large of a scale. May companies are trying to convince homeowners to get the 16 Seer Carrier for great price. They had a glut of oversupply because they wanted to produce a bunch quickly and used inferior parts.

Ameristar is reliable and cheap and use the Trane coils in their system. Goodman is cheap and steady.

Stay away from Coleman, York, Lennox at all costs and don't fall for the 16 Seer carriers.

Trane has been top of the line and continues to be so.

Last year in current house installed 5 ton Trane, all new ductwork, electronic dampers, 2 new nest thermostats, new gas lines, new cement pad, etc for $7800.

Buying a new house which needs a new AC, has a 4 ton York and 3 ton York. The 3 ton has a small coil leak. Day after closing putting in a new 3 ton Trane for $4,500.

I have an American Standard, coils started leaking 3 years in and at a little over 5 years I replaced the inside unit with a Ruud because they were leaking after again after they replaced it under the warranty (Still cost $500 for labor and coolant). The only person to tell me Ruud was a bad choice was the A/C guy I got a quote from but didn't give the work to.

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Ruud Achiever Plus 2 Stage at a 17 SEER?

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price sounds a tad high, based on what I paid not too long ago, don't know much about that industry anymore but when I used to be somewhat familiar it was similar to appliances, water heaters, etc., in that no matter what the name on the outside was, the guts were all manufactured by only two or three companies

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This was a 12k quote

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replaced both units at my house over the last couple of years, I'd have to look it up but pretty sure I paid less than half of that for 14-16 seer

ETA: looked it up, $5k for a 14 seer about 15 months ago, DFW area

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After the recent A/C debates on here, I paid attention to the brands while working in a new DR Horton neighborhood. I found they installed Carrier exclusively. Considering how shitty (shittily?) they construct their houses, that’s all I needed to know. I’m never installing a Carrier at my place. Ever

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I had a Dr Horton home 7-8 years ago and we had a Carrier. The compressor went out in less than 2 years.

How many Tons OP?

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Do people finance Central A/C systems?

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yes

yeah

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I have posted here before regarding Consumer Reports’ 2016 Fall Product Reliability Survey of 14,452 owners of conventional central air conditioning systems, purchased new between 2009 and 2016. They state differences of fewer than 6 points between brands aren’t meaningful. These are the expected rate of failure in the first 5 years based on that data for non heat pumps. The numbers go up a bit for heat pumps with only minor juggling in the order.

American Standard - 15%
Trane - 16%
Bryant - 16%
Lennox - 17%
Carrier - 18%
Amana - 18%
Ruud - 21%
Goodman - 22%
Rheem -24%
York - 25%

As you can see, the statistical differences are barely meaningful between the top and bottom and the difference between Carrier and Ruud are not outside of 6%.

My personal experiences with Trane have been excellent, every quote I've ever gotten from Carrier or Amana (not rated here) has been ridiculously high. Bryant was also somewhat high for me. My suggestion is always get multiple quotes from multiple dealers who have good reputations. You will be astounded at price differences. If you can find a smaller trustworthy operation, stick with them if possible, installation can play a huge roll in reliability.