Trane vs Lennox vs Carrier vs Goodman

Back in 2012, we posted an article called Trane vs. American Standard, What is the Difference? If you’d like to read that article, it can be found here.

That post remains one of the most popular articles on our blog and we receive daily inquiries on this subject, so we thought it would be good to not only revisit the topic, but also expand on it.

If you read that article, you now know there is absolutely no difference between Trane and American Standard with regards to components and models, but how do they stack up to other brands like Lennox, Carrier, Daikin, Rheem, Ruud, Bryant, Day & Night, Maytag, and the rest?

First let’s talk about what other brands also manufacture the same product under different names, just like the Trane / American Standard comparison.

Goodman Manufacturing in Houston, Texas makes all Goodman, Daikin, Amana, and Franklin branded air conditioners. Did you pay extra for the Amana name? It’s a Goodman!

Carrier Corporation (who recently announced they were shutting down their US based manufacturing facility and moving all manufacturing to Mexico next year) makes Carrier, Bryant, Day & Night, Payne, Arcoaire, Comfortmaker, Heil, KeepRite, and Tempstar.

Rheem Manufacturing makes Rheem, Ruud, and Weatherking.

Nortek Global “white labels” a lot of brands (same machine, different sticker) including; Maytag, Westinghouse, Broan, Frigidaire, Nutone, and Mammoth…to name a few. Thought about that Maytag Repairman commercial when you were buying that Maytag air conditioner? You own a Nortek!

 

Five HVAC Companies Make Twenty-Four Brands

 

If you took the time to count the air conditioner brands we listed above, you’d see that these five manufacturers alone are responsible for twenty-four of the brands on the market!

So why do they do it, why not just stick with one brand name? In short, it’s all about increasing market share.

All air conditioner manufacturers have figured out that they can increase their market share by changing the label and adding more distributors, while maintaining some level of exclusivity with each distributor.

Let’s take Phoenix, AZ as an example, where we, Magic Touch Mechanical are located (our main offices are located in Mesa, AZ). Naturally this is one of the hottest HVAC markets in the country (pun intended). If you were to throw a rock in any direction from our office, you would hit an air conditioning and heating equipment distributor. Each of these distributors represents a different brand of equipment, however some are the same manufacturer just rebranded.

So now that you know one of the HVAC manufacturers’ dirty little secrets, let’s talk about another similarity most of these brands have in common…components. When you visit these HVAC manufacturing facilities you start to notice another similarity between them. Most are all using third party components from the same manufacturers as well. For example, odds are General Electric or Dayton made the condenser fan motor in your air conditioner, Copeland probably made your compressor, and Sporlan most likely made your TXV (Thermostatic Expansion Valve) and filter/driers. In fact, it’s not until you start looking at some of the upper end, high efficiency air conditioners that you really see that much difference between them all.

The biggest difference is going to be the level of service the HVAC Contractor receives from the distributor. The better service the contractor receives from the distributor, the better service they can deliver to you, the end user!

What do we mean by that? Well, let’s take this upcoming weekend where it is forecasted to reach 117°F (that’s not a typo, that’s how we roll in Phoenix, Arizona!). Air conditioners are going to break down this weekend, a lot of them, and that includes newer ones too. Some distributors will have plenty of parts on hand for their loyal contractors, some will remain open all weekend, some will open up after hours for their best customers…and others don’t or won’t.

So one big difference is; if you’re A/C broke down this weekend, would it be up and running at the end of the day…or are your parts being special ordered and expected in 7-10 days?

Of course, your air conditioning company plays a huge role in this too. Are they open on the weekends? Are they an important enough client to the distributor that they can get an after-hours opening? Is the weekend technician equipped to & qualified to make a major repair if needed?

Stay tuned for our upcoming posts diving deeper into the differences between air conditioning brands, but for now remember, it’s still more important that you choose the best air conditioning contractor than which brand you choose! Take a company like Magic Touch Mechanical; we are open seven days a week (no additional fees), our weekend technicians are equipped and qualified to do a major HVAC repair on a weekend, our distributors will open when we need them to, and we don’t put all of our eggs in one basket anyway…we represent four major manufacturers for a reason (remember the component similarities?).

For now, we’ll leave you with this, there is more in common between air conditioning brands and equipment than most people know…a lot of times they even share the same address on their birth certificate!

For award winning air conditioning installation and service in the Mesa, AZ and Greater Phoenix Metro area, give Magic Touch Mechanical a call today!

 

TRANE VS LENNOX VS CARRIER VS GOODMAN