My 25 year old home needed new furnaces. The main floor is about 2600 sq ft and the upstairs 1000 sq ft. There is 2 HVAC systems, one larger than the other.
Yesterday we had them both replaced with Goodman 80% furnaces and upgraded to variable speed fan. We also got new compressors and humidifiers.
One of my complaints of our old Carrier system is the noise. Our family room and master bedroom are over the basement area with the furnace in it. You could hear the furnace more than any other home I had lived in.
I told this to the owner of the local HVAC company and he told me the new one would be much quieter. He also said one of the many benefits of a variable speed blower is how quiet they are.
The new system is even louder. When watching TV in my family room, I had to turn up the volume when the furnace came on. I woke up in bed last night from the noise of the furnace running. I am supposed to pay this guy today, but I am not happy. When I complained to the installer about the noise, he said Goodman's were one the louder types.
Because I was buying 2 complete systems, I was price conscious, and I know Goodman is a "value" brand, but I was not informed that I was compromising on sound.

What can you guys suggest I do? Should a variable speed blower be quieter? Is there any type of duct work or insulation that can help?

Thank you,

Mike
Northern, IL

UPDATE! I talked to the owner and he wants to come out and check the speeds of the blower and maybe set it for a lower speed so it is quieter? Should I let him? What if the upper levels or further away rooms don't get enough air this way? Maybe I won't know there is an issue until summer?
What do you think?

If you have read many of my posts you should know by now what I think of Goodman, so I won't beat a dead horse. If this is a single stage furnace, blower has to move enough air to cool the heat exchanger. The manufacturer will have a suggested temperature rise, say if it is 40-65 degrees you want it about 50 degree rise, if the blower is slowed too much the rise will be higher, then all it takes is a dirty filter or some closed registers to put the heat rise over the limit, this will cause nuisance no heat calls and fatigued limits. When cooling you use a higher speed equal to 400 cubic feet of air per minute multiplied by the number of tons of cooling, so a 3 ton A/C requires 1200 CFM. So I expect you will be less happy when the A/C is on. There are other furnaces on the market, notably the Rheem modulating furnace, that most people can't even hear the heat when its on, unfortunately you still get blower noise, mostly air turbulence when the A/C is on.

Well the owner and tech came out and adjusted the blower speeds, but it is still quite loud. I understand my family room is directly above the furnace room, but it is too loud. When I am at my workbench in the furnace room and it comes on, it is is VERY annoying.

The owner has offered to replace the Goodman furnaces with comparable Trane models for $800. This would include 2 stage furnaces, blowers and 2 stage thermostats that can also control the humidifiers. So I am losing the variable speed blowers, which was an $900 option. He thinks the variable speed fans run faster and may cause some of the noise.

Do you have an opinion of this deal? Should I trade variable speed blowers for 2 stage blowers and thermostats. Any problem keeping the Goodman compressors and A coils with a Trane furnace?

Thanks,

MIKE

It is no problem at all to keep the Goodman A/c with a Trane furnace. The ECM motor is very efficient electrically, and it would be a shame to lose that. But a Trane for the Goodman at 800 dollars sounds like he is being quite decent and working with you. ECM motors will get quite loud if there is not enough ductwork to support its CFM requirements. See a typical motor is dumb and just runs the best it can. An ECM motor knows what torque it is working at and will adjust the RPM to try and achieve the work load it is programmed to do.

Well I paid $900 extra for the 2 variable speed blowers, which he is taking away, and then Paying $800 more for the Tranes, so I am figuring it is really $1,700 but he claims to be throwing in a pair of 2 stage thermostats.
What do you think of the 2 stage thermostats? If I am correct, the 2 stage furnace runs on low for 10 minutes and if it hasn't achieved temp, it goes to stage 2. With a 2 stage thermostat, a temp diff of 1 degree calls for stage 1, any more calls for stage 2. I don't see how one is much better than the other, do you?

Thanks,

MIKE

Honestly I don't push much 2 stage equip, just 1 more bell and whistle to break. If you just use a single stage stat and let time go into Hi fire you keep a more even house temperature with a digital stat. I you do a on second stage demand configueration. This will be the most efficient. A furnace is least efficient the more it cycles on and off, due to the warm up phase. There is a multi stage furnace I like very much, with an ECM blower motor. He prob' would have added 600-800 dollars in the original bid for a trane over the Goodman, still I don't know why he didn't make that offer. I sell 4 types of equipment and tell people the pro's and cons of warranties, equipment differences, including noise and if it's value line... it probably is just that. The Goodman may not even have a GE motor, they developed the technology, and even though they are having some troubles with the module, they are still the best ones out there.

Your going to like this: The big, main floor furnace won't ignite! I noticed it was about 65F so I checked it out and found the igniter won't spark. I watched run about 4 cycles and finally I used a fireplace light to get it started and it fired right up.
I called the service and the tech called me back in 5 minutes, will be out in an hour. Not bad for a Saturday.
I already regret the Goodman choice. I hope the compressors hold up this summer.

Sorry to hear that. Actually I'm not as put off by Goodman's AC's they seem to hold up pretty well.

Goodman is just a bad furnace. My guy, Park and Sons or Emergency Heating and Repair in Omaha Nebraska was rinky dink, and I KNEW is hould not have accepted his lower bid. But I did and now with the furnace breaking down after three months, he won't respond to my calls. Spend the extra money if you are reading this: No Goodman, and use a reputable dealer.

Mike, just a side-note for future reference: Your "Goodman's" here should actually not have the apostrophe in it. You meant just the plural form of "Goodman" (furnaces), and so that should just say "Goodmans," without the apostrophe.

Mike, just a side-note for future reference: Your "Goodman's" here should actually not have the apostrophe in it. You meant just the plural form of "Goodman" (furnaces), and so that should just say "Goodmans," without the apostrophe.


Yeah, we just got our 25-year-old 80%-or-LESS-efficient (I don't know what it was) Day & Night furnace, which kept on blowing out its pilot and whose heat exchanger cracked, in our condo replaced with a 96%-efficient Guardian (I couldn't choose the brand because instead, we had the government weatherization program replace our furnace because we qualified--whoo-hoo--and they choose the brand), and this new one is a good one, but it is LOUDER, too. It reminds us of taking off and flying in a jet plane!

I'll read through these answers to see what can be done to help us, too.

Oops, I didn't mean to make the two posts right in a row there. How do I erase my previous answer?

And FFR for you, too, Northern Heat: no need for the apostrophe in that "pro's"--what you meant as the plural of "pro"--either. It's just "PROS."

Omaha Joe... That Park and Sons guy charged my mom a ridiculous amount for a furnace fan. When I called to complain, he was rude and vulgar.