I have read that Goodman Furnaces have a fair amount of issues. I recently got a very good estimate from a reliable installer who uses this brand.

Should I be concerned if I go with this brand? Some people go so far as to say they are junk. From what I have seen it has more repairs that other brands but I have also read Goodman has fixed several flaws in the last few years and is reliable.

I don't want to be blinded by a good price.

Thanks in advance.

For the money Goodman has the BEST warranty out there. For like an extra $100 for a warranty they will cover up to 10 years of compressor replacement plus paying about $400 for labor, last I checked. As a comparison, last year we replaced about 26 Trane compressors. Same installers installing Goodman. 1 compressor failure for the Goodman. Those 2 projects were done within 6 months of each other and far less problems with the Goodmans. In my 14 years in this field I can best remember only having to change out or condeming less then 10 Goodman compressors. My opinion with Goodman is overall best buy up to 15 SEER. Anything more effiecient Trane or Carrier. Another plus for Goodman all parts are usually easy to find and most times much cheaper in price. As for the furnaces I think they also make one of the best 90% gas furnace out there. Again great warranties and not near as costly. Brian

I will agree that the Goodman/Janitrol A/C condensing unit have few problems, but I cannot give any kind of positive recommedation for their furnaces. Nothing but trouble will await you. Do yourself a favor and spend a little extra and avoid the headaches...

Over the last 20 years we have sold Goodman / Amana, Luxaire, York, Keeprite, Heil, Olsen, and Claire furnaces. One of the reasons we switched to Goodman / Amana was the Warranty that they put on there equipment. In the market we are our furnaces run an average of 8 months a year and reliability is a large issue to the contractors. Once we switched to Goodman the amount of Service Bulletins have reduced to almost none.
To be honest a furnace is a furnace no manufacture makes all the parts for there equipment so if there is a Control board issue it will likely effect more than one brand of equipment. The same is for the Hot Surface igniter, Blower motor, Gas Valve, Venter, Pressure Switches, and most of the other electrical parts.
What I tell consumers is you must feel comfortable with the contractor you choose. If the contractor is a certified and legitimate contractor they will look after any of the service and warranty issues as they arise.

As inland stated, choose an reliable contractor. I work on less Goodman than any other make. When building my home I put in a Goodman. Have had no issues with it in the 5 years it's been in. Also parts are less expensive and easy to get

Agree with both above... parts are mostly less costly... the main part on Goodman furnaces I find myself replacing is the Hot surface ignitors. Cheap part, almost always can use a universal ignitor. But if installed half... you will pay in the end..

Its low end and hard to get warranty. Take a look at how many people looked at this question with only 5 replies. I would say they have problems or questions about the equipment to.

If you are having a warranty issue then the contractor you are dealing with may be the problem.
We are a distributor and the policy that we have to deal with from Goodman is all warranty paper work has to be filed within 5 day's of the part failure and then they will make sure there paper is completed in under 5 day's. To date we have not had any warranty parts rejected.
I look at other furnaces on the market and the Goodman are not a low end unit in comparison. I will not put down any other brand but I can tell you that there are other units that are much cheaper and have a lot of service issues.

My experience with Goodman has been fairly foul. It wasn't the equipment, however-but the installing mechanic. Typically, Goodman (aka Janitrol, Amana, and several other names) is used in a low bid situation and is favored by bootleggers, jacklegs, and shady mechanics of all types. Then we get the calls to come out and remedy the problems due to shoddy installation, but the equipment somehow gets the blame.

If your contractor is quality, you should have no concerns as he should stand behind what he sells.

Ask him what's in *his* house. LOL.

Sometimes it's not the equipment...

If it's a vote of confidance you`re looking for I sell nothing but Goodman,, the biggest prob. I have is ignitors,but even if it 4 years 11 months and 29 dAYS since it was installed they have never given me a problem with replacing any part,, have a good installer to give you work referance`s and maybe a spare ignitor to hank in a safe spot ,they always go bad on Saturday night when you can`t get anyone to come out. You can replace it in less than 5 minutes

[ I cannot give any kind of positive recommedation for their furnaces. Nothing but trouble will await you. Do yourself a favor and spend a little extra and avoid the headaches... [/QUOTE]

I spent the big bucks on a trane and nothing but problems... and headaches... and cold feet...
With all the outsourcing that we americans do, I'd say it is a crap shoot. One of my sisters has a goodman heat pump that has been all trouble. Others I know have had very good service from their goodman units. Do your research and follow your heart.
Good day...

Never buy a Goodman. They are the lowest price for a reason. I had mine installed by Park and Sons (or Emergency Heating and Repair) in Omaha, the lowest bid by 1000.00, and three months later it is breaking down. Spend the extra money and get a beter unit.

"Is Goodman a good furnace?"

Finding an honest furnace or air conditioner review is hard because everyone is biased in one way or another. I decided to write this furnace review to give my opinion with facts
I have been repairing and installing furnaces and air conditioners for 21 years so I have a good amount of experience in the subject.

I have found that furnaces have evolved over the years to a point now where the manufacturers are offering a high quality product that will last many years. When high efficiency furnaces first came out, each manufacturer had its own idea on how to build a furnace and by trial and error they slowly worked out the problems to where now they are all are building a good furnace.

The furnace manufacturers actually just build the heat exchanger, cabinet, housings etc. They buy the circuit boards, motors, burners, controls, limit switches, draft inducers, pressure controls, gas valves, ignition controls, and hot surface igniters from the companies that build them like GE, Honeywell, White Rodgers, Robertshaw, etc.

You generally read comments about furnace brands that have a negative slant. This is because people who have had a bad experience tend to have the drive to tell the world about it while the people who are satisfied are content to leave it at that. The truth is every brand has to be repaired now and then and since the manufacturers who build the main working parts of the furnaces build them for every furnace manufacturer, I do not see a big difference in number of repairs from one brand to the next.

Then how should you choose which furnace brand to buy? It is important to purchase your furnace from someone you can trust to install it properly and who will back up the warranty if something should go wrong later on. I recommend that you try to buy locally so you are important to the business that you are buying from and not just another anonymous customer who does not matter. The manufacturers warranty is a big factor to look at. If the furnace does break in the future, you don't want to be stuck with a large repair bill. Today you can find lifetime warranties on heat exchangers and 10 years on all other parts. If they don't offer this warranty, keep looking because some do and it is better to let the manufacturer pay for the repair instead of you. After all if they spend all of that money on advertising trying to convince you to buy their furnace let them back it up with a good warranty!

Don't pay for your furnace over and over again with high gas bills. There are two somewhat standard efficiency ratings on furnaces that are sold today, 80% and 95%. You can think of the difference as being this: for every dollar that you pay your utility company for natural gas for your furnace, with the 80% model, 80 cents out of every dollar heats the house and 20 cents is wasted up the chimney. While the 95% efficiency model only loses 5 cents out of every dollar out the vent. So can see over time the amount of money you can save by installing a 95% furnace will easily pay for the difference in price over the 80% model and save you money every year after that.

I have installed many brands of furnaces over the years and have narrowed my offerings down to one brand. I now only install Goodman furnaces and air conditioners because I have found no better unit on the market that offers the price and warranty that I believe my customers want. Some of my customers have not heard of Goodman furnaces and air conditioners because of their lack of consumer advertising. This a plus, because who wants to pay for all of the expensive advertising that gets passed down to the consumer in the form of higher prices? Goodman had sales of 1.9 billion dollars last year and with out all of those expensive ads. You must be doing something right to become one of the largest manufacturers of furnaces in the United States with out all kinds of advertising. I also like the way Goodman backs me up if I need a warranty part without undue paperwork or making it difficult to return the part.

All furnace manufacturers have websites that you can review their products. Here is the link for Goodman. The thing to watch out for while you look for a new furnace is not to be sucked in by a celebrity who is trying to convince you that one brand is better than the next without telling you the things that matter like warranty and price.

I hope this clears up some of the confusion in trying to pick one brand over another.

My name is John and I own Schuebel's Heating and Air Conditioning in Woodbury Minnesota.

I work just in my area so I can be responsive to my customers needs.
My website is www.Woodburyheating.com
:) :)

If you are having a warranty issue then the contractor you are dealing with may be the problem.
We are a distributor and the policy that we have to deal with from Goodman is all warranty paper work has to be filed within 5 day's of the part failure and then they will make sure there paper is completed in under 5 day's. To date we have not had any warranty parts rejected.
I look at other furnaces on the market and the Goodman are not a low end unit in comparison. I will not put down any other brand but I can tell you that there are other units that are much cheaper and have a lot of service issues. As a HVAC contractor set up to sell goodman equipment and do warranty(along with all major brands) it was very difficult to claim warranty in my area. Goodman is great for a contractors model and works great. I'm just saying you get what you pay for in my area.

Per consumer reports re: Goodman

We found no statistically meaningful differences in percent of models ever repaired for the brands listed below. For 5 of the 6 years examined, Goodman furnaces were much less reliable than the listed brands. Goodman isn't listed because the sample size in 2001 was slightly too small.

I had a goodman furnace for one year. It made so much condensation that it filled my floor vents with water this caused them to rust, so I had to revent my house over head and replace the carpet, a bathroom vanity,and sheet rock in two rooms. Grand Total about 10,000 bucks no savings there.

Your problem sounds like a bad(very bad) installation . Its situations like yours that makes good equipment look bad and good contracters get bad reputations because of the few uneducated installers that don`t know everything they should know

Got to agree w/ wmproop. If your duct work is sweating then that is an install issue and not an equipment issue. Whom ever installed your furnace should have taken the time to inspect your duct work fully and insulate if this was to be a problem.

18+ years of field experience, and I have nothing good to say about Goodman/Janitrol. They may offer a comparable parts warranty, but that does not cover the labor. If I were you, I would avoid this brand- a good deal up front will likely turn into a big hole in your pocket later.

The only time a piece of Goodman equipment will be in one of my trucks is on the way to the dump.