I went from dying from heat to wearing a light sweater today in the morning and early evening. I don't know if it was just the drastic drop in temperature or if I such a "weather wuss" that high 60's/low 70's feel "coolish". Whatever, I'm just happy that the heat wave broke. LOL

Which do you all recommend? Still trying to decide on my 2nd floor system located in the attic. 10 year old A/C + furnace. A/C 2.5 ton/10 SEER is out, but furnace 80 AFUE works fine. Keep current Carrier Furnace, replace nonfunctional A/C with new Carrier Comfort series heat pump 3 ton/13 SEER. for $3500.00 or replace whole system with Carrier performance heat pump (25HPA5) 3 ton/15 SEER/8.5 HSPF and Furnace (58CTA)80 AFUE which after tax and manufacturer rebate will be about $4500.00 I'm leaning towrds the 2nd option myself. Thanks

I am not absolutely sure, but expect that it would. While the icomfort uses a proprietary protocol(there is no standard digital protocol in the industry--there was a standard for the old style predigital where single wires represented on/off for fan/heat/cooling cycles), it would be awkward for Lenox to change protocols. Their spare parts department would need to keep the old style around for a decade or so in case a thermostat failed. Generally, manufacturers of long life products try to maintain compatibility to simplify repair inventory. There is no reason to change the communications protocol. SLP98s are still relatively young in the product life cycle and the new ones have not gained any significant functionality other than being able to shift down as well as up. Make sure you have 4 (or more) thermostat wires in the wall for iComfort to connect to the furnace. This should not be a problem except in some homes with single stage heating and no A/C. The wires serve different functions than with an analog thermostat, but all that matters is that 4 are available. Wire quality requirements are quite loose and the distance requirement of under 300 feet of wire should not be a problem for any normal residential installation. On replacing the thermostat, work with power off to the furnace. You will likely need to change a DIP switch or jumpers on the furnace circuit board to reconfigure for iComfort operation before turning everything on. In two stage mode, certain wires carry power. In Icomfort mode the same wires carry data. So it is important that the furnace board be correctly configured before power flows through the thermostat wires.

Crooks101 I read your post and you mention that you will give Miele some time to resolve. I see that you are concerned about the dryer not being made in Germany although it is designed and made by Miele just not in Germany but in the Miele plant that makes commerical washers and dryers, but what is the issue you want resolved and what outcome will please you? I went with Miele products because of their lifetime design intent - the 15 to 20 years design life. which is much better than the current 5 to 7 year lifetime I keep hearing about for appliances. I don't want to replace anything every 5 or 7 years. I have other M appliances that have been trouble free for as much as 10 years. I did not go with Whirlpool even though I had a WP dryer because the build of their current models seems to be weak and not made as well as my older dryer, plus my experience with my last top of the line KitchenAid washer that had 5 repairs in 4 years and ended up to be a piece of trash, and finally I did not trust whirlpool because they now make several other brands so have no real competition. I have been thinking about the made in Germany phrase and wondering what I have been taking this to really mean. What do I want from this? It is made in Germany by pure blooded Germans? It is made in Germany so the design and quality will be good? Can it be designed and made by a German company in their factory in another country? Can it be made in Germany with imigrant workers from other countries who live and work in Germany and will it still be as good? What difference will result if it is designed in Germany but still made by the same company located in an adjacent country? So What does this really mean for me? Sunday/Monday was wash day and so far 8 or 9 loads have been completed. The heavy cotton towel load took about 45 minutes on the turbo extra dry setting. The normal without turbo setting does very well with most cottons and the t shirts that I wear as outter shirts and my polo shirts come out without wrinkles--I like this. I have a few perm press items. These came out great on the delicates setting. All loads have been completed within 20 to 25 minutes( of course the washer is still doing the next load) except the load of heavy cotton towels. Where is the lint? In my other dryer there was a lot of lint. There is some lint from this one but nothing near the amount the older one was creating. There is definitately more air moving and more air sound. My laundry is in the basement so sound is not too much of a concern but after runing a few loads it is not as noticeable when I am in the laundry area. Not sure but perhaps this large volume of air might have something to do with the ability to use lower heat and keep the clothes from wrinkleing as much. The air flucuation may be coming when the clothes fall in the path of the front vent. There was air flunction in my older unit because I could feel it outside, but of course there was also a lower volume of air moving. In any case most of my loads are cotton and nothing needs an iron to it so I am happy. I do think that you are going to hear more noise from flex metal or plastic pipe that is not fastened tightly because the volumn of air will move it. Also if your vent pipe is not following the diameter specified in the installation instructions you are going to have more of a problem. So far so good with this dryer. My next load will be items with a silk blend. I will wait a month or two and see what I think then.