Hi, I am the one who originally started this thread and I wanted to give a quick update: Our cotated coil has been working fine. No white flakes at all. The original issue may have been due to the fact that we are in a suprisingly humid micro climate, our coil is located in an unconditioned crawl space, and our AC system may have been oversized. Therefore, salt deposits/corrosion started to accumulate on the bare aluminum of the originally installed coil and started to flake off when we switched from colling to heating, as the warm air was passing the coil. To my knowledge, the white flakes were insoluble salt/corrosion deposits on the coil and therefore are not toxic! Anyway, if you have the same issue of white flakes comig off your aluminum coil, coating it may do the trick. I did not want that coating to be done on site and requested it to be done at the factory to a brand new coil in a more controlled environment in order to achieve the best results. One important note: if you decide to get a coated coil cleaned, do NOT use standard coil cleaners as they will destroy the coating. You need to use a specially forumlated ph-neutral cleaner. Most coil cleaners are not ph-neutral. I hope this helps.

Hi, guys - I had written an update yesterday but apparently it never posted. @ Austin Air, I'm not trying to get this done on cheap, just want quality work at a fair price hence my question here as to what is considered appropriate pricing for this work. @ mike_home, the house is 7 years old and we likely will be moving in the next year or two. The house was a spec. house which has been on the market for 9 months when we bought it from the builder - not sure if we had registered the HVAC right at that point whether or not the extended warranty to 10 years would have been instated, but we've missed that boat at this point. At this point, based upon the five quotes I've received (and two others who never called back/followed up), I've decided to go with the quote for $2,335 for the Trane unit which I verified is the all-in total cost including permitting and I should not expect any adders at the end. They really have been the most professional in the quoting process and documentation provided. I'm not sure whether Austin Air's comments are warning against that quote or one of the others, so I hope this is the right decision. I still don't know whether this is a fair price, but it seems to be the best I could do after contacting a variety of local contractors, both larger and smaller without trying national chains. On follow up, one of the other quotes dropped down to $2,200 for a direct replacement Goodman unit which would not require any adaptation, but I really don't like playing this changing quotes game and prefer to deal with the company that was the most up front and straight forward. All of the other quotes, both written and verbal, were provided simply as total costs with no further detail included. Anyway, installation is scheduled for Monday morning and I appreciate the feedback provided.

I grew up in Phoenix and lived in Tucson for about 10 years. In Phoenix you absolutely need regular central air and heat for comfort. Its just too dang hot for a swamp cooler to work. And that's dry heat. Tucson is at a slightly higher elevation and doesn't get quite as hot. I had a window swamp cooler in a tiny house there, but there were days when it just didn't work; either too hot or too humid. It wasn't a huge deal at the time, I was young, I was renting, I worked during the days. But in a retirement home, where you might be spending more time in the home, I would def go for maximum comfort. If you got a heat pump, you would have air and heat without a furnace. You can use a heat pump with ducts or mini-splits. You wouldn't need radiant heat or a wood stove. The heat pump can be installed outside like regular ac with splitters that come through the wall in each room and use wall mounted boxes. In a house like you are designing for ductless, you would probably need three boxes. Another advantage, is that you can turn off the boxes in rooms you are not using so you don't always need to cool or heat the entire house. For example, at night when sleeping, you could just use the box in the bedroom. Once up, you could just use the living area. You wouldn't need to use the box in the second bedroom unless you had guests. I think a heat pump with splitters is more expensive to purchase, but it the long run, it would save on electricity. A heat pump with ducts would be ideal, but you wouldn't be able to turn off the boxes in individual spaces.

Well your situation is rather unique, but in the terms of the warranty from manufacturer, the burden of proof still would fall on you. Homebuilders are not known for providing warranties / registering equipment --- there are a slew of home builder problems on this board. Some HVAC related, with many others completely different problems. I doubt the GC put it in his name because this would require work on his part, his name probably appeared there because he was the one who bought the machine from the manufacturer. Homebuilders 'typically' do not register the equipment, they are more interested in going off to the next build. They build, it's what they do. How do I know this? Because had he registered it in his name the warranty would be 10 years and not 5. If the equipment is not 'officially' registered there is no record of who 'owns' it, except of course who bought it. Equipment made these days have codes built in as to knowing the day and in some cases the hour in which the machine came off the assembly line. Without registration the manufacture allows up to 90 days beyond the date in which the machine came off the production line. So Mr./Mrs. home owner comes along buys a new home... wow everything is new, looks great. No worries everything is 'new'. You have a life so you don't concern yourself with things that 'could' go wrong. Like documentation of equipment warranties and things like that. As I said above, right - wrong or indifferent this is the way things work in this realm. (you don't have to like it, I didn't make up any of these rules -- I am not a homebuilder. I am the one who comes in and corrects homebuilder mistakes. I am not paid by the homebuilder -- I am paid by YOU. The homeowner.) It is up to you, the home owner to 'make sure' everything is to your liking. Including the name in which is on the contract specifying who owns the equipment at your home. Equipment warranties can be expensive for a manufacturer, there's paper work processing to validate that the warranty is credible or not, there's hacks out there that are claiming warranty when in fact there is nothing wrong. So because of all this nonsense that happened in the past has put us where we are now. I don't doubt that it took you time to sort this out. But in the eyes of the manufacturer they are standing there holding the tiniest violin in the world and playing 'Comb By Ah My Lord'.