Newly Redesigned Trane Air Handlers - Good or Bad Design?

[gravity]

it is a no about the filters. it doesnt matter if it is blow thru or suck thru...the physics are the same.

[Florida Joy]

The Lennox AH he wants to sell you probably has about the same amount of leakage, but it is sucking air in through the leaks instead of blowing it out.

Yeah, that makes sense!

The AS/Trane air handler also has an all aluminum coil, so is immune to the types of corrosion that have been plaguing the industry, is better insulated, has no fibrous materials in contact with the air stream, and all of the internal surfaces can be easily cleaned.

As with any radically new product, there have been some minor issues, but they have been dealt with as they become evident, at no charge.

IMO, it is the best air handler currently on the market, arguably the best there has ever been.

I forgot to mention it, but the Lennox guy also mentioned that Trane aluminum coils have had problems leaking refrigerant since the material was so much thinner than the copper coils. Has that been resolved?

If you need/want a highly efficient filter, the ideal time to have a high efficiency air cleaner installed would be when a new air handler is being installed.

I know. I've considered it, but the height of the filter cabinet would require lowering the cabinet the a/h sits on, which would block a portion of the return air grille and also require patching drywall with lumber where the cabinet is cut down. Not worth the hassle when I can simply replace the 1" 3M filters with Honeywell FC40R 5" deep filters that will fit in the 1" slot of the existing filter grille.

[Florida Joy]

it is a no about the filters. it doesnt matter if it is blow thru or suck thru...the physics are the same.

[mark beiser]

I forgot to mention it, but the Lennox guy also mentioned that Trane aluminum coils have had problems leaking refrigerant since the material was so much thinner than the copper coils. Has that been resolved?

There was never an issue to resolve, the guy is a salesman blowing smoke up your butt.
Admittedly the company I work for is a small low volume shop, but since they started switching over in 2006, I've only had one AS/Trane all aluminum coil leak, and it was at a factory solder joint.

I wouldn't even consider a product that still uses copper tube indoor coils.
AS/Trane and Goodmana are the only ones I'm aware of that are fully changed over to all aluminum coils.
Carrier and some 3rd party coil manufacturers have at least part of their product lines switched over to all aluminum tube and fin coils

[motoguy128]

If it's anything like the Carrier "new" series furnace enclosures, you'll like it. Very clean look, A little quieter than previous designs and it seems like the doors are pretty easy to remove and reinstall.

[Florida Joy]

I forgot to mention it, but the Lennox guy also mentioned that Trane aluminum coils have had problems leaking refrigerant since the material was so much thinner than the copper coils. Has that been resolved?

There was never an issue to resolve, the guy is a salesman blowing smoke up your butt.

Admittedly the company I work for is a small low volume shop, but since they started switching over in 2006, I've only had one AS/Trane all aluminum coil leak, and it was at a factory solder joint.

I've googled Trane evap coil leaks and there does seem to be quite a few complaints, some very recent. Take a look at RipOff Report, for instance.

[jtrammel]

I have heard guys in the trade talking about trane evaporator coils leaking recently but havnt ran across any myself. Trane has probably resolved the issue if there ever was one

[billygoat22]

I knew there would be a perception of a problem when I first felt the air leaking out them.

customers couldn't feel the air sucking in, but the air leaking out would be obvious. Trane has added a sticker to the cabinent now informing customers of it. also, air pulling into a unit installed outside the conditioned space are prone to corrosion as the humidity wets cold surfaces inside the unit.

They do tend to make more return duct noise, since the blower is no longer "muffled" by the upstream coil. personlaay, I don't like the lines coming out the center of the unit, nor the captive door once the drain lines installed.

Do like the al construction of the coil, eev, new insulation package. don't like that wires embedded in the insualtion- if damaged, have to replace the cabinent to fix (or I suppose run new wiring loose in the cabinent).

[mark beiser]

I've googled Trane evap coil leaks and there does seem to be quite a few complaints, some very recent. Take a look at RipOff Report, for instance.

Try the same search with some other brand names.

"Lennox evap coil leaks" returns about 82,000 more results than "Trane evap coil leaks", and "Carrier evap coil leaks" gives more than 2 million results.

There is not a single manufacturer that hasn't had huge problems with failures of copper tube indoor coils.
Several equipment manufacturers have switched, or are in the process of switching to aluminum coils, AS/Trane just happened to be first by a few years.
Even 3rd party coil manufacturers are switching to all aluminum.

Aluminum indoor coils are not new to the industry.
30+ years ago Carrier and GE both made all aluminum indoor coils. Other than leaks caused by mechanical damage to the coil, I've never found one to be leaking in the aluminum part in the 20 years I've been doing this.
The leaks have always been at the field connected mechanical fittings

[Florida Joy]

I knew there would be a perception of a problem when I first felt the air leaking out them.

customers couldn't feel the air sucking in, but the air leaking out would be obvious. Trane has added a sticker to the cabinent now informing customers of it. also, air pulling into a unit installed outside the conditioned space are prone to corrosion as the humidity wets cold surfaces inside the unit.

They do tend to make more return duct noise, since the blower is no longer "muffled" by the upstream coil. personlaay, I don't like the lines coming out the center of the unit, nor the captive door once the drain lines installed.

Do like the al construction of the coil, eev, new insulation package. don't like that wires embedded in the insualtion- if damaged, have to replace the cabinent to fix (or I suppose run new wiring loose in the cabinent).

Thanks for your feedback! I really appreciate it.

[Florida Joy]

Try the same search with some other brand names.

Other than leaks caused by mechanical damage to the coil, I've never found one to be leaking in the aluminum part in the 20 years I've been doing this. The leaks have always been at the field connected mechanical fittings

Gotcha! Thanks.

[billygoat22]

GE and then Trane had spine fin coils made of al, and Carrier had a run of units w/ al cond coils once.

The few leaks I found were where something rubbing through a tube. Trane has a repair splice kit that fixes that, or the mech joint leak.

Fixed a condensor 20+ yrs old that happened on. far as I know, its still running.