Coolray?

[dob]

Anyone have thoughts on Coolray? If I had to pick one from the first 3 estimates, it would be them...

[Dad]

I heard they didn't sell Coolray north of the rock

Too many sheets up there

[wyounger]

I have had an estimate from Coolray... about a year ago, for the condo association's clubhouse. I don't remember how thorough the salesman was about doing a load calculation, but I remember that we disagreed about sizing. One contractor that had taken a lot of time on measurements and Manual J specified a three ton, and the guy from Cool-Ray specified 5 tons.

There were a lot of weird factors involved; the building doesn't have much heat load of its own, but has lots of moisture sources and a long history of problems with humidity control. The original systems (one for the main floor and one for the basement) were massively oversized- 7 tons total for 1800 square feet, with all the complaints that oversizing brings. We combined the floors into a two zone system. It's mostly unoccupied, but a few times a year 30-40 people may jam into it for a meeting. Cool-Ray, along with at least one other contractor, was so afraid of a small system not keeping up during those meetings once in a blue moon that they really wanted to keep some oversizing, despite the humidity issues.

Now that the system has been in for awhile, I am starting to think we could have gone even smaller, so frankly I'm really glad I went with Estes in this case. In a more typical job, though, Coolray may do fine. It's a weird enough case that you can't really hold it against them.

That does remind me, though, of one of the better quotes I've read around here. Unfortunately I don't remember who said it. The gist is that the guy who spends the most time taking measurements and doing the load calculations will probably end up specifying the smallest tonnage system, and the smallest tonnage system that gets recommended is probably still a little bit bigger than it should be.