Consumer Reports December 20, 2019
Most and Least Reliable Gas Furnaces
We analyzed data from our members on 24 different furnace brands from such well-known manufacturers as Lennox, Trane, and Carrier and lesser-known players like Day & Night, Comfortmaker, and Tempstar.
Here’s a breakdown of the winners and losers among gas furnace brands. Eighteen brands earn passable scores for predicted reliability, but only one brand gets our highest rating.
In our survey, Payne stands out as the most reliable brand of gas furnace. It's the only brand to earn an Excellent rating for predicted reliability, which estimates how likely a furnace is to experience problems by the 10th year of ownership. Six other brands get a Very Good rating for predicted reliability: American Standard, Bryant, Carrier, Rheem, Rudd, and Trane.
Of the seven brands that rate well for reliability, two—American Standard and Trane—receive a top rating of Excellent for owner satisfaction, which reflects how likely members are to recommend the brand to friends or family. Four of the top brands earn a Very Good rating for owner satisfaction: Bryant, Carrier, Rheem, and Rudd. But even though Payne stands out for its predicted reliability, it earns only a Good rating for owner satisfaction.
Six brands receive Poor marks for reliability in our survey: Coleman, Luxaire, York, Frigidaire, Maytag, and White-Westinghouse. Because of their poor showing, Consumer Reports can't recommend any of these gas furnace brands at this time. Of these six brands, three earn Fair ratings for owner satisfaction—Frigidaire, Maytag, and White-Westinghouse—and three earn a slightly better rating of Good: Coleman, Luxaire, and York.
The remaining 11 brands all receive a reliability rating of Good, and 10 of them also earn a Good rating for owner satisfaction. Of the brands in the middle of the pack for reliability, only Lennox earns an Excellent rating for owner satisfaction.
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