Cambridge Heating and Cooling

An important edit as to (lack of) follow-up service from Cambridge is at the end of this tome.

That was the price before taxes btw.

I guess I started this review Monday evening:

I will be back in 24 hours to update this on callback service as I am only getting stage 2 heating. That should not be happening. The furnace should do stage 1 first. Seems like a software glitch or relay-type device to me. A plug in module on the board I expect. That is my educated guess. Waiting to hear back from a tech.

UPDATE: The misunderstanding was wholly mine. The display code in the configuration of this furnace NEVER shows the Ht1 code. It always shows Ht2 and one just has to let it ramp up to second stage to hear the louder blower noise and note the increase fan cfm in the display. (Multiply by ten). Not clearly explained in the manual. All is understood by me now.

(Sunday edit: Bottom line, I would say it is a software glitch that has the display show Ht2 all the time. Trane could solve that with some lines of code in a software update, and get that to me when it's done, please.)

I got a good price for the install of the furnace. I had decided I wanted to replace an ailing 14 + year-old Trane with a model that appealed to me, based on my research and experience.

I am 100% satisfied with every aspect of the installation. Solidly and properly levelled in place after removal of old one, good metal work on the new transition that was needed, joints were all foil-taped as I would do myself. Good work routing venting over laundry and away from my head. New holes drilled out of wall for venting. Very happy with the result.

I highly recommend Cambridge based on my own experience, from getting the quote through to the end of the job. Guys were great, hard-working.

They were the lowest estimate, and the work could not have been done better.

I watched it all being done and attest to that.

Oops, I just realized that we didn't go through the menu functions of this new furnace, the installer and me. There are some good selections that can be adjusted to suit the home.

The default air conditioning tonnage is 3.0 and the installer should have set that to my 1.5. One point lost out of 100. Peter later explained to me that in many cases customers just want fast air movement. My system was designed with adequate airflow throughout the house, some thirty years ago, so I don't need it. (Set at 3 tons the blower would be far too many CFMs for my home. Wouldn't notice that till summer. Sunday edit)

I did the change myself, and I did tell Peter that I would do those settings later.

There is a Menu button, and an Option button behind the front panel.

The front panel requires a 6 mm (not 5), hex wrench or needle nosed pliers as a bypass tool to open. A small flat screwdriver might work. Be careful, this may not be for the average person to try to deal with. I am acquainted with stuff like this, and know my home very well.

Do any of this at your own risk!

They don't want this panel easily opened, likely as a safety feature.

But you give the four latches, 2 top and 2 on bottom quarter turns left and pull out the door. Watch the weatherproofing type rubber at the edges of the door and at the bottom.

Read pages 97 and 100 of the May 2020 manual for an explanation of the menu choices.

Some are fixed, like my software version 25, you cannot change that.

To change stuff, turn off thermostat and set fan to Auto and not to Cont(inuous). No call for service, heat or fan, must go to the furnace. Let any fans stop.

Other settings let you cycle through options, that may not be exactly the big numbers in the manual, but there are choices. Air flow and timing of cycles.

So I set 90 for cooling delay, the fan runs at its high CFMs for 90 seconds after the AC shuts outside, to maximize cooling. Default is 0.

I set OD tonnage to 1.5 to match my AC unit's size. Default was 3.0.

I set Continuous Fan to 25% from the default 50% Too slow. Put back at 50 %. That is better. Electronic air cleaner not switching on at lower cfm setting.

I set my second stage delay to 900 seconds, because I know my heating system well, and 15 minutes at Stage 1 works well heating my house until near below zero Celsius outside arrives. More or less. House does not get uncomfortable that way, that is the bottom line.

A shorter time at Stage 2 maximum heat output will in the long term be easier on the furnace. This works for my house.

I changed the second stage heating CFMs down from the default of I think 103 to the offered 80. (multiply by 10) That means that the high CFM setting of the blower in the furnace at heating is at the lowest of four options. First stage runs at 80% of that setting. I have re-set to 103. The heat rise at the furnace is probably too high. A temperature probe would confirm that. Much warmer air at the vents than required here. Lower running temperature for the lifetime of the furnace.

I may fine tune again in cooling season to adjust the fan for cooling if needed. My cooling CFMs remains set at default 350/ton, the default. The choices go from 290 to 400-ish, I forget, so in summer, a slightly lower speed may help me get a little more humidity out of this house. I can try 330, or 310, or 290 even. The 350 setting is an industry default sort of.

I'll see how the comfort level and evenness of temps in the house is.

So, there are a lot of options to fine tune an understood HVAC system to get it to work best for your house, both heating and cooling seasons. And any dampers out there can be adjusted.

Buyer, ask to be taken through the menu. You may say it cools badly upstairs in summer and move to a higher CFM on cooling.

Those choices are there with the Trane. That's a feature I liked.

The technician doesn't necessarily know the intricacies of each different home's unique full-house system, the returns, et cetera. The default settings may be the best for someone else's house. But was the last system good in summer, in winter et cetera. What settings was it at?

Look for the Integrated Furnace Control Menu in the manual and the Display Codes 3 pages after.

Of course it is all on-line, the install manual for Trane S9V2.

Slower CFM for cooling takes out more humidity. For the readers.

But a given home might need a stronger flow to reach all rooms, so it all depends.

I'm sure there are videos on doing the Trane Menu Option choices.

They should point the purchaser to it online before the install, for handy homeowners with the skills to run through a menu of choices, shown on a page of the manual.

Numerical examples are just that. Read the small boxed inserts of text for figures for your style of furnace.

The front panel gets put back in carefully, and the four latches re-latched.

I am guessing that 99% of customers want nothing to do with setting up this menu themselves, but there is some info for you.

(edited, from published version, and will be again. Wasn't sure it would get in. So left some changes to fix. Last edit Thursday morning.

Touch nothing but the Menu and Option buttons properly.

Peter did a great job clearing up my confusion over the code, and contacted Trane to clarify the point for himself to better explain it to me.

I like the furnace, the options, and Cambridge was great.

It just took me a while to get a full understanding of the codes.

The furnace was working properly 100% all the time.

Sub-footnote: There is one menu setting that baffled me for a while. It is only for heat-pump installations and connects tonnage to heating CFMs. Can be disregarded. CFM/Ton Heating I believe it was described.

Footnote:

I recently got thrown off comments in the Washington Post for speaking rudely about trump and republicans too much, three strikes and all that, and needed to get some writing done. Thanks.

June 15,2021 edit:

Turned on cooling a month ago and immediately noticed an issue with fan speed.

At the proper setting of 1.5 tons (the default setting is 3.0 tons), to match my AC unit, the air handler, part of the new furnace, was only delivering half of the CFMs the manual's chart states for my furnace/air handler. At a setting of 3.0 tons the CFMs delivered was correct for my 1.5 unit BUT there was no lower speed for continuous fan.

Cambridge did not properly respond to my complaint, did not come to my home, 3 weeks passed, and Bill directed me to contact Trane as the installer told him, without actually coming out to check the unit, that my unit was operating "optimally." I have emailed Trane with the facts and await their response, but three days ago I found a video online that allowed me to do the repair myself.

Search "Variable Speed Blower running at low speed in cooling", and at the 4:30 mark the gentleman shows the fix needed. A jumper wire between Y1 and Y2 on the board had not been put in. I put it in and all is fine now.

So as to service, Cambridge failed badly on this issue and I had to seek out a solution elsewhere after 3 weeks and do it myself. That is crazy.