I had a 43-year old furnace and didn’t want to test my luck with another cold Calgary winter. I also had a 15-year old hot water tank that was nearing its end of life, and decided to replace it too since its chimney would need to be re-lined to bring it up to code.
After much furnace research, I decided to purchase a Trane furnace. I picked four of the top-rated heating companies on Homestars that installed Trane furnaces and booked appointments for quotes. Two of the companies had very similar prices. Heatmaster Services, on the other hand, was significantly cheaper than them all! So much cheaper, that I cancelled the appointment with the last company.
Dimitri from Heatmaster provided me with great insight on the pros and cons between the different furnace brands. Even though I was set on getting a Trane furnace, he showed me the equivalent Ameristar model which was also made by Trane. The Ameristar model had the same guts of the Trane furnace minus the exterior paint job, but cost $500 less! After a bit more research, I picked the single-stage Ameristar furnace, a John Wood 40-gallon hot water tank, GeneralAire 570 humidifier and setup an install date.
On the morning of the install, Dimitri called to inform me that the supply house had ran out of Ameristar furnaces, and instead I would be receiving a free upgrade to the Trane furnace! It was a free $500 upgrade and Dimitri didn’t charge me anything extra.
Dimitri and his team arrived, laid down a drop cloth and began working. During the removal of the old furnace, Dimitri showed me two big cracks that had developed on the old heat exchanger. Even though I had a carbon monoxide detector in the house, it never went off! So, the old furnace might have been leaking carbon monoxide at levels lower than the CO alarm’s threshold. Anyways, Dimitri and his team installed the new equipment, finished in a day and cleaned up afterwards. Dimitri showed me how to work the humidifier, thermostat, hot water tank settings, and explained the overall layout of the equipment. He instructed me to register the furnace for full warranty and explained how to setup a city inspection.
After the install team left I took a closer look at their work. Everything was neat and tidy. The wiring and drain tubes were zip tied and out of sight. Small things, like a new sliding door for the furnace filter compartment was a nice touch. I also liked how they mounted the humidifier on the front for easy access. It was a very efficient use of the space. The path they chose for the white pipes made them virtually invisible. The pipes run straight up from the furnace and disappear into my drop ceiling. Money saving tweaks, such as setting the humidifier to drip water rather than gush water down the drain were a huge plus. The small details made it an excellent job! I attached before and after images.
A few days later I setup a furnace inspection with the City of Calgary. The inspection passed easily, and the inspector was in and out in about 2-minutes.
If you are still reading this and need furnace work done, give Heatmaster Services a call. This is one of the rare times where you get more than what you pay for!
