Carrier Infinity 80 Furnace Overview

Our carrier is 8 years old and just had to spend $500 to replace a rotted out heat exchanger. Yes the parts are under warranty but the labor is not covered! Very sad that things aren’t made the way they used to be. The furnace has been fine but to my understanding we should not be paying for a problem like this and it sounds like it’s happening more often than expected. Please explain your reasoning because I would like to promote your product but need to know why this may be happening before I do.

Folks – Please read the other reviews before submitting a review….you will see that there are a lot of commonalities with the problems sited that are not the fault of the manufacturer but more than likely the company that installed your furnace, along with the ignorance of the consumer. Did your installer do a load calculation before installing the HVAC? Did your installer do a duct test before installing? If your answer is no, then your problems are YOURS not the manufacturer.

There are a lot of bad reviews for Carrier on here. However, if you read Consumer Reports, Checkbook, Yelp or Angies List, they are loaded with information on how to avoid issues. The common theme in all of these publications/resources– Most problems, probably in excess of 90 percent, are caused by faulty installation and/or poorly trained personnel or lack of regular maintenance. When I talk to friends about replacing their equipment, I suggest a $26 subscription to Consumer Reports or a $30 subscription to checkbook.org. Their response: I am not spending that. It’s a waste. Really? You will drop down $3,000 to $10,000 to replace some or all portions of your HVAC system and risk having problems which may end up in you spending double and/or being miserable to avoid spending $30? What about maintenance–changing filters, having your system checked, coils cleaned, etc? Very few people have their unit serviced but most people change their filters. You should have your system totally checked out at least every other year. Would you drive your car 10-15,000 miles without changing the oil? You shouldn’t be surprised if you never maintain your system that you don’t have problems. In 2009, we installed a Carrier Infinity hybrid heat system with the above 2 stage 80 percent furnace, Infinity 19, 2 stage heat pump, Infinity air purifier, and whole house humidifier. I cannot say enough good about this system or the folks that installed it. It performs flawlessly, is extremely quiet inside and out, our utility bills are the lowest on the block and our house is very comfortable on all floors. About four years ago, we added the Carrier UV lights and I installed them myself. We have yet to have a cold or sinus infection but one or two times since I installed this system. Carrier runs promotions with cash rebates during portions of the year and there were tax credits galore during that time. The dealer that installed it and services it is a Carrier Presidential Award winner and the company has glowing reviews. The system has never needed repair. If you have a good company install it, let them come do the maintenance. Do your research before you call someone (and definitely don’t use Sears) and if you have problems–call a licensed, reputable Carrier dealer, not just any old company. I would make the same choice again with the equipment and the installer. More often than not good things are seldom cheap and cheap stuff is seldom good. Same for labor–good skilled labor isn’t cheap and cheap labor isn’t skilled. However, those folks who had Carrier condensing furnaces in pre-2010–those were riddled with problems. The two stage A/C and heat pump units that had Bristol 2-stage compressors—problems. Check with Carrier to see if there is recourse but always go through a properly licensed, reputable Carrier dealer.

Thinking that Carrier made good quality products, I had Sears install all new heating and cooling equipment in my home in June, 2013. My Infinity Gas furnace has broken down 5 times, and Sears technicians have replaced the gas valve 3 times, the wires, the motherboard (computer) this year(2015) so far, and now I am in a cold house during the biggest snowstorm of the year waiting for a technician to arrive once again! This is crazy! Do not purchase Carrier!

I had a Carrier Infinity hvac system installed by sears thinking that Carrier was a reliable good product and that sears would provide quality customer service. I was very wrong on both counts. After only 4 years my Carrier furnace flagged a false error code for the filter change that simply would not reset. You must then clear this annoying code every time you need to do a manual setting on the thermostat. Soon after, the furnace simply never came on one morning when it was about 37 degrees outside. It never gets really cold in Southern California so it�s not like this furnace is being overworked. After unplugging and plugging it in I finally got it to work. To make a long story short the fault codes presented and the fact that it reset by cycling the power input show the problem to be electrical. The idiot from sears tried to sell me $800 worth of duct repair without even looking at the fault codes at all. That got us off to a bad start. Next he tried to charge me $600 for a thermostat, yes, $600. There is not a thermostat on Earth or even on the Space Shuttle worth $600 so that was an obvious rips off. Search Google for Thermostat prices and you’ll find they average well less than $100. So I paid $150 just to get a 1 year service plan just to get the thermostat replaced to fix the False Filter code – the new thermostat did fix this problem – although the idiot from sears said it would not and that my imaginary massive duct failures were the real cause…so that left an intermittent electrical problem causing my furnace not to come on the one or two days you really need it in social. To summarize it took 4 visits over 3 weeks and then they charged my wife when I was not at home $264 to replace the $600 thermostat even though I was assured that all parts and labo – especially for the thermostat – were covered by the $150 warranty. This charge is in dispute now. Today the idiot was here and took 3 hours to tell me I have a bad “high limit switch” which apparently will shut down your entire furnace when it has intermittent problems. My last furnace, the cheap contractor furnace in the house when it was built lasted 15 years with no repairs – ever – required. When I replaced it, only for improved efficiency, it was working fine. This piece of carrier crap has had 2 bad parts already in the first 4 years and it takes sears months to fix simple problems while at the same time trying to practice Predatory Service charging. I can only imagine how these scumbags lie to and rip off the elderly and the technically challenged after how this idiot tried to overcharge me for unnecessary repairs. As for Carrier, their product sucks in my opinion, I paid way more to get way less with Carrier. Will never buy another Carrier product or use sears for anything again, and it�s no surprise sears are going out of business.