After Jan 1, 2006, all equipment produced in the U.S. must be minimum 13 SEER. After Jan 1, 2010, only equipment using Puron, or R410a, will be produced. This is a completely different type of refrigerant. The price of R22 will begin to rise. If you have problem equipment, now's the time to get it taken care of. Its not looking like this is going to be reasonably riced equipment though it hasn't leveled out just yet. We'll be watching.
Though we install many different brands when they are requested or required, (i.e., Carrier, Lennox, York, Trane, American Standard, Goettl, Rheem, Ruud, Bard, Ducane, etc), we have had the highest long term success rates with the brand listed above for a variety of reasons.
Equipment quality, wholesale house relationship, attitude and eagerness to do their job, (like keeping parts in stock), are all important to us. Fortunately, the brand listed above fills these requirements better than the rest.
They offer products that we don't have to 'babysit' as much as some of the others, putting not only the consumer at ease but us as well.
We find that they do their jobs well and keep materials available that they know we are going to need.
Things change though. Particular brands have fallen out of favor with us before and I'm sure it will happen again. Thats our job. To watch what the industry and manufacturers are doing, what new bright ideas they come up with and see if there's anything to it. Then if it passes mustard with us, we recommend it to our customers. That is not an easy thing. We dislike more than we like.
Taking the simple approach with simple equipment will leave you, and us, happier in the long run.
We highly recommend simple!