HVAC Brands of the Past. Where are they now?

[a440]

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? THOSE TITANS OF THE HVAC INDUSTRY…MERGED,FALLEN BY THE WAYSIDE OR STILL GOING STRONG...

BARD: Bard Manufacturing.

BOHN: A subsidiary of Lennox International.

BRYANT: A division of Carrier Corp-United
Technologies.

CARRIER: A twentieth-century leader in engineering
air conditioning systems throughout the
world.Willis Carrier credited with inventinmg it
and with others started the company bearing his
name. Carrier became a wholly owned subsidiary of
United Technologies in 1984.

CENTURY: Century Engineering Corp, Cedar
Rapids, purchased by Heat Controller in 1975.
Century name still used by Heat Controller on
products made by OEMs.

COLEMAN: Sold the HVAC products subsidiary
to Beacon Intl. (Canadian) which changed its name
to Evcon Industries. Evcon since purchased by York
International. Products now sold as Coleman Evcon
brand or just Coleman.

COMFORTAIRE: A tradename of Heat
Controller. See Century.

COMFORTMAKER: Old AFCO name revived
at founding of SnyderGeneral by former Singer
HVAC boss. See Singer. Comfortmaker owned by
Inter-City Products which in turn became
International Comfort Products (ICP). In 1999,
ICP was purchased by United Technologies.

COMMAND-AIRE: Water source heat pump
maker now owned by American-Standard.

COOLERATOR, McGRAW-EDISON: Last listed
as making HVAC products in 1978.

CRANE: Stopped making HVAC products in
1968. Furnace technology sold to Amana.
CUMBERLAND: A brand name used by
American-Standard/Trane.

DAIKIN US: Japanese company making mini
splits withdrew from the US market in 1988.
DAY & NIGHT: Part of the BDP Co. division
of Carrier Corp-United Technologies. Use of name
being dropped as of late 1997.

DELCO: Old General Motors appliance division
last listed in 1964.

DUCANE: Purchased by Lennox in 1999.

DUNHAM-BUSH: Most divisions sold to
Topgroup Holdings Berhad of Malaysia.

DUOMATIC-OLSEN: Canadian maker changed
name to DMO Industries with Olsen & Airco as
brand names.

ECR INTERNATIONAL: A merger of Dunkirk
and Utica formed ECR Limited and later expanded
with Utica acquiring Oneida and EnviroMaster
while Dunkirk took over Pennco and Ultimate
Here's the story on a few of them….

AAON: Evolved from John Zink/Sunbeam,
makes packaged rooftop equipment.

ADDISON PRODUCTS: Now a division of
Heat Controller.

AIRQUEST: Name used by International
Comfort Products.

AIRTEMP: Became a subsidiary of Fedders
Corp. in 1976. See Fedders.

AMANA: Formerly a division of Raytheon, now
part of Goodman Manufacturing.

AMERICAN FURNACE [AFCO]: In 1968
became part of the climate control division of the
Singer Co. In 1970 became Singer American
Furnace. See Singer.

AMERICAN-STANDARD: Became Tappan Air
Conditioning division in 1972. American-Standard
purchased the Trane Company in 1984. American-
Standard name revived in 1988.

ARCO: Acquired by SnyderGeneral in 1984
from Atlantic Richfield. Added to Climate Control
unit as Arcoaire. In 1991 became part of Inter-City
Products (now International Comfort Products)
with brandmate Comfortmaker. In 1999, ICP was
purchased by United Technologies, parent of
Carrier.

ARKLA: Division sold to Preway, Inc. Preway
sold Servel gas air conditioning to the Dometic
Corp. High efficiency furnace technology sold to
Trane. Servel name now sold by Robur.

ARMSTRONG: Became division of the Johnson
Corp. in 1976. See Magic Chef. Name revived to
Armostrong Air after Lennox purchased the climate
control line from Magic Chef.

ELECTRIC-FURNACE-MAN: Last listed in
1979.

EUBANK: Texas manufacturer of cooling
equipement, also OEM for Heat Controller.

FANDAIRE: Last A/C units manufacturered in
1962.

FASCO: Stopped making HVAC products in
1983

FRASER-JOHNSTON: Became part of
Westinghouse. Name dropped in 1978 with end
ofWestinghouse HVAC products. Name now used
by York International

FEDDERS: Left the unitary market around
1980. Sells window units under Fedders,
Climatrol, Airtemp, Hunter, Emerson brands. Has
recently re-entered the Unitary market with units
vmade in China.

FRIEDRICH: Residential HVAC acquired by
ARCO in early 80s. In 1985 became Friedrich
Climate Master Inc. selling water source heat
pumps. Friedrich name dropped from tradename
in1987. Friedrich HVAC products evolved into
Arcoaire. Friedrich name still used on window
units & mini splits after purchase of Zoneaire from
ICP.

FRIGIDAIRE: Name revived under license to
Nordyne

GAFFERS & SATTLER: In 1969 became a
subsidiary of Magic Chef. Name no longer used.
GENERAL ELECTRIC: HVAC division purchased
by the Trane Company in 1982.

GIBSON: Name revived under license to
Nordyne

GREEN COLONIAL: Des Moines company
stopped making HVAC products in 1975.

HALL-NEAL FURNACE: Indianapolis company
last listed in 1966.

HASTINGS: Last listed in 1964, now manufacturers
unit & duct heaters.

HEIL-QUAKER: Purchased by Inter City Gas,
Toronto, from Whirlpool Corp. Tempstar name
added to replace Whirlpool name. HVAC division
now part of International Comfort Products. In
1999, ICP was purchased by United Technologies.

HENRY FURNACE [MONCRIEF]: Purchased
by Luxaire, Inc. Now part of York International.

HOME FURNACE: Became Home Furnace
division, Lear-Siegler Inc. Became Miller Heating
& Air Conditioning in 1986 after being acquired
by Nortek Inc. Now listed as Nordyne. See
Intertherm.

ICECO: appears to be a wholesale operation set
up to distribute Weatherking (see below).

INTERNATIONAL HEATER: In 1965 controlling
interest acquired by Weil-McLain.
BecameInternational Heating & Air Conditioning
division in 1973. Last listed in 1974. Weil-McLain
now owned by the Marley Company.

INTERNATIONAL OIL BURNER: Founded
in St. Louis in 1919. Became Intertherm in 1969.

INTERTHERM: Became Nordyne company in
1987. Brandmate Miller. In 1998, Nordyne started
marketing under White-Westinghouse brands
Frigidaire, Philco, Tappan, Kelvinator & Gibson.
Nordyne is OEM for Thermal Zone.

IRON FIREMAN: Now a tradename of
Dunham-Bush.

ITT: Stopped making HVAC products in 1983.

JANITROL: Division of Surface Combustion
Co. became division of Midland-Ross in 1960,
division of Tappan in 1977. Janitrol name sold to
Goodman Mfg. in 1982. Also sold as Goodman,
Hamilton, Johnstone, Sears Kenmore.

JOHNSON, AIR-EASE: Became part of Magic
Chef in 1972. Now owned by Lennox. Air Ease
brand now part of Armstrong Air division of
Lennox.

KELVINATOR: Name revived under license to
Nordyne

LENNOX: Lennox Industries.

LUXAIRE: Formerly a part of Westinghouse,
now part of York with sister brands Coleman,
Evcon, Moncrief, Fraser-Johnston and Home Air
to name some of them.

MAGIC CHEF: In 1986, Magic Chef was
acquired by the Maytag Co. Air conditioning division
was sold to Lennox in 1988 and renamed
Armstrong Air. See Johnson.

MAYFLOWER: St. Paul furnace company last
listed in 1962.

MAYTAG: a name owned by Amana but unitary
equipment is manufactured and marketed under
license by Nordyne.

McQUAY: Formerly a division of
SnyderGeneral, now owned by Hong Leong Group
Malaysia. Sister division is AAF International.

MILLER: Was Miller the Home Furnace
Company started in 1916. Now part of Nordyne
with brandmate Intertherm.

MITCHELL: Last listed in 1958

MONCRIEF: Division of York International.
See Luxaire.

MUELLER CLIMATROL: In 1964 became
Climatrol Div. Worthington Air Conditioning.
Eventually bought out by Fedders. See
Worthington and Fedders.

NATIONAL U.S. RADIATOR: (Capitolaire):
Acquired by Crane in 1960.

NESBITT: Acquired by ITT in 1963. Divested
by ITT in 1979 and filed for bankrupcy in 1980.
Now a tradename of Mechanical Specialties, Inc

NIAGRA: Acquired by Rybolt in 1961.

OLSEN: got its start in 1910 as an outgroth of
the Canadian Top and Body Corporation which
had been producing horse-drawn carriages. Today,
Olsen (for a time it was Olsen Technology) is the
only producer of high efficiency gas furnaces in
Canada. Located in Wallaceburg, Ontario Olsen
was taken over by ECR International. It's stable
mates include Dunkirk and Utica.

ONEIDA-ROYAL: Purchased by Utica Boilers
Inc. in 1990.

PAYNE: A division of Carrier Corp-United
Technologies. The name is used on the very low
end line of Carrier equipment.

PEERLESS: In 1964 became Peerless Division,
Space Conditioning Systems. Eventually acquired
by Dunham-Bush with names dropped in mid
1970s.

PEERLESS HEATER: Boiler manufacturer
since 1908.

PERFECTION: Became Perfection Division,
Hupp Industries in 1964. In 1965, Perfection
name dropped. Later known as Typhoon Div,
Hupp Industries. Hupp in bankrupcy in 1991.
PHILCO: Name revived under license to
Nordyne

RHEEM: Rheem Manufacturing is owned by
Japanese water heater manufacturer Paloma.

ROUND OAK: Last listed in 1963. See Peerless.

RUUD: Part of Rheem Manufacturing. See
Rheem.

RYBOLT: Last listed in 1973.

SILENT AUTOMATIC: Last listed in 1961.
See Iron Fireman.

SINGER: In 1982 became climate control unit
of SnyderGeneral Corp. with name dropped. In
1984 SnyderGeneral operations included Arcoaire,
Comfortmaker, McQuay. In 1988 SynderGeneral
bought American Air Filter. In 1991, sold Arcoaire
& Comfortmaker to Inter-City Products.

SOUTHWEST MFG: Became Heatwave
International in 1984, later going bankrupt.

SPACE CONDITIONER: Became Dunham-
Bush division in 1968.

SQUARE D: Production resumed as Sun Dial
Manufacturing then stopped in the 1980s.

STEWART-WARNER: Last listed in 1976.

TAPPAN: Became SJC Corp. in 1979 with
name Frigiking Tappan. In 1982, SJC sold Janitrol
line to Goodman Mfg. Tappan name revived by
Nordyne in 1998 under license from White-
Westinghouse.

TRANE: The Trane Company purchased GE's
climate control division in 1982. Trane was purchased
by American-Standard in 1984.

TORRIDHEET: Last listed in 1972.

UNITARY PRODUCTS GROUP: a generic
division name used by many manufacturers however,
York seems determined to use it for product
identification in both heating and cooling equipment.
Look under the Preston's Guide York's listings
to find those units.

WATERBURY: Last listed in 1962.

WEATHERKING: Former trade name of
Addison Products, sold to Rheem in 1989.
Promoted as a high volume brand and is often
advertised in comparison to Goodman and Philco
(Nordyne).

WESTINGHOUSE: In 1981, sold to Borg-
Warner [York}. Sale rights included names&#92
Moncrief, Luxaire, Fraser-Johnston all now used by
York International.

WHIRLPOOL: In 1972 became Whirlpool
Div. of Heil-Quaker, a subsidiary of Whirlpool
Corp. Tempstar name replaced Whirlpool after
Inter-City Gas Co. bought Heil-Quaker in 1986.
See Heil-Quaker.

WILLIAMS OIL-O-MATIC: Last listed in
1972.

WILLIAMSON: Purchased by Hupp Industries
which went bankrupt in 1991. Williamson name
was purchased by Metzger Machine (Milwaukee
Thermoflo) and used on furnace line. Late 1999,
purchased by United Dominion (Weil-McLain's
parent). Now often referred to as Williamson-
Thermoflo

WORTHINGTON: Became Mueller Climatrol
in 1970 after being acquired by Fedders.
YORK INTERNATIONAL: Formerly a dvision
of Borg-Warner, York International is now spun
off. York International Unitary Products Group
also makes Fraser-Johnson, Luxaire, Moncrief,
Winchester, Coleman-Evcon, AirPro. York was
aquired by Johnson Controls in 2005 for $3.2 billion
dollars.

 

[philcobendixduo]

Interesting Post!

Thanks, Brent, for that interesting post!
My new system just installed last year is a Bryant (furnace and A/C)
It replaced a 34 year-old Rheem furnace which had had only 1 small repair in those 34 years but was highly inefficient compared to the newer high efficiency furnaces.
The house came with a Fraser-Johnston (San Francisco) furnace which had to be replaced with the Rheem after only 13 years due to a cracked heat exchanger.
I can only remember the furnaces we had in Minnesota - both oil burners - a Moncrief and a Lennox which from day one gave problems with the oil pump system squealing loudly intermittently.
I hope my new Bryant system, being made by Carrier, gives me years of good, trouble free service!

 

[goatfarmer]

Growing up, we had a Torridheet oil furnace. Don't remember having any problems with it.

 

[davey7]

I have a Heggie-Simplex boiler from '26. Still heating my building.

 

[wayupnorth]

Growing up, we had an old Sears Homart oil hot air octopus. One of my apartment houses had a Friedrich hot air and there was an old GM in the corner with a cracked heat exchanger. I have a New Yorker hot water boiler now. My niece in Portland has a new Rudd natural gas hot air system

 

[lordkenmore]

The one brand I've wondered about (even before now) is Wesco. (And no, there aren't too many other places on earth I'd admit to wondering about about a furnace maker.) We had a Wesco electric forced air in the house I grew up in. It probably was installed in the early/mid 70s, possibly as a response to oil prices. Back then, electric rates were dirt cheap here--something my parents really liked, until they started rising dramatically. That furnace was still running when we moved out in the early 1990s, although it had been repaired at least twice to replace the sequencers. Second time was about a year before we moved out; the furnace repairman was familiar with the brand, and said something about them being gone then. There was one design that was a real headache for them, because unlike most electric furnaces, it used unique parts. With Wesco gone, they only way his company could get parts was buying existing furnaces, and parting them out.

This is only impression, but I have a sense--and I repeat sense--that Wesco was somewhat regional.

That house also had 2 oil furnaces. The original was located under the house. The second was in the garage. It was a Homart, and probably heated only part of the house (1960s add-on.)

The real headache when it came time to sell that house were the oil tanks. They were buried in the yard, and there were some concerns about buried oil tanks rusting out and leaking. There weren't any specific regulations I recall, but it was an issue mortgage companies might worry about. In our case, the buyer's company was a little concerned by the tanks and that there was an unused furnace in the garage. The buyer knew someone in the business, so he brought that someone out who took a very casual look at the furnace (the "it looks like it's here, and probably should run" look), and at one of the two known oil tanks. Interestingly, as the new buyer puttered around, doing stuff that the mortgage company insisted on, two more oil tanks appeared... A total of four, and one wonders why there were that many for a house that had had oil heat for maybe 25 years.

 

[circlew]

One of my neighbors has a Winkler (Stewart-Warner) gas furnace, original to the house that was built in '68. She had the outside AC unit replaced about 4 years ago. Her husband was in the plumbing & heating business, and known for selling and installing high quality equipment, so it was sure to have been installed correctly.

I see that Stewart-Warner is making furnaces again.

http://www.stewartwarnercorp.com

 

[maytagbear]

The house in which I grew up

had a wonderfully reliable Delco gas forced air furnace. Only real repair it ever needed was a new motor for the blower.

Last two apartments had GE gas forced air and central a/c. Properly maintained!

This apartment has an Armstrong g-f-a furnace. It has not been ideally reliable, but only due to a lack of maintenance by my landlord. Now that he lives 20 minutes away instead of 8 minutes away, I have learned to keep the thermostat (a vintage Honeywell roundie) strictly alone through the heating season, instead of doing a setback at bedtime and raising it during the day.

I find this list to be very interesting! Thank you for posting it!!

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[norgeway]

Waterbury

Was to my mind, the best oil furnace ever built, my hometown is full of them that are 55 to 65 years old still running, quality all the way, same goes for York Heat and Lennox, many of them still running after 50 or more years,Winston Salem is full of Esso Heat and Mayflower furnaces, also really good old units, Any oil furnace built by Ducane in the 70s and 80s is el cheapo!..I saw just about everything working in HVAC in the 80s,Iron Fireman was a very efficient unit, but required very touchy adjustments...Iron Fireman used a induced draft burner..in other words it pulled the air into the unit instead of blowing it in,this made for extremely efficient combustion...another high efficiency unit was the General Electric Low Pressure oil burner....Great, but complicated.

 

[a440]

It is fun to hear about all of the old Furnaces in our lives. (And A/C Units)

I think that most of the furnaces that were built during the 1920 - 1960's were very well built. Gas or Oil. Sadly I think most of the replacements were not due to failure but due to someone pushing "efficiency". Or a furnace that just needed to be cleaned and regulated but the service provider just wanted to make a sale.

Many of the homes in my subdivision were built between 1955 - 1970. Most have their original furnaces still working. Name brands that I have seen are: Janitrol, Singer, Chrysler Air-Temp, Torrid-Heet, Coleman, Lennox, Carrier, Comfort-Maker, Lux-Aire, Williamson. All Natural Gas fired. It is a joy to see these still working strong! They get a passing inspection every year.

 

[arbilab]

Another chapter in the sprawling book "Brand Names Mean Nothing". Who made what name comes down to what year-- in some cases what MONTH.

Lot of Lennox around here, Dallas is HQ, grew up with them. Best I can tell they were more a 'packager' than a manufacturer, on about the scale that Dell packages/markets other people's stuff. Maybe they made the coils and stamped the chassis but that's about it. Compressors were Copeland, for which I can't find a standalone history.

It's an Emerson brand. You know, Emerson, who sued NBC for a fictional depiction of a woman putting her hand into an operating disposer and sustaining injury "irreparably tarnishing the product" as if putting your hand into a running disposer would NOT hurt you. Emerson, who sold me 3 identical window fans, the first two of which caught fire in use and were replaced by the seller. The third one also caught fire but I elected not to have it replaced. Emerson, which leases its name to some Korean box house for low-end electronics.

Then there's American Standard. Maybe back when, but today the name is like, sarcasm. And United Technologies, a holding company like Allied-Signal, buying legacy brands and running them into the ground then selling them for scrap when the patent portfolios expire. Who is Allied-Signal? Well, their reputation got so bad that when they acquired what was left of Honeywell they changed their name to that. They bankrupted Ampex, inventor of video recording, and all-but bankrupted Mack Truck.

Airtemp was a Chrysler brand; Borg-Warner parts in automotive and idunnowhose in residential. Ford and AMC also used B-W (AKA Norge) parts. Kelvinator was a standalone company until 1937 when Nash bought them then AMC when Nash and Hudson merged in 1954, acquiring Altorfer Brothers (ABC) along the way. Then WCI then Electrolux where Frigidaire also ended up but at first they were "really" GM engineered and manufactured, not just repackaged from 'whomever'.

Don't even get me started on supermarket or candy brands. Suffice to say they ain't what you remember. Except Kraft mac & cheese. Gawd only knows how that escaped the Philip Morris acquisition. Oh, and Heath bars survived Hershey, though none of their other acquisitions did.

 

[polkanut]

My parents had a Williams Oil-O-Matic furnace that was replaced in 1980 with a Milwaukee gas furnace.  The Milwaukee is still going strong, and has only needed a new ignitor in all that time. (knock on wood)

 

[a440]

Rick B

I have seen older Borg-Warner Furnaces. They are built tough!
Borg-Warner builds many automotive transmissions that are used by many Auto Manufactures.

Copeland has been own by Emerson for many years. I think the original "owner" or "inventer" was Vilter. Vilter invented the reciprocating compressor in 1945 or so.

Tim - Williamson made great furnaces that are still going strong today. Both gas and oil. Their gas version was built just like the oil furnace with that huge single tank type manifold. One giant burner. Hard to get over that the Williamson company went Bankrupt at one point. I think they still build furnaces but I don't think it is the original manufacture. Below is a start up of a Gas Williamson from the 1950's You can hear the Gas Meter start to cry when the burner ignites.

 

[DADoES]

 
One of the elementary schools I attended oh so many years ago had a Ducane heating unit, somewhere in the building that I passed by often enough to notice and remember.

 

[davey7]

Iron Fireman

Iron Fireman made a mini tube steam system, SelectTemp, which, had it been slightly earlier, could have saved steam heating. Really cool system, courtesy of Gerry Gill in Cleveland.

http://www.gwgillplumbingandheating.com/webapp/GetFile?fid={D69BB423-EB8B-4B0D-8FF2-2071A398CB80}

 

[brib68]

Airtemp

Chrysler's Airtemp A/Cs were pretty common in my hometown when I was growing up in the 70s (probably most of the units I saw dated to the 60s when most of the homes where they were installed were built). Chrysler was a major employer in town back then, which may have accounted for both the proliferation of the brand and working-class people having money to build new, air conditioned houses. A lot of them were built-in individual units, rather than central HVAC systems. My mother's house had individual units built into the kitchen wall and master bedroom wall at about shin height. Yes, I know how many things are wrong with that sentence, but let's just chalk it up to my hometown and leave it for another day. LOL. Oh, right...no central air b/c the heat was radiant electric from wiring mounted in the ceilings! Needless to say, my folks IMMEDIATELY had central heat and air put in and the holes in the walls fixed soon after.

 

[artcurus]

My favorite "old brand" is Friederich, used to be made in Texas. There's an old grocery store in my home town, said store became a gameroom, is now closed. This store has the granddaddy of all Friedrich split units, made probably in the mid 60's. The condensing unit sits on top of the store, the evaporator unit is was a large box that that was suspended from the ceiling inside.

Rare as hell, was a Friedrich full central hvac unit that was probably in the early 60's. The condensing unit was round and sat dead center on the roof. It was still in use in the early 90's, but the owner of the house complained that it cost a fortune to run. One of those keep feeding it power and it runs pretty much forever.

The other closed down grocery store had Friedrich condensing units for their cooling cases and freezers. Unfortunately, copper scrappers got to them.

 

[carmine]

Chrysler sold it's Air-Temp brand to Fedders (residential) but they did keep the factory in Dayton, OH. It kept building auto A/C components (no compressors after '80) until it was sold to Behr in 2002. (Gee, imagine that... Daimler sells off former Chrysler assets in sweetheart deals to other German companies, like they did Huntsville Electronics to Siemens, and then spits the carcass out for sale in 2007. But I digress..)

I have an Airtemp Imperial window-style unit from the early-70s. The Imperial logo is the same as the car emblem. Also remember a East Detroit landmark resturant on Gratiot avenue known as Kay's Kitchen. They had a giant wall unit, probably 10 x 10' with the Chrysler Airtemp logo. It fascinated me as a kid.

 

[polkanut]

My maternal grandparents had an Iron Fireman gas furnace that was installed in 1962 when they converted from coal to natural gas.  It was still going strong when the house was sold in 2005.  The only repairs it needed in all that time was a new burner, and blower motor.