Ed,

  I agree with all your say.  I'll just add that our present system, which replaced a Carrier, is a Bryant.  A Carrier is a Bryant with a nice nameplate.

  This according to our local A/C guy.  He's old school--lives down the road from us on a ranch which he and his wife both love.  They do almost all their business in the city, so they kept that area code but all the phones ring at his location in the country.  His guys run his trucks out of the country location.  Yes, he'll sell either one, but we're happier with the couple thousand less we spent on the Bryant.

  BTW, the Carrier we had was one of the better ones.  What drove us nuts was the continuously variable speed blower motor.  Went out three times, for nearly a thousand dollar replacement each time.  Third one we just replaced everything.  Working fine.

  Oh, propane for sure.

Hope this helps.  Stetts