Broan is a heat pump brand that you probably hadn’t heard of. We certainly hadn’t until we began doing heat pump brand research for Current Choices.
But, in researching Broan, we found that they’re actually a 100 year old brand (can you believe it!) and it seems quite legit. It was started by Henry Broan in 1932 and is focused on producing HVAC systems and products such as air conditioners, gas furnaces, air handlers, range hoods, bathroom fans, and of course, heat pumps. It’s now currently owned by Nortek Global HVAC, which is an HVAC manufacturing company based in Missouri that’s been around since 1919 and also owns brands you probably have heard of like Maytag and Frigidaire. Like we said, seems pretty legit.
That said, they are a classic old fashioned HVAC or appliance brand that sells through distributers and installers (aka your local HVAC company) so there isn’t a ton of information about their products online.
What We Know About Broan Heat Pumps
As far as we can see Broan only has 5 heat pump models for sale, all of which are ducted heat pump units, so similar to an air conditioning unit that sits outside your home and is connected to the ductwork inside your home. Except, being a heat pump they give you all electric heating and cooling from a single unit (no gas furnace needed)
Broan Heat Pump Prices
It’s hard to find many sources of pricing online for Broan heat pumps. The table above from Broan itself has the 1 to 4 dollar sign price range indicators, but that doesn’t tell you much. But we can back into the price a few different ways.
First, there is this article from “heatpumppriceguides.com” that lists prices of the system and installation for a bunch of brands, including Broan and has a 3 ton, 16 SEER Broan heat pump priced at $3500 parts and $6250 with labor. This site isn’t particularly transparent about how they get their prices, they just say it’s from “ leading online resources, direct interaction with visitors like yourself, as well as HVAC industry data.” Very vague.
But the parts-only cost of $3500 for a 3 ton (36,000 BTU) system is exactly in line with our data of heat pump prices by size analysis.
The only suspect part of thee price from that website is $6250 total installed cost. We certainly hope that is accurate but that may be low because when we asked local HVAC companies in San Jose CA what it would cost to install a 3 ton ducted heat pump that we bought ourselves, we got quotes for $6000 – $7000 just for the cost of installation (details in our heat pump pricing guide)
So while it’s possible that HVAC companies are quoting $6000 – $7000 for parts and labor of installation of a 3 ton Broan heat pump, it seems more likely that you’ll get all in price quotes closer to $10,000.
The only way to really know the price of a Broan heat pump is to call an HVAC company that installs them.
But let’s be honest you are probably on this page because your HVAC company installs Broan, you’ve never heard of Broan and you’re doing research (good for you!). In that case, if the price of the pump itself falls in the above graph range, you’re in good shape and if installation is less than $5000, you’re likely getting a good quote.
Broan Heat Pump Models and Technology
Seer Ratings
The models listed on their heat pump page range from 14 SEER to 19 SEER. 19 SEER is actually very high-efficiency for cooling — of course the 19 SEER model is likely expensive, the point being that homeowners who buy the higher SEER models will save annually in electricity costs due to their higher efficiency.
All 5 models are energy star certified.
Are Broan Heat Pumps Loud?
Broan also lists their sound ratings in weighted decibels (dbA), which shows how proud they are about the heat pumps’ quiet operation. The thing is, the actual dBA ranges listed are sort of just standard for outdoor air conditioning units, so they are neither loud nor quiet in our opinion.
For example Carrier, a very famous air conditioner brand (who also makes heat pumps, see our Carrier heat pump page here) has a 17 SEER air conditioner listed at 71 dB. For reference a vacuum cleaner is 70 dB.
But here’s the key: these units sit outside your home! So if you’re fine with the AC which sits outside your home turning on, these heat pumps will be the same.
Are Broan Heat Pumps Good in Cold Climates
Their technical literature states the minimum temperature for heating at 0 degrees F. So as long as your winters don’t drop below 0 degrees F, you’ll be fine. If you do live somewhere that gets below 0 degrees F, there are many heat pumps that do work down to negative 15 F or lower, see our article about heat pumps in cold climates.
Other Broan Heat Pump Technology Facts
In a lot of their material they mention this “IQ Drive” inverter technology, like this: “The Broan iQ Drive system utilizes inverter rotary technology to achieve some of the highest efficiency levels available today.” From what we can tell this is simply their branded term for their variable speed compressor. But the fact that Broan HVAC does R&D on HVAC is a good sign, it means they are dedicated to making high-quality products.
We do recommend choosing at heat pump with a variable speed compressor (the three on the left of their table above) if you can afford it as those will generally have much higher energy efficiency than single speed heat pumps.
The heat pumps, or at least the compressors, seem to have a 10 year warranty. Their Broan “quality pledge” states: In the first 10 years, if the compressor fails in our iQ Drive system, we will replace the entire unit with an equivalent Broan replacement, when installed and registered with a matched Broan indoor coil or air handler.
