I live in the Seattle area as well, and I was considering the same thing last year. I went with Heat Pump and 80% for a variety of reasons, but the main one is that relatively speaking, our electricity is cheap and you have more redundancy with Heat Pump and 80% furnace. 95% of the year, the heat pump gives me enough heat to keep my house at 71 degrees 24/7. When it gets below 32 degrees or so outside (which isn't very often), the furnace kicks in to supply heat. If the heat pump ever fails, you can use the furnace for heat at any temp. And since 95% of the time, you are running on Heat pump anyways, the gas usage of the 80% eff furnace isn't going to matter much. Remember that because a heat pump gives you MORE heat energy than you put into it (by moving heat from the outside to inside), it is over 100% efficient! No gas furnace can make the same claim. I went with a Bryant Evolution system though and not any of the brands you mentioned. Their evolution control is the best in my opinion and I have been totally happy with it. Whichever way you go though, you do definitely need to make sure you have enough air return. No matter how good the system, an insufficient return will cause all sorts of problems.

Thank you for your replies. Yes Tiger it was authorized dealer. I know he wanted to put in 17" furnace cabinet & coil because my 24" closet(I know it would have to be dropped in from attic,not through closet door) and said it would be hard to repair and service if 21". However the Goodman guy didn't complain about the size of closet. Goodman guy, said the HP with dual fuel would be nice, but it would take getting use to a cooler heat with HP, until gas heat kicked on, since we are use to gas heat. I will call AS guy back and ask about the other sizes. I will also get another AS guy out here. I feel that I really need a load test, esp. since when I look @ AS stuff, alot of what you suggested is either 3 or 4 ton, not 3.5 ton which is what I have. Back in 1996, when my a/c went out, they put in carrier with a bigger coil, no test done then either. I think the orginial was a Rheem 2.5 or 3 ton. I want to get this right and hopefully have it last 25 yrs up. What is you opinion on the Goodman? Rheem? Carrier? Also which is cheaper, HP or AC, with gas heat? I might be willing to try HP, hubby NOT. Thanks guys.

Crooks101 I read your post and you mention that you will give Miele some time to resolve. I see that you are concerned about the dryer not being made in Germany although it is designed and made by Miele just not in Germany but in the Miele plant that makes commerical washers and dryers, but what is the issue you want resolved and what outcome will please you? I went with Miele products because of their lifetime design intent - the 15 to 20 years design life. which is much better than the current 5 to 7 year lifetime I keep hearing about for appliances. I don't want to replace anything every 5 or 7 years. I have other M appliances that have been trouble free for as much as 10 years. I did not go with Whirlpool even though I had a WP dryer because the build of their current models seems to be weak and not made as well as my older dryer, plus my experience with my last top of the line KitchenAid washer that had 5 repairs in 4 years and ended up to be a piece of trash, and finally I did not trust whirlpool because they now make several other brands so have no real competition. I have been thinking about the made in Germany phrase and wondering what I have been taking this to really mean. What do I want from this? It is made in Germany by pure blooded Germans? It is made in Germany so the design and quality will be good? Can it be designed and made by a German company in their factory in another country? Can it be made in Germany with imigrant workers from other countries who live and work in Germany and will it still be as good? What difference will result if it is designed in Germany but still made by the same company located in an adjacent country? So What does this really mean for me? Sunday/Monday was wash day and so far 8 or 9 loads have been completed. The heavy cotton towel load took about 45 minutes on the turbo extra dry setting. The normal without turbo setting does very well with most cottons and the t shirts that I wear as outter shirts and my polo shirts come out without wrinkles--I like this. I have a few perm press items. These came out great on the delicates setting. All loads have been completed within 20 to 25 minutes( of course the washer is still doing the next load) except the load of heavy cotton towels. Where is the lint? In my other dryer there was a lot of lint. There is some lint from this one but nothing near the amount the older one was creating. There is definitately more air moving and more air sound. My laundry is in the basement so sound is not too much of a concern but after runing a few loads it is not as noticeable when I am in the laundry area. Not sure but perhaps this large volume of air might have something to do with the ability to use lower heat and keep the clothes from wrinkleing as much. The air flucuation may be coming when the clothes fall in the path of the front vent. There was air flunction in my older unit because I could feel it outside, but of course there was also a lower volume of air moving. In any case most of my loads are cotton and nothing needs an iron to it so I am happy. I do think that you are going to hear more noise from flex metal or plastic pipe that is not fastened tightly because the volumn of air will move it. Also if your vent pipe is not following the diameter specified in the installation instructions you are going to have more of a problem. So far so good with this dryer. My next load will be items with a silk blend. I will wait a month or two and see what I think then.

so my installer came to do a duct test and claims "your system is powerful and it is cooling fine" so practically he is telling me that my system is powerful and cools quickly as if that is a good . I am pissed the most important part of his visit and he tells me my system cools fine with a short run. I am not that stupid. practically he is just saying that 10 min is how long a system should run to do both of its jobs(cool and dehumidify) is this for real. even not at design temps the system should run longer. He apparently claims he checked the duct work. so upset right now.I am basically crying. 10 min or less run= high humidity PERIOD ! This installer should just quit his job! so my day is wasted thanks to this installer. even my previous unit wasn't giving me this issue when it was installed. I was looking foward to comming to a cool house and now it still feels like a swamp in here