Furnaces

Carrier Infinity 98 Gas Furnace (59MN7)

Carrier 59MN7Factory Authorized Dealer network 62% data complete
$4,300 – $5,000
equipment only · rough estimate, no seller data yet

This run's own new price observations (P3c) are equipment-only, not installed -- see pricing.build_up below for the labour range backed out to make the two numbers comparable.

98.5% AFUE modulating condensing gas furnace with a variable-speed blower.

Our take

If you are staying on gas, this is close to the top of what is available: modulating burner, variable-speed blower, and an AFUE that leaves almost nothing in the flue. The honest caveat is that the step from 96% to 98.5% AFUE saves a couple of percent of your gas bill, while the modulating burner and variable blower are what you will actually notice. Buy it for the comfort, not the rating.

Best for

Gas homes in cold climates where gas is decisively cheaper than electricity, or as the backup half of a dual-fuel system.

Watch out for

Condensing furnaces need PVC venting and a condensate drain. In a retrofit that plumbing can cost more than the efficiency gain returns.

Model number check: no_public_price

SKU and specs confirmed directly on carrier.com. No public per-unit price found this pass at any channel checked (Ferguson, SupplyHouse, HVACDirect, WalkAirDirect, eBay parts-only listings, a non-HVAC lead-gen aggregator that returned zero relevant results despite ranking for the query). Carrier's flagship Infinity line is consistently dealer-network-gated on price across every category this platform has researched so far -- a market fact, not a research gap. Left unpriced rather than estimated.

What owners and installers report

Collected from trade forums, owner communities and video reviews. Every report links to the original. We synthesise and quote briefly — we don't republish other people's writing.

Controls and compatibility

Thermostat integration, communicating-system lock-in, firmware, and whether the equipment achieves its rated staging in practice. On tankless water heaters this also covers ignition delay and the 'cold water sandwich' effect.

negative
2 reports
30% evidence

Thin evidence — too few independent reports to call this a pattern. Shown because it may still be worth asking your contractor about.

Carrier's own installation manual, quoted directly in this thread, confirms the Infinity communicating platform is a hard lock-in: on a standard third-party 24V thermostat the system falls back to a crude 'emergency' mode with no modulation, no staging precision, and none of the humidity-control or defrost intelligence the communicating platform is sold on. This directly answers this catalog's controls attribute for the Infinity 98 59MN7 and is the clearest single piece of evidence in this research pass for the communicating-lock-in regret pattern the task brief specifically asked about.

“This unit will not respond to commands provided by a common thermostat except under certain emergency situations.” — Carrier furnace/heat pump installation manual, quoted by a forum poster, 2021-01-01
What fixed it: If keeping the freedom to switch to any third-party thermostat (Ecobee, Nest, etc.) later matters to you, a communicating system like Infinity is a real, permanent trade-off against that freedom -- not a minor inconvenience. Confirm this before buying, not after a control board fails years later and only the brand's own dealer network can service it.

Carrier Infinity HP on non-Carrier thermostat?? · Owner/trade forums (misc.) · 2021-01-01 · read it in context

A real owner of a Carrier Infinity communicating furnace reports a 'Fault 178 indoor unit communication problem' -- a diagnostic code specific to Carrier's proprietary communicating-system architecture, not a generic gas-furnace fault. This is the consumer-facing symptom of the lock-in this catalog's research confirmed separately (see the garagejournal.com claim below): the Infinity control board and its communicating wiring are a single point of failure the whole furnace depends on.

“My Carrier Infinity furnace has stopped working, showing Fault 178, indicating an indoor unit communication problem.” — anonymous customer homeowner, 2022-01-01
What fixed it: A communicating-system fault code often traces to the low-voltage communication wiring between thermostat and furnace control board, not the furnace's core mechanical components -- but only a technician familiar with that specific brand's communicating protocol can reliably diagnose it.

Carrier Infinity furnace stopped -- Fault 178 indoor unit communication problem · Owner/trade forums (misc.) · 2022-01-01 · read it in context

Sources are linked so you can verify any of this yourself. We don't mirror content — Amazon in particular permits no republication of review text, so where we use retailer data we show the aggregate rating and link out. How we collect and weight this →

Compare against

Amana AMVM97 Modulating Gas Furnace (AMVM970803BN)

97-98% AFUE (varies by capacity size) self-calibrating modulating condensing furnace with a variable-speed ECM blower and ComfortBridge communicating-capable controls.

Bryant Evolution 987M Modulating Gas Furnace (987MC42080C17)

Up to 98.3% AFUE modulating condensing furnace with a variable-speed constant-airflow ECM blower -- Carrier's sibling-brand equivalent of the Infinity 98 platform.

Goodman GMVM97 Modulating Gas Furnace

97% AFUE modulating condensing furnace at a notably lower price point.

Lennox Elite EL296V Two-Stage Gas Furnace (EL296DF110XE60C)

96% AFUE two-stage condensing furnace with a variable-speed ECM blower, Lennox's mid-tier Elite line rather than the flagship Signature Collection.

Before you buy this

Ask whether the AFUE rating on the quote is for this specific model or a nameplate range. If it's being paired with a new air conditioner, ask for the AHRI reference number for that exact indoor/outdoor combination — a high-efficiency furnace matched to the wrong coil won't deliver its rated numbers. And ask for a Manual J load calculation rather than a like-for-like swap of the old unit's output.