From conception to production, all HVACR products have one thing in common — well-designed products that assist contractors in installation, maintenance, and service. Hard work and engineering are invested in each manufactured piece. Be it large unitary equipment or the software program that incorporates complete back office solutions, engineers spend hundreds of hours working to create the best product for the contractor. The NEWS’ 2009 sixth annual Dealer Design Awards program set out in January to honor the products that contractor judges deemed worthy of this prestigious award. After spending months evaluating 124 product entries, this year’s winners have been determined. Overall, there were 37 winners — 14 gold, 15 silver, and 8 bronze — along with 14 honorable mentions.

“The annual response we receive from vendors and contractors for the Dealer Design Awards program is amazing. This really is the only contest of its kind in this industry where only contractors make the decision about the award winners. The contractor judges enjoy participating because they can review some relatively new products in the market, thereby occasionally giving their own companies an advantage with some information that their competitors might not yet have,” said Mike Murphy, editor-in-chief of The NEWS. “I want to thank the manufacturers that entered their products and services.”

Continuing the proud tradition of honoring design excellence, this issue highlights this year’s winners in each of the 14 product categories. See the following feature articles in this issue to discover what features made these products award winning.

• Residential Victors Venture Outside the Box

• Uncommon Tools Take Top Prizes

• Efficient Equipment Benefits Consumers

• Silent Products Are Golden

• Foodservice Benefits From Technology

• Products Help Efficiency

• Helping Products and Techs Work Efficiently

• Products Save Time and Money

• Communicating Is Key

• Wireless Entries Wrangle Top Honors

• New Products Meet Excellence Measure

• Improved IAQ Products Clean Up

• Easy Access Earns Hard Fought Victory

• Commercial Products Ease HVAC Onus

Sidebar: 2009 Gold Winners

Lennox Industries Inc. • T-Class™ Commercial Split Systems

Lochinvar Corporation • SHIELD Commercial Water Heater

Superior Radiant Products • Series GR Infrared Heater

Purafil Inc. • GridBLOK™ Technology

Genteq • ECM X13 460V

Honeywell • RedLINK Wireless System

Honeywell • Zio™ LCD Wall Module

Western Enterprises • HVAC VN Series

Online-Access Inc. • PagePilot E-Commerce System

Fieldpiece Instruments • HVAC Guide® System Analyzer

Core Enterprises Inc. • Accutools eL-720 Carbon Dioxide Leak Detector

Broan-NuTone LLC • Broan® Ultra Silent™ Humidity Sensing Fan

Johnson Controls • York® Affinity™ 33-inch Modulating Gas Furnace

Hoshizaki America Inc. • Self Contained Cubelet Ice Machine with Built-in Storage C-100BAE-AD

Sidebar: DDA Microsite

New products, new videos, and a whole new format. Visit www.achrnews.com/2009dealerdesign to find interactive coverage of The NEWS’ 2009 Dealer Design Awards Program.

Publication date: 07/13/2009