The battle has been fought and the winners declared in The NEWS’ 2011 eighth annual Dealer Design Awards program. Approximately 30 contractor judges examined the 127 product entries and the 39 gold, silver, and bronze winners have been added to the pantheon of Dealer Design champions.

Bestowed with the honor of a Dealer Design award, winning entrants fill the pages of this issue and each will make an appearance on the Dealer Design website. Perhaps one of the greatest honors in this competition, however, is winning a DD - the coveted trophy that declares to the industry that a manufacturer’s product is a winner.

Make no mistake; the Dealer Design Awards program is not an HVACR beauty pageant. Created to emphasize the features designed to ease contractors’ daily workload, the judges evaluate installation, service, and maintenance features. Those who have won and those who wish to win in the future understand that one key factor grants them the privilege of earning a DD - designing quality products with the contractor in mind.

“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 the 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.”

This issue highlights and honors the winning entries from each of the 13 product categories. Even with these honors in place, the battle continues at www.achrnews.com/dealerdesign. There, contractors can vote for their own competition champion in The NEWS’ Readers’ Choice Awards. The online product face-off brings the winning products into a bracket competition. Users vote in each round for their favorite product. In the end, only one product will be declared the Readers’ Choice.

Publication date: 07/11/2011