PREFERRED PRODUCTS

West Coast Appliance Services proudly offers a wide variety of heating, air conditioning and ventilation components, allowing us to build custom systems that meet the unique needs of our customers.

All of our products have been selected based upon our company’s extensive HVAC experience. West Coast Appliance Services, Inc. supplies our customers with products from the best solar energy companies in the world including: Trane, Day and Nite.

TRANE HISTORY

Wisconsin Origins

The Trane story begins with James Trane, who emigrated from Norway to La Crosse, Wisconsin, in 1864. After working in the plumbing trade, Trane opened his own store in 1885. According to company lore, he was a stickler for quality and good service from the beginning.

Trane was also a product innovator. Trane Vapor Heating, a new kind of low-pressure steam heat, was introduced in 1913. Around this time, Trane brought his son, Reuben, into the business, which was incorporated as The Trane Company. Within a couple of years, they had dropped the plumbing business to concentrate on heating products.

Reuben Trane had studied mechanical engineering at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and he is credited with coming up with the idea for the convector radiator in 1925. The device circulated hot water or steam through a coil, rather than the heavy cast-iron used in radiators of the day. Reuben Trane also started the company's training program for engineering graduates.

1930-50: A New Industry

The Trane Company became a pioneer in the new field of air conditioning (though credit for the industry's birth goes to competitor Carrier). The Trane Unit Cooler, introduced in 1931, blew air over coils containing well water. While midwestern movie theaters were famous early users of Trane products, the general economy and home starts were at a standstill during this time due to the Great Depression. Nevertheless, notes the company, Trane survived and was able to develop a number of innovations that would be used in commercial heating and cooling applications for decades to come. One of these was the first hermetic centrifugal refrigeration machine, called the Turbovac.

The Allied war effort made use of Trane's ingenuity during World War II. The company's heating and cooling technology was used in industries ranging from armament production to food dehydration. Trane outfitted thousands of naval vessels and produced a critical component for fighting aircraft called the intercooler. This lightweight and efficient new heat exchanger allowed Allied piston engine performance to match that of the Germans.

READ MORE