Why buy the A163 motor over the Genuine Lennox 68K21 motor?

Well, before we can discuss which motor you should buy, we need to discuss what your purpose is. Do you want the A163 motor to last as long as the original, or are you okay with the aftermarket motor lasting around 3 – 5 years? If you want your new inducer motor to last 5 years and up, then you might want to think about buying the Genuine Lennox 68K21 motor.

Genuine Lennox motor?

Is there a Genuine Lennox motor? We have to be careful when we use the term "genuine" in the HVAC industry. Why? Because HVAC parts are constructed and sold differently than say car parts.

Technically, there is no such thing as a genuine replacement part. Why is that? Because Lennox is not physically making HVAC products. In fact, none of the mainstream manufacturers are making their replacement parts. Remember, Lennox is a brand, like Ford is a brand for its cars and trucks, yet Ford does not make each component inside your car or truck. Instead, Ford outsources the official building of the parts to other companies to make the parts, and then they bring them in to be manufactured or assembled at a Ford plant. Lennox does somewhat of the same, except that it doesn’t even assemble the furnace; this is done elsewhere. Instead, Lennox typically acts more like a distribution hub.

Thus, what this means is that what you find in a Lennox furnace is not made by Lennox; there is no "made by Lennox" sticker on the components inside the furnace. Instead, you will find labels like Fasco. And even more comical, Fasco, in many cases, doesn’t even make their own motors, which is why you will find labels such as "assembled by Fasco."

So then who makes HVAC replacement parts?

In most cases, from my experiences of both servicing and selling HVAC equipment, I can say that there are typically three big names:

1. China
2. Mexico
3. Costa Rica

I have people who have emailed me to make it clear to me that they do not want me to send them some cheap Chinese knockoff. To which I say, Lennox will not listen to a small potato like me to tell them to not have their replacement parts made in China. Which 90% of capacitors, transformers, and rollout switches are made in China.

So does this mean you are destined to get some cheap knockoff? In most cases, I would say no. Even though most replacement parts are made in the aforementioned countries, they are made under the approval of those companies. So, in other words, there is stricter quality control for brands in those countries.

What this means is that while Lennox has its inducer motors made in Mexico, they are made and transported under controlled supervision. Thus, when a replacement part arrives at the local HVAC dealer, it is almost certain to be the approved replacement part for Lennox by Fasco. However, parts that can’t be 100% certified as purchased from an authorized dealership may be prone to being unverified.

This is why it is important to be careful when buying parts on Amazon, as there are frauds and fakes out there. However, a disclaimer for you, the reader: OEM HVAC Parts Canada does recommend on many of our links for customers to buy HVAC parts on approved listings from Amazon.

In fact, what might sound strange for the reader is that we will actively look for some of our competitors and will recommend customers to buy from their Amazon sites. Why would we do a thing like that? The industry has changed since Covid. This means a lot of older Fasco inducer motors are becoming harder and harder to get. And, the ones that we can still get seem to be getting more and more expensive. This means we are faced with two options: keep pushing up our prices to a comical high, or look for another solution by recommending motors to competitors for a small fee. It’s not ideal, but for some of the current motors, it would make no sense for us to list a motor at $1,000.00 when someone can buy it from a legitimate competitor for $200.00.

So then where does this bring us to the Fasco A163 motor versus the Fasco 68K21 motor?

Are they not just the same motor?

Well, as it’s been told to me, Fasco makes two kinds of motors for this situation.

Fasco, under contract with Lennox, will manufacture a motor specifically for them and label it with a Lennox part number.

However, from my own experiences of installing and selling both the A163 motor and the 68K21motor, I do believe that the Fasco 68K21 is made a little better.

At least the material seems to be. As I have had customers buy more than one A163 motor from me over a period of 3 years. Meaning the A163 motor, is not as good as the Lennox 68K21 motor is. Yet, the A163 motor is still good for what you can get it for.

The Lennox Fasco aftermarket inducer motor will cost less then the Lennox 68K21 motor. We sell the 68K21 inducer motor on our site for $500.00, whereas the Fasco A163 inducer motor is going for $251.00.

So nearly half the price. But you get what you pay for, and now you know the reason why there is a difference.