Tested to Extremes

It's hard to stop a Trane isn't just a tagline… it's been proven. At the SEET (Systems Extreme Environmental Test) lab in Tyler, Texas, Trane products are put through 16 weeks of bone-chilling cold and blistering heat, in repeating two-week sessions. By putting our heating and cooling units through 5 years worth of wear and tear in the matter of a few months, we reinforce our philosophy of making products you can rely on for years and years.

Testing videos

Trane Reliability Engineers know exactly how hard it is to stop a Trane. They make them that way. And while they've put our products up against the most extreme conditions in our SEET lab, they always want to see how far they can take it. This is what happens when we let them off the leash.

Heck or high water

How do you test a Trane that's tougher than nails? You just need to find a big enough hammer — in this case, an 85-ton house boat.

Projectiles

Hail in the form of 100mph fastballs. And C-4.

Nature's Wrath

One Trane. And one trillion watts of power.

Behind the scenes

Unstoppable appetite for videos? See how it all went down.

Meet snowball II

Snowball II is the nickname for the durable Climatuff^® compressor at Trane’s Compressor Test Lab.

It’s named for the block of ice it has encased itself in by running nonstop since 2000, and still is today. Our technicians have tried to break our Climatuff^® compressor over 900 ways, which has produced a saying at Trane, if a product doesn't make it through our test lab it doesn't get made.

What happened to snowball I?

The original Snowball, also a Climatuff^® compressor, began its life in late 1972, running nearly 28 years under the same brutal lab standards and encasing itself in a ball of ice. It ran at an estimated 3500 rpm, equaling an automobile running between 60 and 70 miles per hour, covering 14.8 million miles.

Snowball I showed up at the lab “DOA” for some unexplained reason, but when it was started up it ran fine. Not just fine, it ran great. Well, what do you do with a compressor that's running great? At the Trane Compressor Test Lab, you re-weld it and put it into continuous flood test mode. Five presidents later and after seeing the rise and fall of disco, glam rock and grunge music, Snowball finally ran out of steam, but left a legacy in the name of the patented Trane Climatuff® compressor found in every Trane heat pump and air conditioner today.

Real stories

Every person at Trane has a unique story to tell, and we are proud to tell them.Whatever man and Mother Nature throw their way, Trane products are nearly unstoppable. Check out these amazing videos and photos of Trane products that triumphed over the most extreme real-life situations imaginable.

Crushed by a collapsed wall

Trane air conditioner slammed by falling debris still runs.

Slammed by a backhoe

This unit was run over by a backhoe and is still working hard.

Underwater operation

Trane unit still running strong under flood waters.