Old gas still cranks heat when those things freeze up.

That "quiz each other on prices" thing reminds me of when I worked a summer at a tiny diner in high school. The cook would yell out random specials and you had to shout back the total with tax or he'd throw a wet towel at you. We never actually hit anyone with food though, that's just crazy.

Man, I had a buddy who went stretch-in on a second floor living room and it turned into a whole thing. It looked great for about six months, then he started noticing ripples near the sliding glass door. Turns out the humidity from the AC unit cycling was enough to loosen things up over time. He ended up having to pull it up and redo the whole room with glue down. I remember him cussing about that glue cleanup for weeks after. So yeah, for upper floors I'd still lean glue if you want it to stay put and not look wavy.

Gotta jump in on what @phoenix29 said because that's actually spot on for the newer units. I looked up the spec sheet after my buddy's system went in and yeah, the hyper heat models keep full capacity down to -13. What really got me was how the inverter technology just ramps up gradually instead of cycling on and off like the old ones. It makes a huge difference in how the whole house feels, way more consistent warmth.

Did you check if the motor wires came loose inside? I had the same thing happen with an older burr grinder and it was just a connector that popped off the circuit board. Took ten minutes with a screwdriver and some needle nose pliers to fix.