Now in its 15th year, the contest features 39 new and innovative products across 13 categories. The categories span an assortment of critical HVACR aspects, such as residential controls, ventilation products, refrigeration, components and accessories, and more.

The 2018 Dealer Design Awards (DDA) contest featured a wide-array of contractor-oriented HVACR products with features that assist in installation, maintenance, and service. These products showcase the best that HVAC has to offer and include everything from large-scale commercial rooftop units to hand tools.

Software Motor Co., the business atop the podium for commercial controls this year, is not like most other winners.

Panasonic has been running field research on the soffit venting problem for well over 10 years, and this year, that research has paid off in the form of a gold-winning product in the Dealer Design Awards category for Components and Accessories: the EZ Soffit Vent.

In a highly competitive race, the Elite® Series Large Split Systems from Lennox Industries found a way to pull away from the field (which included some internal competition we will get to for the silver honors) and earn the gold award in the HVAC Commercial Equipment category of this year’s Dealer Design Award contest.

It took more than 17 months for Jackson Systems to research and build the Virtual Technician app, which won gold in the Contractor Services and Software category of the 2018 Dealer Design Awards.

The 8 CFM Vacuum Pump from Fieldpiece Instruments earned its place atop the Electronic and Hand Tools category.

The 2018 Dealer Design gold-winning product in the HVAC High-Efficiency Residential Equipment category, the MLZ One-Way Ceiling Cassette by Mitsubishi Electric, was designed to simplify installation and maintenance while providing homeowners with improved indoor air quality via advanced filtration, energy efficiency, and Mitsubishi Electric’s auto vane control technology that enables occupants to customize the airflow rate and direction.

DunAn Microstaq Inc.’s HC-MSEV USHC Retrofit Kit netted the gold award in the HVAC Light Commercial Equipment category of this year’s Dealer Design Awards contest.