Air Conditioners - Bought the Wrong Model

[Banana7]

One of my old Hitachi 18K BTU inverter air conditioners (about 9 years old) started blowing warm air. It was used everyday for a minimum of 12 hours. Did lots of research on the internet and it seems in the past, most people most success with Mitsubishi and Daikin. However these two manufacturers offer the lowest warranty in Thailand, 5 years on the compressor and 1 year on everything else. I did notice that Daikin offers 10 year warranties in India on their compressors. I wonder why they don't offer 10 year compressor warranties in Thailand?

 

I settled on a new LG SCQ18A.S11 18K BTU replacement for 35,000 baht with installation, removal of old unit, and 2000 salvage credit on the old unit.The list price was around 43K baht. It has the new dualcool compressor warrantied for 10 years which is supposed to cool quickly, 3 years warranty on everything else. It has lots of features like connecting to your phone, and a 3 star efficiency rating. All the features are at the LG website but there isn't a English language manual, only Thai language for this model.

 

I think I made a big mistake buying this LG. After running for 5 minutes, set at 16C, it was blowing 77F air, after 15 minutes 65F, after 30 minutes 55F. Very slow cooling in my opinion, yet one of the marketing points was that it has very fast initial cooling due to the new dualcool compressor. I decided to compare it to the old existing Hitachi (18K BTU) inverter that was still working, In 5 minutes the Hitachi was blowing 50F air, at 10 min. 44F air. This was a fair comparison since the room sizes are exactly the same and both indoor and outdoor starting temperatures were exactly the same. I also have a very old Mitsubishi 18K non-inverter which runs everyday for about 5 hours and it has the fastest initial cooling even faster than the Hitachi.

 

Does anyone know of a great fast cooling inverter air conditioner with a long warranty and good reputation? Maybe I should go back to non-inverters?

 

 

 

[proton]

That's put me off LG then, could they have made a mistake on the install, gas?

[Lacessit]

I have always found Mitsubishi to be very reliable. Non-inverter.

[NanLaew]

The LG inverter that was purchased and installed in one of the bedrooms while I was away is the one that has had most issues. A gecko fried a control board but when it comes to regular cleaning and maintenance, it is the one that 'stops cooling' first and I think it is a bit noisier than the others. Admittedly, it is on the 'hot' side of the house.

 

The 8-year-old non-inverter Hitachi was relocated to a third bedroom and seems to be still working well. However, the Midea inverter I installed in my shed and the one replacing the Hitachi in the master bedroom are easily the quietest and most efficient. These are all on the 'cool' side of the house and yard.

 

I plan on getting four more Midea inverters for the 4-bedroom annex this month. The condenser units will be mounted in the shade so I don't expect issues.

[Banana7]

21 minutes ago, proton said:

That's put me off LG then, could they have made a mistake on the install, gas?

I don't know if the installation is deficient. They are returning tomorrow to finish the install, basically to bolt the compressor to a steel tray. They didn't have sharp enough drill bit to drill into the steel tray. I did watch them intently during the 9 hour install.  They did braze the pipes, only used flare joints at the evaporator and at the compressor, insured the bends weren't flattening, insulated each pipe, pipes were encased in a plastic casing. They didn't flow nitrogen through lines during brazing, which is normal professional practice in USA, Canada.

 

On a new unit, the gas is compressed in the compressor unit. No gas is added unless it is large distance between the compressor and evaporator. Different units have different specs but generally I estimate distances greater than 10 meters may require more gas. For my install the pipes were 6.1 meters in length.

[ukrules]

The brand is not your problem here, they sell millions of units per year.

 

Either it's a dud or they broke it.

[scubascuba3]

I thought inverters were slow to get the temperature down, to save money. Just turn it on earlier than normal. My TCL is very good

[flyingtlger]

I've never trusted Korean brands. I purchased a Hyundai when i was young and couldn't afford a comparable sized Toyota.

Hyundai promoted a 10 year 100K warranty at the time.

I had problems for the get go. The cars are cheaply made. They only look good in the beginning.

When I had a major engine problem I was told the warranty didn't cover it!

Total bait and switch.

You're better off paying more for a good, high quality Japanese product.

I have hardly had any problem with Japanese made products and if I did, the company would take care of the problem one way or another even if it wasn't under warranty.

BUYER BEWARE!!!

 

[Pumpuynarak]

My latest purchase has been a TCL inverter 24k BTU, i'm very pleased with it but i really don't like the remote. The cost was 21K fitted and the fitting company retained the old Mitsubishi unit as part of the deal. I had fitted a Mitsubishi 24K BTU about a year ago in another room cost 41K bht, the TCL cost was a no brainer. 

[scorecard]

28 minutes ago, Pumpuynarak said:

My latest purchase has been a TCL inverter 24k BTU, i'm very pleased with it but i really don't like the remote. The cost was 21K fitted and the fitting company retained the old Mitsubishi unit as part of the deal. I had fitted a Mitsubishi 24K BTU about a year ago in another room cost 41K bht, the TCL cost was a no brainer. 

 

Why don't you like the remote? Please share?

 

Would a 'generic' remote (useable with multiple brands) be better?

[JBChiangRai]

I’ve installed somewhere approaching 200 AC units.  The last time I installed LG was 18 years ago in half a dozen condos in Pattaya.  They were varying sizes and all ok except the 24,000 BTU models which were noisy.

 

For the last 5 years I have installed nothing but TCL inverter units. We buy them on Lazada and pay 3,000 baht to have them fitted. Just under 15k for an 18,000 BTU unit fully installed.

 

IMHO they equal or exceed any other brand in quality (I have Daikin and Mitsubishi too).

 

They are cold instantly, but you have to remember with an inverter unit, if you are running the fan on slow speed, you will not get full Cooling, they do that to avoid freezing the inside evaporating unit. Set the fan at auto or slow it down after you’ve reached the temperature you want.

 

Frankly, I think you were ripped off with your LG unit.