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Bought a 5 star 1.5 T Hitachi window a/c last summer. It's not much of a chiller compared with 2007 LG of similar tonnage which works in a similar seized room in my home under identical orientation. The remote control doesn't work perfectly. I'd got the unit replaced after haggling with the company but it still has same issues. Electricity bills might be lower but given a choice now I'd not buy Hitachi.

BTW Hitachi service on Gurgaon is BAD. Nobody turns up on a service complaint before 7-10 days and that too after follow up.

i-Clean 1.2 ton MRP is 38190 as per the website:i-Clean: Hitachi Home & Life Solutions (India) Ltd.

Is 39k including the stabilizer?

Yes. Including stabiliser and some fitting stand. Installation charges extra, and needs to be paid to company personnel!

Ordered it today. Will be installing it tomorrow.

Thats a nice deal. Can you post your review after the installation?

We have a 6yr old 1.5 ton LG AC. No problem with it except the huge power bills we are paying every motnh. Planning to go for a more efficient one. Not able to decide whether to go for Hitachi i-Clean or LG Inverter AC.

Which is the beter one to go for? Our main concern is the power bills which are shooting up.

I bought this to replace my parent's 14 year old General. It has too many functions available to the user, making it slow to learn. The fan throw is perhaps lower than the General. I am yet to completely put a stamp on that fact. Everything else is quite nice. A good replacement, does the job well and the fact that it is 5 star rated tilted the scales in its favour. There is not much available in terms of literature as the model is relatively new. I will soon find out the impact to the electricity bill and will post more.

IMO Hitachi has the worst After sales any brand can have. Have had extremely bad experience with their service and had to personally visit their Gurgaon service centre and shout on top of my voice to get my case attended after 1 week of request.

Also have had a very bad experience with the Quadricool 2T Window (maybe I was sold a lemon). In last 6 years it has got a complete inside thermocol body change, a motor change, a gas recharge and this year again is due for a recharge. All this when it was used regularly for only 2 years and later used as a backup unit only because I was so fed up that I had bought a General Split. Have finally decided this year to sell it for 5K and swore to never buy a Hitachi again.

But will that deter you or others from buying a Hitachi? A big no I guess!

I think we are all sold lemons from time to time. In my case the Lemon was Samsung, and the savior Hitachi. I have three of them and have been extremely happy with both the performance and the service.

So parents got the A/C fixed today, as guessed it was a gas leak from the connection point (outdoor unit). New gas was filled and asked Rs.1800, dad bargained and finally paid Rs.1650. Friendly Neighborhood mechanic was called for this job.

Old and new EER ratings.

There have been doubts about these many times. So I have now scanned and uploaded these from a recent Panasonic advertisement.

Guess all the so called good AC brands like Hitachi, Carrier, panasonic, etc have poor service in India and the so called inferior ones like LG, Samsung, etc have good service.Was getting pathetic service support for my old carrier AC all these days. Got a new Panasonic unit installed yesterday and the work carried out by their installing team was pathetic.
Maybe it's always a toss up between a good product (or) good service. :Frustrati

@Daewood; A lot depends on the dealer. If the person who supplied you the system is good you will get service once out of warranty. Problems come if the compressor packs up after, say, 3 years. Then you are stuck with the pathetic service of the manufacturer. In Kanpur both LG and Samsung used to be good, until Samsung outsourced it. Now they are worse than pathetic. LG continues to be good. Hitachi, Daikin etc. often have the dealer (esp a biggie) as the service centre as well.

This is a clear guide, thanks.

Now GE has air conditioners in India, dealer has quoted for 3 star, 1.5 splits 27000 including fitting, I need 7 units. Anyone has bought it so far? I know it's new, but then they have brand equity.

--Ramky
=======

Panasonic installation - Very professional. The installers clearly said stabilizer is not needed.

The AC itself is very quiet. Even the external unit is silent. The room cools down in seconds. But Bangalore weather has been terrific since I bought the AC :D so not used much so far.

Waiting for the Sun...

Hi,

We have a 6yr old 1.5 ton LG AC. No problem with it except the huge power bills we are paying every motnh. Planning to go for a more efficient one.

Not able to decide whether to go for Hitachi i-Clean or LG Inverter AC. Hitachi i-Clean is 5Star rated but LG Inverter AC is newer technology and claims to be mroe efficient than 5Star. We had good experience with LG so far. Not sure of Hitachi's service.

Which is the beter one to go for? Our main concern is the power bills which are shooting up.

Any other brands we should consider?

@Pallavi; See post 2559 above. 5* just says EER 3.3 and above. A good inverter model should run rings round a non-inverter model. LG should be good, but Hitachi is a premium label. Also, take a look at Daikin, General and (maybe) Panasonic. These three are supposed to be the kings of the split world.

Since you are not on the coast condenser construction (aluminium or Copper) should not really matter for you.