[TheIndian]

Originally Posted by kavensri

after reading some of the comments about inverter model, i am glad that i changed my decision at the very last minute to switch from daikin inverter model to Mitsubishi 5 star model.

Actually, my logic tells me that it's better to go for Inverters rather than 5 star. It's either 3 star or inverters. What is the price difference between a 5 star an an Inverter of the same brand? Nominal, may be?

I'm looking for inverters for my 2 bedrooms though my usage is only 8-10 hours for only 4-6 months in a year. It's not merely because of power savings but because of the comfort it seems to provide.

I'm still newbie in AC's, hence posted my queries about air conditioning my flat as above. No inputs received so far. It's either Blue Star or Panasonic as of now. But still, am looking forward to your valuable inputs.

[kavensri]

Originally Posted by TheIndian

Actually, my logic tells me that it's better to go for Inverters rather than 5 star. It's either 3 star or inverters. What is the price difference between a 5 star an an Inverter of the same brand? Nominal, may be?

I'm looking for inverters for my 2 bedrooms though my usage is only 8-10 hours for only 4-6 months in a year. It's not merely because of power savings but because of the comfort it seems to provide.

I'm still newbie in AC's, hence posted my queries about air conditioning my flat as above. No inputs received so far. It's either Blue Star or Panasonic as of now. But still, am looking forward to your valuable inputs.

Like you, even i am new to ACs. So, my decision was based on whatever i read from the net and also from couple of sales adviser with whom i spoke. See, my requirements were clear on some aspects. I wanted Japanese make and that too 'imported' one. So, i ruled out Daikin (which is made in India now) at the last minute. And after Daikin, my next preference was Mitsubishi. Even with Mitsubishi, i wanted to go with an Inverter model, but the price difference was too much and hence settled for 5-star. I am not sure any of these info will help you in finalizing yours, but just thought of sharing it.

[diyguy]

Originally Posted by TheIndian

I'm still newbie in AC's, hence posted my queries about air conditioning my flat as above. No inputs received so far. It's either Blue Star or Panasonic as of now.

There have been many posts about inverter acs requiring expensive board fixes that are not covered under warranty. This has caused a suspicion about its suitability to Indian conditions. Else inverter acs are no brainers. I have two Daikin splits and two Samsung. The oldest Samsung is a 2T and is running since 2006 Jan. No issues till date except a capacitor change in its third year. My daikins are about 5 years old and both have had to be gas filled though one of them I believe was fraudulently filled and was not really an issue. The authorized service guy had tampered with the gas flow to make it cool less since he had come for a full water wash. He told me to call him privately for any repairs and within 2 weeks felt it was not cooling enough. He came and pretended there is zero gas and in 15 mins finished topping it up... Sadly I was ill and just wanted the AC to work again as it was my kids room.
The 4th is a Samsung too and has not been serviced for 1 year and used infrequently.
I've also tried O'G, LG, Hitachi, Carrier, Samsung in window type and none of them lasted me more than 3-4 years. On the other hand my father in law bought the same LG along with me in 1998 and it is still running well in his house while I am on my 3rd AC since then!! The difference is he never called a service guy to clean his AC and only used to clean the filter and grill himself. I used to get mine water washed and cleaned every three-four months, go figure!!
My daikins and the newer Samsung are three star, while the 2T Samsung is not rated. We use the bedroom acs about 10-12 hours 365 days a year. The living room 2T is typically used 6-8 hrs a day in summer and maybe two to three times a month other seasons.
I am not sure if this helped you, but I feel now that there is no real reliable brand and one needs to purchase based on price, features required and capacity, maybe extended warranty as well. Also keep the deep cleaning and handling by technicians to a minimum.

[ramki067]

Bought a Hitachi 3 star 1 ton split AC from flipkart on 21 Mar 2016. Flipkart delivered the product the very next day. But they said the installation will take place in the next 2 business days(as per order page of Flipkart), which still hasn't happened. Have registered complaints in both Flipkart and Hitachi, but still not yet received any call but only apologies. Worst is even Flipkart or Hitachi is not committing to any dates when it will be installed.
Such is the customer satisfaction of both the companies!

Originally Posted by 2500cc

After much consideration and research bought Hitachi 1.2 Tons 5 Star Split AC Silver(RAU514HWDS). Got 2.5K off on flipkart, placed the order last night at 8:30 and got it delivered this morning at 10AM. Awaiting the installation.

Is your installation done yet sir? How was your experience?

[Jaggu]

Originally Posted by TheIndian

Need 6 units of split ACs as below:

2 Bedrooms - 125 & 130 sq ft - Is 1 Ton enough or 1.5 ton required? I may go for Inverter ACs though these will be used only for 4-5 months a year (8-10 hours a day) due to uniform temperature levels that Inverte ACs maintain throughout. If not inverter, then 3 star

1 ton is more than enough for cooling and maintaining the chill level, 1.5 ton would help in faster initial cooling by couple of minutes.

I would say go with 5 star rated ones since you save power and use AC less than 6 months, which may not make a financial sense for inverter types additional cost.

Living room / Drawing Room/ dining/ Kitchen - it's all open and total area comes to 400 - 450 sq ft. Thinking 2 no.s of 1.5 Ton 3 star ACs

This is where you need to plan well, ideally use a AC consultant since these i assume are open spaces. You can always control the free space / leakage if you have doors or atleast keep wall to wall curtain partitions.

Do calculate how much time you plan to run these on a daily basis, and accordingly decide on star rating, if they land up running more than bedrooms then your electricity bills might go through the roof. Cities like BLR as you change the consumption slab, the rate per unit also exponentially goes up making it expensive.

Blue Star, Voltas & Panasonic with Blue Star currently leading the race.

I think you are on right track with brands, when we installed our AC the consultant was very straight forward, apart from the looks and some feature here and there these brands are as capable as the other imported brands. But these brands offer better service and access to service.

We choose Voltas and its been 8 years, annually i clean the dust filters and wash the external fins myself. Apart from that no service what soever <touch wood>.

[abhishek46]

Originally Posted by Gansan

The 1 Ton Samsung split AC in my dad's room needs a gas charge according to the technician. It was charged last year but was not used for the winter. He says if we top up gas it may last this summer, but the best thing is to replace the aluminium coils with copper ones, and will cost about Rs 8.5k. AC is five years old.

The 9 year old window unit of the same brand in my room is still going strong, but he says it has copper coils. According to him the only brands coming with copper coils are General and Daikin. Is that true?

Will it be worth repairing the split AC?

Hi,
Carrier & Hitachi ACs also come with Copper internals.
They are far better than Samsung and LG. I am speaking this from my personal experience with all them in the torrid Bhubaneswar summers.

[diyguy]

Originally Posted by Gansan

but the best thing is to replace the aluminium coils with copper ones, and will cost about Rs 8.5k. AC is five years old
Will it be worth repairing the split AC?

Is the condition of the coil the reason for the gas leak? Did he check with soap? I suggest you get one more opinion. Instead of the coil change, you can buy a new indoor unit itself for about 8-10k. We did that for my cousins bedroom AC which the mechanic said was beyond repair.

[TheIndian]

Originally Posted by Jaggu

This is where you need to plan well, ideally use a AC consultant since these i assume are open spaces. You can always control the free space / leakage if you have doors or atleast keep wall to wall curtain partitions.

Do calculate how much time you plan to run these on a daily basis, and accordingly decide on star rating, if they land up running more than bedrooms then your electricity bills might go through the roof. Cities like BLR as you change the consumption slab, the rate per unit also exponentially goes up making it expensive.

Thanks Jaggu.

Our AC consultant first suggested 2 AC's of 2 Ton each in this open space. However, few relatives told me that it'll be an overkill and 1.5 Ton 2 AC's are more than enough. What I'm still not sure is, when I wanna use say Living room side AC, do I use only that AC or will I need to also use the other AC on Dining place/ Kitchen side? If I use only 1 AC, how will it suppose to cool such a large space? Will figure it out with consultant.

I think you are on right track with brands, when we installed our AC the consultant was very straight forward, apart from the looks and some feature here and there these brands are as capable as the other imported brands. But these brands offer better service and access to service.

Thanks. That's reassuring. I was actually started having doubts if I was on right track in terms of these brands.

[Jaggu]

Originally Posted by TheIndian

What I'm still not sure is, when I wanna use say Living room side AC, do I use only that AC or will I need to also use the other AC on Dining place/ Kitchen side? If I use only 1 AC, how will it suppose to cool such a large space? Will figure it out with consultant.

This is what i meant, ideally you need some physical partition to keep the cooling effective with just one AC since it won't be able to efficiently cool the entire open area. It will cool but area away from unit would be less cool and technically over working the ac/wasting energy. Easiest way out is to have a roof level curtain that can be drawn, this is not 100% efficient but easiest to create some physical block.

Now other option is to have a tower but that is an expensive and cumbersome one. Or look at a powerful single unit cassette AC (at the center) doing duty.

[JonSnow]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Will check out some of the brands suggested. Does anyone have any idea about the Reliance Reconnect branded AC's ? Is it worth considering or to be avoided?

[sandeepmohan]

Originally Posted by anupmathur

There is no point trying to prove it one way or the other. I have steered clear of inverter ACs, specifically due to Delhi being a very dusty city and with summer temperatures that can hit 47°C; you have the privilege to do as you please.

I am not trying to prove my point. Don't get me wrong but you seem ill informed. All I am trying to do you guide you in the right direction. What you decide to buy is up to you. I can't change that decision.

Please note that Sharp and Mitsubishi have been selling Inverter technology for over 7 years in India. It is not really a new technology to us. Adoption rate was slow as they were very expensive. Customer education is also important. Today, the average difference in pricing between a Inverter and Non Inverter is < Rs. 10,000. This is a amount you will recover in less than 10 years, possibly 5 years cause summers tend to set in early nowadays and we end up using our air conditioners much more.

Air conditioners are designed to with stand the harshest of weather conditions. There is no difference in the maintenance required for a Inverter and Non Inverter air conditioner. If someone told you this, they are wrong.

If the technology was not suitable for India, you won't find the big brands introducing it. All the major players in home Air Conditioning sell Inverter technology. Heck, Samsung even give you a 10 year warranty. While this is not new to the Non Inverter series, the warranty goes to show that they are confident of the product they are selling.

If I were in the market today for a air conditioner, there will be no second thoughts on what type of air conditioner I will buy. It is going to be an Inverter. After all, we do want to save money.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by TheIndian

Precisely this is the reason I'm more inclined towards Blue Star though it's not a glamorous brand.

But sadly got no response to my post/ queries here (since it's not a glamorous brand?)

Not a very useful response; little more than hearsay, but I seem to remember someone saying that they are not really interested in domestic customers. It was a year or three ago.

[saviouravenger]

Originally Posted by JonSnow

Thanks for the feedback guys. Will check out some of the brands suggested. Does anyone have any idea about the Reliance Reconnect branded AC's ? Is it worth considering or to be avoided?

AVOID THEM.
My sister purchased one of these Reliance Reconnect Split AC's. She bought the sales executives pitch about warranty and efficency for a low price. She assumed it would serve her needs for a few years and then she'd trade up. But the unit conked off soon. Service was really bad. They repaired the damage rather than replace the faulty components. Got the unit working but it wouldn't cool below 24°C and power consumption spiked. Heard about similar product failures from a reseller when we tried to trade the unit in whilst purchasing a new AC. Guy told us he'd never be able to sell it himself.

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Not a very useful response; little more than hearsay, but I seem to remember someone saying that they are not really interested in domestic customers. It was a year or three ago.

How can Blue Star command any respect. At one time they were rebranding locally assembled window units? Old memories last a very long time.

[harry10]

Originally Posted by sgiitk

How can Blue Star command any respect. At one time they were rebranding locally assembled window units? Old memories last a very long time.

Had blue star split Ac's in my last gym. The cooling was nothing short of pathetic. Panasonic is much better and have heard good reviews from people using it.