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Seems you are being taken for a wee ride! And no, the absence of a voltage stabilizer does not seem to be underlying reason for the failure, if any!
Well, in today's world you simply take these things in your stride if you are not an engineer by training.

A voltage stabilizer can do nothing about moisture damage. What is strange is that moisture could damage the MB. In most of the cases the MB has a layer of insulator to prevent shorts circuits and that layer also acts as a moisture barrier.

Hi everyone. I am looking to purchase a 2 Ton Split AC for a basement. Have been reading and re-reading the posts in this thread and getting more confused for the past 3 days with the plethora of options. Will really appreciate if you guys can advise. Looking at a 3 or maximum 4 star AC with good cooling and decent after sales support in Delhi area. I do not want to be running around for installation or service. Thanks!

Basements typically have very low heat gain. Depending on the room size you can select tonnage less than (maybe even half) what you would select if you were to install it at ground or upper floors.

Thanks Guite. The area in total is about 650 Sq ft. We are setting up an office there average number of people there will be 3 to 5 only. We have been advised to put 2x2 ton ac at max. Since the budget is a little constrained and the basement is fairly cool as it is we plan to put one AC for now mainly for dehumidification. We plan to add a 2 ton cassette AC later next season.

650 square feet and 5 persons will require 4+ tons in summer if you do not want to sweat. If you are budget constrained, you can search for a local shop that assembles AC and get them to make you one.

Thanks Aroy. I had myself thought exactly what you are saying. So we had consulted two independent HVAC guys who visited the site and both have advised that even for chilling there should not be a need of more than 4 tonnes. We know for sure the area was being used as an office by a CA firm and they were using only one 2 Ton AC for three years since they found two ACs to be two cold.
In any case we are open to adding more tonnage, just maybe not right now. The immediate requirement is a single 2 Tr Split Ac as it will just be the two of us and a helper for the first few months. Will be adding the other ones later. The budget right now is about 45k. Few grand here or there is not a problem. Just wanted to know which brands/models would be best suitable in this budget. We don't want to go down the assembling route.

The other concern I have is fresh air. A basement tends to be more airtight than an upper floor because of less doors and windows. Even when doors and windows are shut, they have small gaps which let in fresh air. You may like to ask your HVAC guys to evaluate this aspect also.

Staff well being and productivity depends of comfort: which can be room temperature, humidity, fresh air, etc. Our company has one basement space in south Delhi left vacant because of low air quality. There are companies which specialise in air quality monitoring, they come with their meter and check.

The area has a 4ftx4ft opening in the ceiling which opens into a fresh air shaft up until the fourth floor with an opening towards the 60ft wide street at the each floor level. There is quite a bit of air coming in from there We are not planning to close this instead cover it with something which allows the air to pass but just stop mosquitoes etc. Apart from this there is a window about 6ftx4ft which opens into the staircase. We are having an exhaust system installed as well to improve air circulation more. We are pretty happy with the area as unlike most basements there is no seepage or mustiness and decent ventilation is present as well. Although we haven't had any specialists see the area as well, the HVAC guys have not mentioned anything negative in this aspect as well. In case we find it too unusable, there is always the option of moving to another place since this will be on rent.

From the recent experience, turned out that choosing what brand of AC to go for can be very confusing given the plethora of choices available.

Finally narrowed down on a Hitachi 1.5 ton non-inverter 5 star split AC and it seems like a good quality feature rich product.

Carbon dioxide is heavier and trends to settle down towards lower levels. Having forced exhaust starting at ground level will make huge difference. Having just a window or shaft opening at ceiling level is not sufficient.

The saga of our second-hand mix'n'match...

The LG indoor unit, as previously mentioned, did not suit us due to incompatibility with our needs It was also faulty and made a lot of noise. Our local-street engineer promised to find us something better.

He has now replaced the LG with a Samsung unit. It is pretty much like what we had before. It is quiet, effective, and pretty-much like having a new machine!

End result: Voltas outside, Samsung inside. Net cost, 15k. That was paid when he fitted the LG, and our guy refused to accept any more, even for topping up the gas after the inside-unit replacement.

No doubt I might have had a heap of post-purchase satisfaction from seeing a 50K-plus Panasonic on the wall, but really, this used combo is doing the job.

Of course, two days is no proof of longevity, I'll update next year, but I'd say that anyone who has a trusted mechanic can get good AC at a pretty reasonable price.

If flushing from the heat, but not flush in funds, go 2nd hand!

Samsung should be slightly better than LG in every appliance they make, so lets hope that this one gives noiseless performance for 3-4 years at the least, then that 15k will be worth it. Of course like you said a great mechanic is important to keep it ticking and it seems like you've found one.

Luckily the aircon service engineer who comes for routine maintenance here is also not greedy, more professional. To him the hierarchy is clear - the top 3 are Daikin, General & Toshiba, followed by Panasonic which is a full segment lower and then Samsung/LG which are a further half segment lower. So going by that its a slim difference and as long as the piping in the current mix-n-match setup is 100% copper you'd not miss Panasonic one bit.

Going by impressions from this thread, Samsung seems less popular than LG in recent times. It may be no bad thing that I have an older-model Samsung!

Our mechanic is very good. Too good: he is very tough to get hold of! He has promised to dig around in our Sharp AC, which we threw away a year's company-AMC money on, so see if he can rid of us of its noise. The problem, though, is going to be spares: if the company agents can't get them, what chance is there for the local-street guys? :Frustrati

Components for an air conditioner are not exactly proprietary. There are plenty of alternatives available and then every city has dealers who buy scrapped machines and their yards are a treasure trove of parts of all sorts including complete units.