[Thad E Ginathom]

Still not bad, Shashank: one of our Samsungs has just had a compressor replaced, three years in. Could have done without the expense.

(replaced, under mechanic's advice, with a Hitachi compressor)

[frankmehta]

Guys, we just got our airconditioners delivered to the new home today. Installation had begun by 4 PM and I was told it's complete now.
We had a lot of options to choose from. It's not everyday that one buys airconditioners, hence budget was not an issue.
Brands we had a close look at:
Hitachi, General, Daikin, Panasonic, Mitsubishi Electric (not Heavy Industries)

Brands we JUST couldn't decide between:
General, Daikin and Mitsubishi

Brands we JUST couldn't get ourselves to even look at:
LG (we have seen poor service from them), Samsung (everyone who I know has had a failed Samsung AC), Whirlpool (We don't trust Whirlpool for their ACs), Godrej (who has decent ACs but sad backup), Carrier (has lost it's charm in India)

Other points to be confused about:
Inverter/Non-Inverter?
Warranty/Grey market?


Here's how it went.
The AC market in India has seen a spurt in the last few years, and there was SO much choice, it wasn't even funny.
We eventually made up our minds to go for
a) Inverter Airconditioners (since they are known to be the MOST efficient, if used for about 8-10 hours a day. Full loads and continuous running of Inverter ac's does not yield good results. hence, if you intend to run an AC 24/7 get the best 5 star rated AC, not an Inverter ac.) As for us, we use all our ACs for less then 8 hours a day, hence we stand to gain from inverters.

b) We stared at two brands. Daikin and General.
Hitachi was out due to poor quality control.

Panasonic was in for some amount of time, and we were going to purchase Panasonic, but then the price discrepancy between many dealers, and lack of consistent reports proving their prowess were far and few in between, hence it did not convince us totally. The one thing that drew us to Panasonic in the first place was that Panasonic had not yet begun assembling ac's in India. They are importing Thai made pieces in India. Stuff made in Thailand has of late been of very high quality. Also, Panasonic is selling these at a loss to make headway in to the market. So the prices of Panasonic were lower than those of similar imported airconditioners in India.

General was our tried and trusted favourite, but they didn't carry Inverter based models in India. One MAJOR complaint I had with all my window Generals was noisy swing louvers (from day one of EACH air conditioner). All of them had LOUD, CRACKLING swing blinds, which made a huge racket at night when set to auto swing. I didn't want to spend a huge amount on an AC that is inherently silent to operate, but whose swinger creates a racket.
Second reason was the lack of a good customer service from General India. They JUST don't learn. I was not willing to write a fat cheque to someone (General, India) that doesn't make an effort to keep it's products running in good condition

Mitsubishi: I was very very impressed with Mitsu ac's. But lack of availability (even in Mumbai, where EVERYTHING is freely available) and lack of good service and support deterred me. They also didn't have a 2.2/2.5 ton model, which was one of the reasons why i looked away. No inveter model added to the negativity.

Thus, it all boiled down to Daikin
Daikin is known as the Rolls-Royce of air conditioners the world over, and every website, when it made a poll of the best AC manufacturers in the world, had Daikin at the top of their list, invariably. Not to forget, General occupied the second place almost consistently.

Anyways, almost everyone who I know, and who owns a Daikin swears by it's silence and reliability.
I was also on the lookout for an Inverter based ac (as mentioned earlier), and Daikin had those in it's lineup too.
A win-win, honestly. BTW, the Daikin Inverter line up is very similarly priced to it's G series 5* models, but is more efficient and a better specced unit, feature by feature.

Went for 2 1.5 ton Inverter Split FTKD50FVM: Rs. 44000 each
1 2.2 Ton Split Inverter FTKD71FVM: Rs. 58000
1 0.8 Ton Split Inverter FTKD25FVM: Rs. 28000

This is it. I am happy with the final outcome.

[Cyrus43]

Damn frank. You wrote all that for a AC thingy?? You do have a LOT of free time dont you. Anyways, out goes my hitachi which almost caught Fire, in comes the new General....

[khoj]

Hi frankmehta,

Congratulations on your new Daikins.

The point a) below regarding inverter air cons not yielding good results under continuous runs is in contradiction to what I understand regarding the inverter machines, could you kindly elaborate on why a conventional 5* machine would do better.

On a lighter note could you also elaborate 'Everything'.

Originally Posted by frankmehta

Guys, we just got our airconditioners delivered to the new home today. Installation had begun by 4 PM and I was told it's complete now.

We eventually made up our minds to go for
a) Inverter Airconditioners (since they are known to be the MOST efficient, if used for about 8-10 hours a day. Full loads and continuous running of Inverter ac's does not yield good results. hence, if you intend to run an AC 24/7 get the best 5 star rated AC, not an Inverter ac.) As for us, we use all our ACs for less then 8 hours a day, hence we stand to gain from inverters.


Mitsubishi: I was very very impressed with Mitsu ac's. But lack of availability (even in Mumbai, where EVERYTHING is freely available) and lack of good service and support deterred me. They also didn't have a 2.2/2.5 ton model, which was one of the reasons why i looked away. No inveter model added to the negativity.

This is it. I am happy with the final outcome.

[frankmehta]

(News) Why no savings from inverter air-conditioner? - COMEX 2010 | VRForums - Singapore IT & Lifestyle Central

Inverters are truly awesome for reducing your electricity bill

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverter_(air_conditioning)


Read these three articles to understand thoroughly what an Inverter AC does.
At first, read up on the Wikipedia article.

[khoj]

I know what the inverter does and that is why the contradiction. I have seen the sources that you have posted links to and they are at best noobish.

Anyway do not wish to start a meaningless discussion on something I know about and understand since my college project eons ago. You have the right equipment and that is where it is at.

[vkochar]

It's been 3 weeks or so since I moved into my new house and I can now give my reviews on the AC's I installed.

General in my Room - 1.5 tonne - Damn !! This AC is good, silent and chills to a perfect 19 deg which is what I have set. It's perfect. No faults really !

Onida - these are the new VFM ac's - they chill to freezing temperatures. 2 hours of running these and my mom keeps it off the entire night, says the room remains chilled.

At Onida 1.5 tonne coasting 16.5k and General 26k for only AC's these are the best in the low and the high window ac category.

PS - off topic - I had 3 very old LG AC's with rotary compressors which were at it's death bed I spoke to my AC chap who said why are you worried ? I will bring them back to life. Just give them to me for a few days and do not think about the expense. I said OK knowing him for 20 years. He sent these back and I had them installed in 3 bedrooms on the top floor where I plan to open a service apartment shortly. The 3 AC's now are chilling and freeze in no time. I am impressed. I asked him what he did - he said he topped up the GAS and replaced a few parts. I asked him how much and he said about 1500 - 2000 per AC in total. Damn !!!

[roadracer]

Originally Posted by vkochar

It's been 3 weeks or so since I moved into my new house and I can now give my reviews on the AC's I installed.

General in my Room - 1.5 tonne - Damn !! This AC is good, silent and chills to a perfect 19 deg which is what I have set. It's perfect. No faults really !

Onida - these are the new VFM ac's - they chill to freezing temperatures. 2 hours of running these and my mom keeps it off the entire night, says the room remains chilled.

At Onida 1.5 tonne coasting 16.5k and General 26k for only AC's these are the best in the low and the high window ac category.

PS - off topic - I had 3 very old LG AC's with rotary compressors which were at it's death bed I spoke to my AC chap who said why are you worried ? I will bring them back to life. Just give them to me for a few days and do not think about the expense. I said OK knowing him for 20 years. He sent these back and I had them installed in 3 bedrooms on the top floor where I plan to open a service apartment shortly. The 3 AC's now are chilling and freeze in no time. I am impressed. I asked him what he did - he said he topped up the GAS and replaced a few parts. I asked him how much and he said about 1500 - 2000 per AC in total. Damn !!!

Are these window or split AC's?

[WanderNomad]

Frank congrats for the new ACs.

However you would be the first one as per me to complain about LG's poor service.

[sgiitk]

Looking at what my friend went through in getting warranty repairs (See the AC thread) for his Samsung all I will say is that brand is verboten henceforth.

[anupmathur]

Frank, congrats for your healthy dose of air conditioners!
Beyond doubt, Daikin ACs are just about as good as they come!

Originally Posted by khoj

I know what the inverter does and that is why the contradiction. I have seen the sources that you have posted links to and they are at best noobish.
....

Quite! I also totally disagree with the theory of part-time service versus 24X7 service.
Those articles are written by journalists and users, not technical people! Mere speculation and random conclusions.
The Wikipedia article at least makes some sense.

[sourav9385]

Hello all!

Back in April this year, I had purchased a Voltas Vertis Premium 1.5 Ton Split AC. So far it has been working without any faults or complaints. I had also got 2 free service coupons at the time of purchase. I used one of them last month.

Just a few moments ago, the indoor unit started spewing water from the vent. I got scared and immediately turned off the AC and pulled out the plug. Got in touch with Customer Care and reported this issue. They said it will be looked into by tomorrow morning.

Now, is there something wrong with the AC? Some kind of a blockage or drainage issue?
I don't know much about AC's in general. I tried reading through this thread but couldn't find anything particular like this.

Can someone please shed some light on this issue?

Thanks in advance

[Akshay1234]

Sourav your drainage pipe must have got blocked or must have got raised from the other end causing water to go back into the indoor unit. Have a look at that. Dont worry its a minor thing.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Blocked filters can cause this. I don't know why, but have seen it from experience: clean those clogged filters, indoor dripping stopped.

Depending on how dusty our area is, we ought to do that job every couple of months, but how many of us do? Sometimes it even gets left to annual maintenance time.

If this was the problem, you'll get a free bonus: your AC will be much more effective with clean air filters

[sourav9385]

^^ Thanks for the quick reply akshay1234 . Much appreciated.

I kept the AC turned off for about 30 minutes or so and let all the water drain out. Meanwhile I was on Google trying to find out the cause for this issue. I found a few pages where it was suggested that the the air filter should be cleaned and the drainage pipe should also be cleared of any debris or blockage in it. I was not able to access the drainage pipe from the terrace, but I cleaned the air filter anyways.

After that, I made sure there was no water in the indoor unit that I could see with my eyes, plugged in the air filters, and restarted the AC. Ran it in fan mode for a few minutes, and the moved it back into the cooling mode. Went back to the terrace to check if water was coming out of the drainage pipe or not. Thankfully, there was some water coming out. Went back into my house to check the AC. Room had cooled to around 23 Degrees in about 15 minutes. Set the AC in the fan mode again, and waited.

Luckily, no water came out this time. Phew!

Anyways, tomorrow the technician will be coming to check again on the unit. Hope nothing serious has happened. AC has been running since the evening. No more water in the indoor unit so far. Crossed fingers really