[Jebs]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Not "O General." Just General! Look carefully: that which many people think is an "O" is actually a logo, not a letter.

General India:

Made really sense.So far i have never seen/heard and I'm one among many.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Jebs

Made really sense.So far i have never seen/heard and I'm one among many.

It was our esteemed and sadly late member Sam who first said something to the effect, "will you guys just stop calling it "O" General."

Actually, looking at their logo again, I really can't tell what it is supposed to be: it looks like an "i" inside the red circle. Maybe it makes sense in Japanese?

[Mortis]

Thad : Thank you !! I keep having to correct people when they say O General too ! Its very annoying. Even the major Etailers have called them O General on their websites.

su_madness : Try Birla Cool n Seal on your terrace next time. Its also quite cheap and effective, bare surface would be ideal but yours is covered by paint.
As for rain water harvesting, you have two options.

1] Collect and use the rainwater directly. This would involve pipes collecting the run off water from your terrace and collecting it in drums, tank or pond and using water from that directly for your needs. You would have to make sure you have dirt traps on the terrace on the pipe openings and make sure they dont clog.

2] You have a borewell and so do we in our society's garden. What we did a few years ago was to dig a deep pit right net to the borewell and reinforce with the big 3ft cement pipe rings. Pit was filled with sand and top layer of stone chips. Paved are has a bit of a slope to it leading to channels that drain into this pit and also pipes from the terrace. This way we are replenishing the water table and using that for non potable stuff like watering the garden and toilet flushing. Its helped a lot since before we mate these arrangements. You might have better luck in getting more usable water since TDS is already at 300. Ours being right on the seaside still has TDS of 700 but atleast it doesnt go salty now or run out like it used to. Nowadays even with all the flats packed to max capacity we still dont have to call for tankers in summer whereas some neighbouring buildings do.

[BLACKBLADE]

Found the below picture explaining the working of an Inverter A/C using the analogy of a car that accelerates smoothly by varying the engine RPM as against a car that either runs at a maximum fixed RPM or shuts off. Found it very easy to relate when explained in car terms

It is like you want to maintain a constant speed of say 80 Kmph on the highway. The A/C with an Inverter is like a car which responds to gentle accelerator inputs by varying the engine RPM and thus the wheel speed accordingly. Whereas a non-Inverter A/C is like a car which is having a on/off switch in place of accelerator. You switch it on and the engine runs at a fixed RPM say 4000 and take the vehicle to a speed of say 85 Kmph. Then you switch it off, the RPM comes down and vehicle speed drops to say 75 Kmph. You again switch on and the engine RPM climbs to 4000, thus increasing the speed of the vehicle, to match with the set average speed.



Quoting from the Source: https://www.bijlibachao.com/air-conditioners

Non inverter ACs are fixed speed ACs, where as inverter ACs are variable speed ACs. Non inverter ACs have compressors that go “On” and “Off”. Whereas inverter ACs have compressors that are “On” all the time. As non inverter ACs are sized for peak summer heat load, they are over-sized all the other times (in fact most of the time people oversize even for peak summer season). The drawback of the same is that the AC “Over cools” most of the time. So if you set AC at temperature of 25, it will cool it down to 23 or 22. Now one would question: then what is the use of thermostat? Well the thermostat (in a non inverter AC) switches off the compressor when the outside temperature has reached 25. But a lot has happened before that. In an AC, refrigerant moves from liquid to gas (by taking heat from the room) and then back from gas to liquid as the compressor compresses it. But if the refrigerant is more and heat in the room is less (which happens in over sized AC), it does not get enough heat from the room to convert from liquid to gas and it keeps moving as liquid. Now when the thermostat detects temperature and switches off the compressor, the refrigerant still remains in liquid state and thus has capacity to take heat from room to convert to gas. And so it takes more heat from the room and cools the room below the set temperature.

In comparison, the inverter tech AC changes the flow rate of refrigerant based on the heat of the room. When heat is less, the flow rate is less, when heat is more, the flow rate is more. And it does not switch off the compressor ever. It just makes sure that if temperature setting is 25, it is maintained at that level.

So the difference is: non inverter AC would over cool as shown in the picture. Whereas inverter AC will cool optimum. And thus one may feel that inverter AC does not cool or is slow.

[ecenandu]

Originally Posted by Sheel

No info on these AC's anyone?

What you confused about buddy, the specs looks good. Got good features for the price, again personal preference and usage dependent on what you need. Most of them are just marketing gimmick.

How good is the service backup from these guy in your area, that will the most important thing I will be concern about. We got four carrier AC's, 3 star ones, non inverter doing good for the past 4 years in our family circle.

[BLACKBLADE]

Started with a simple requirement of buying an air conditioner for my rather small bedroom of floor area 125 square feet, for a small budget of Rs.30K. Was an evening well spent getting enlightened about home A/Cs. As it is always with any consumer product, am thoroughly confused spoilt for choices.

Got to keep the running costs low, in the whereabouts of Rs.500 to 600 per month. Usage would be for about 8 hours a day.

Got to be a 1 tonner, either non-inverter, 5 star rated or Inverter A/C, 3 star rated.

Any choices there or am I asking for too much at such an austere budget ?

And one more question to the respected members. Name the top five A/C brands in terms of product quality and reliability.

[khoj]

Flip back five pages, read through and you will have all the information you seek.

Originally Posted by BLACKBLADE

..... Name the top five A/C brands in terms of product quality and reliability.

[BLACKBLADE]

Originally Posted by khoj

Flip back five pages, read through and you will have all the information you seek.

Thanks a lot Sir, for pointing me in the right direction.

Originally Posted by CliffHanger

1. There are truck loads of marketing bull about every brand all over the internet and any amount of reading will only make you feel lost in the bull.

6a. LG, Samsung, Whirlpool, etc sell many products such as ACs, washing machines, phones, etc. But for Carrier, Daikin, General, etc selling ACs is the only source of bread and butter for them.

P.S: A lot of how the AC works depends on the quality of installation, so tell the installer beforehand that you need quality install.

Well Said Sir! You simply nailed it, in point no. 6a. Better buy an A/C from the global leaders in air conditioning and refrigeration. No second thoughts. Thanks a lot.

[SchumiFan]

The A/C was installed on Thursday and I have been in it all day today. Just love the silence of the Split A/C. It is chilling the room quickly and I felt that the de-humidification is also better here compared to my Window A/C. Tested it by noticing how quickly my sweat drenched dress was dried while still on me

Only concern is that the outdoor unit seems to be dripping very less amount of water from somewhere in the middle. There is big hole underneath the unit and it seems to be coming from it. The drain pipe is separately routed to the balcony's drain area, so I am not sure why this is happening. Have to check with the installation guys on this.

Otherwise, I am simply in love with the machine!

[sgiitk]

We have a Daikin FTKS60FVMA 2T inverter in its fifth year. have had problem with the unit switching off with the light blinking. Finally, it turned out to be almost total loss of refrigerant (R410a). Seems this is a bigger problem with R410a since the working pressure is far (3x) higher than R22. Got the gas recharged (under four years) and the unit is back to its pristine best. Cost ₹2000 by a local mechanic. Daikin have changed their policy and the dealer can only sell and maintain for a year, then one must use the Daikin hotline. So i will be using the local henceforth.

[for_cars1]

The Hitachi split that I have had stopped cooling again, the second time within 6 months of purchase. It is leaking gas for sure. It was completely empty two months back and now again.
Not sure how to ensure that the technician does a proper job this time atleast in locating and sealing the leak instead of just filling gas.

[tush]

Originally Posted by for_cars1

The Hitachi split that I have had stopped cooling again, the second time within 6 months of purchase. It is leaking gas for sure. It was completely empty two months back and now again.
Not sure how to ensure that the technician does a proper job this time atleast in locating and sealing the leak instead of just filling gas.

There is some nitro test which can help identify leaks.

[Kestrel5915]

Originally Posted by for_cars1

The Hitachi split that I have had stopped cooling again, the second time within 6 months of purchase. It is leaking gas for sure. It was completely empty two months back and now again.
Not sure how to ensure that the technician does a proper job this time atleast in locating and sealing the leak instead of just filling gas.

Need to make sure that he does a leak detection test after filling in the gas.
Leak detectors are of different types, most of them having a flexible probe head.
Cheap leak test can also be done by simple soap solution.
Best way is to make a general assessment of the leak with a leak detector and then pin point the location using soap solution.

Amperage can also be a good indicator for gas level remaining after a few days but that will require a clamp meter, etc.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Our local-street guy seems to find leeks mostly with his fingers.

There is no way to feel gas, but it has some lubricant with it. That seems to be what he feels for. Low tech, but it seems to work!

[sgiitk]

Originally Posted by for_cars1

The Hitachi split that I have had stopped cooling again, the second time within 6 months of purchase. It is leaking gas for sure. It was completely empty two months back and now again.
Not sure how to ensure that the technician does a proper job this time atleast in locating and sealing the leak instead of just filling gas.

Even six months points to a minuscule leak. Our standard technology of soap solution may not work. What are the options:

1. Normally with a leak some oil comes out so that is a tell tale.

2. Pressurise the system with dry nitrogen or even air and then the leaks should open up.

3. If you have access to a leak detector then you are singing, but by and large in India we do not seem to be using it.