[khoj]

I agree with HotChillyPepper on the longevity of the general machines in coastal areas. It is not as if that others will disintegrate but the General holds together better, much better.

Days of CBUs are over. All of the Japanese companies have their assembly operations here in India now. Except for the Indoor unit nothing comes as a complete unit. In fact Hitachi and Panasonic have started assembling the IU too locally. Hitachi has India's largest aircon manufacturing facility in Kadi, Gujarat.

Hitachi is also one of the leading manufacturers and supppliers of air conditioning and refridgeration compressors in the world. One can find their compressors in a/cs of varied brands. Of late quite a few Chinese manufacturers have emerged on the scene and have captured a major chunk of the compressor market for machines manufactured in and sourced from China.

[drpullockaran]

Here are my recommendations for 1.2 and 1.5 tonnes.

If you can afford it then the 5 star rated General or Daikin should be your first option.

If you are miser like me and wants the best bang for the buck then these commercial ones are my preference.

For 1.2 tonnes.
Logicool Split Air Conditioners : Hitachi Home & Life Solutions (India) Ltd.

For 1.5 tonnes.
Logicool Split Air Conditioners : Hitachi Home & Life Solutions (India) Ltd.

Both the above, as mentioned in the site, is for the extreme harsh environment of ATM machine cabins where there is extreme demand on cooling due to frequent opening of the doors and a salty humid climate from sweaty customers.

[Aroy]

Actually the longevity of an AC depends more on the piece you get than on the brand. I have had locally made AC giving years of service and a brand new Samsung giving perennial trouble from the day one.

Recently all brands have pulled up their QC and in general as they use compressors from a hand full of OEM, the quality has gone up. I have three Hitachi, two run fine, but one keeps burning the louver motor every alternate year. I would still go for Hitachi when I install a large machine (8 tons) in my living room. Only now I will go in for the VRF models to get optimum cooling.

[khoj]

@Aroy,

At 8 tons your living room would be larger than most apartments in Bombay and quite a few in Dilli too. Any plans of hosting a mega Tbhp meet there

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by khoj

@Aroy,

At 8 tons your living room would be larger than most apartments in Bombay and quite a few in Dilli too. Any plans of hosting a mega Tbhp meet there

Actually the drawing room is not big, but my ground floor has open plan with a staircase going to the first floor - around 600 square feet including the kitchen and stairs. The calculations are as follows

1. For the floor 3 tons
2. For 30 persons @ 5/ton = 6 tons

Hence I would require the capacity if I have 20+ persons in the 44+ summer heat, else 2-3 tons would suffice. That is why VRF which will be efficient between 3 and 8 tons!

[jeevmenon]

Originally Posted by jeevmenon

I am looking for a 1.0 TON split AC to be bought today/tomorrow. Please suggest one on the latest offers and reliability. Budget 20-22K. Is there someone who has been recently researching on this particular requirement in the last month help. Can any Chennaiite comment on the Vasanths/Shahs/eZones/etc who has bought a similar product a year or so back and who is satisfied and no complains? Thanks

Originally Posted by drpullockaran

If you are miser like me and wants the best bang for the buck then these commercial ones are my preference.

I am a miser, more than you So, we were shopping for this A/C and were at Anna Nagar on 20th Feb. We went into Shahs near that roundtana and he showed us LG, Voltas. Cost was close to 21K. We thought of buying it but then he said installation additional and wifey said she thought installation was free. Opposite this store was Croma (This has a new-age youngster look.) There was money-back offer, etc. We went in and saw this Electrolux Split AC 1.0 TON for 16,900. Rs 500/- cash back over that price in 6 months in your debit card bank account. Installation free, stabilizer free, 3 star rating. Wow! Lets try it. Put in the external/internal unit in the car and drove home.

It was 7 yrs back when we were looking for white kitchen goods, since our kitchen cabinets are white and electrolux had a white cooking range. But we could not locate it in the city then, we only found it on the net. Anyway, an Electrolux appliance walked into our home on 20th Feb.

The installer came within 24 hr of the call. He said once the indoor unit is installed it cannot be pulled out for wall painting. He goes back without installing. We paint the wall, call him. Very prompt service, the installers come back. They fit it. Its a gruelling 3 hr job. Very painful as compared to window installations. We did not have an alternative, we did not want to cut out our window, we wanted the window to be openable as old and hence went for the split or else we would have gone for the window installation.

The display on the indoor unit lit up and subsequently did not show up anything. Remote works and the AC cools. The cooling is like good scotch. It has a slow gradient but I had to reduce the cooling and couple of nights I had to shut it off. I will start using the timer as we go. But in short no issues with the cooling.

The demo-guy mentioned about the remote control being problematic for the display on the indoor unit not coming up. Just now I got a call from the service center mentioning that they would replace the remote control. Atleast that wont be the suspect once thats replaced. Lets see.

Just the day after we brought in the unit into the house, we see an adv in the paper with Sonam Kapoor and the Electrolux ACs. This is similar to after we bought our car which was not that popular when we purchased but picked up sales after our purchase. So people, follow us!!

[drpullockaran]

Originally Posted by jeevmenon

I am a miser, more than you.

I doubt it.

I had a requirement for a window A/C for my personal Orthodontic clinic and guess what I did. I learned up on the functioning of an AC and bought parts from the market and assembled it myself in my house in one months time. When it came time to vacuum and gas charge it I took the help of my patient who was an A/C mechanic. He charged me about 200 bucks excluding R22 gas(of which I had a cannister) for the job in February 1996. This unit has served me well and the only thing I had to change in 2009 was the running capacitor. It cools extremely well and draw only 8.2 amps.

Beat that for being stingy.

[Deep Blue]

Thank you, Khoj, Devarshi84, Aroy, DrPullockaran for all the expert help.

These are the quotes I have got

Panasonic Pearl 1.5ton(YC18MKY) - 24500
Panasonic Econ inverter silver 1.5ton (PS18MKY) - 39500 , 1ton - 30900

Hitachi Kaze 1.2ton(RA0413KRD) - 27000, 1.5ton - 29500

Stabilizer will be free. Installation charges 1000-1500.

Hitachi Kaxe is 4star whereas Panasonic Pearl is 3 star

I need two of them for similar size room(168sq.ft), with one on the first floor having roof exposed to sun but going to be used much less( 1 or 2 months max). Because I am buying two, I may get some more discounts.
I am considering either two Panasonic Pearl 1.5 ton or two of the hitachi 1.2 tonners.
or just maybe Panasonic 1.5inverter and Panasonic 1 ton(21000)
I am confused again!!

Originally Posted by HotChillyPepper

Go in for Hitachi or O General, especially for coastal regions. Only they can serve you for a guaranteed 10 years without any trouble in my opinion. The higher price you pay for the equipment will be returned in form of electricity bill savings over a period of time.
-HCP

OGeneral is not available in my small town, besides service is going to be a problem.Hitachi is an option.

[devarshi84]

I have an assembled a/c unit doing duty at office. Got billed 18K last year just running the a/c.

Am going to check the amperege and power theft, but what else can be the reason?

[quote=Deep Blue;2269799]Thank you, Khoj, Devarshi84, Aroy, DrPullockaran for all the expert help.

These are the qoutes I have got

Panasonic Pearl 1.5ton(YC18MKY) - 24500
Panasonic Econ inverter silver 1.5ton (PS18MKY) - 39500 , 1ton - 30900

Hitachi Kaze 1.2ton(RA0413KRD) - 27000, 1.5ton - 29500

Stabilizer will be free. Installation charges 1000-1500.

Hitachi Kaxe is 4star whereas Panasonic Pearl is 3 star

I need two of them for similar size room(168sq.ft), with one on the first floor having roof exposed to sun but going to be used much less( 1 or 2 months max). Because I am buying two, I may get some more discounts.
I am considering either two Panasonic Pearl 1.5 ton or two of the hitachi 1.2 tonners.
or just maybe Panasonic 1.5inverter and Panasonic 1 ton(21000)
I am confused again!!:
[quote]

Chuck on the Kaze. I would vote for Panny Inverter.

[download2live]

Originally Posted by drpullockaran

Beat that for being stingy.

^^ Can't be beaten.
A doctor making his own AC.
Accept my humble salutations.
If only TATA's knew who they were dealing with.

[khoj]

Originally Posted by pjbiju

Khoj, thanks for your reply. Again a few doubts. [list=1][*]Panasonic has two ranges of inverter A/Cs - econ inverter - chrome and econ inverter - silver. Both are available in 1.5T and 1.0T. Nothing like 1.2T. The 1.5T models are CS-PS18MKY (silver) and CS-S18MKY (chrome). Any idea what they cost. How much would a similar daikin cost? These panasonic models come with R410A.

Prices for Panasonic are in the first attachment, Daikin would be similarly priced. Try your local Panasonic gallery for competitive pricing. DO note the sellers note under silver Inverter pricing table.

Originally Posted by pjbiju

[*]For the window A/C, I see that there is a 1.14T O-General AC (model no AMG13G). Are there inverter window A/Cs? This does not seem to be an inverter model. Can this be treated as a 1.2T model? What would be the cost of this?

There are no window inverters, at least I have not heard of any thus far. As for the General AMG13G at 13600 Btu it is almost as powerful as others 1.2 ton machines. As you can see from the attached brochure for the Hitachi Quadricool TM their 1.1 ton window unit is rated at only 13000Btu.

Originally Posted by Deep Blue

I remember reading somewhere (I think in this thread itself),Panasonic has Hitachi compressor (or was it Toshiba?)

Now I am leaning towards Panasonic.

That would be the day. While Panasonic does use LCD screens made by Hitachi as does Toshiba (It is actually a three way JV , with Hitachi being the principal stake holder), all three use their own compressors. Infact you will find Toshiba compressors in some of the Carrier machines as both companies are now owned by a single corporation. Further you could find all of these three makes and additionally compressors made by Sanyo in airconditioners being manufactured and sold by Whirlpool including in our markets. Infact from last seasons reports Whirlpool machines have been very well priced, reliable and performed extremely well especially in the NCR market. There are quite a few happy references on this thread itself regarding the same. Though I doubt if they have an inverter in their range. However given Whirlpools well established sales and service network pan India, it makes a lot of sense to check out their offerings.

Panasonic again is a very good product and in India they are based out of Madras. Service in any part of the country and especially in the South should not be an issue.

[Aroy]

Originally Posted by devarshi84

I have an assembled a/c unit doing duty at office. Got billed 18K last year just running the a/c.

Am going to check the amperege and power theft, but what else can be the reason?

Well 18k at say Rs.5/Kw = 3.6K units. If you have the AC on 12 hours/day that is 300 unit*days or at 2 units = 150 days. Another way of looking at it is

2.5 units/hour x 12 hours = 30 units/day at Rs.5 = 150/day or Rs.4.5K/month. In Delhi we run the AC for about 6 months so our bill would be 4.5 x 6 = 30K.

So unless you are using the AC for a shorter time the bill is quite low.

[mashmash]

Originally Posted by Neilguy

Posting a few pics of the Panasonic Cube 1.2t AC which was installed at my place last week.

Hey Thanks for the pics. I find the unit really interesting and looks good to me. I would have gone in for this if I were not in a rented flat, where drilling through the wall is an issue.

Another interesting machine I saw yesterday was a Portable 1.0 ton Air Conditioner in Croma, Jubilee Hills. Its their own product costing around Rs.17k and is made in China. The cooling and the features offered were pretty good which included Air Swing, Sleep timer,Temp Set, LCD Display, Remote, etc. It has wheels, hence can be pulled and pushed just like an indoor cooler. Its pretty silent too.

Sounds good? Yes, but there is a major issue. Behind the machine is a Long broad pipe(approx 8" wide and 4-5 ft long) for the hot air coming from the compressor. This pipe is to be directed outside the room somehow. Along with this pipe there is a thinner pipe for the water to drain out. I really liked this machine, however, just cannot find a way to direct that pipe outside the room, without keeping the door partially open.

Search Continues for a budget Air Conditioner.

MaSh

[vahss_11]

I think O general AC are really good and may be best of all. Do try to get a quote for OG a/c's

[khoj]

Originally Posted by mashmash

Hey Thanks for the pics. I find the unit really interesting and looks good to me. I would have gone in for this if I were not in a rented flat, where drilling through the wall is an issue.

Search Continues for a budget Air Conditioner.

MaSh

Split air conditioners are best suited for rental flats as the hole to be drilled is only 2"~2.5" diameter. At the time of vacating one can themselves easily fill this with some broken bricks/aggregate and cement putty. Comparatively losing a window to the machine is more expensive in terms of opening up the frames/glass removal and then putting everything back together as a carpenter would be required to do the job both times and also to build the wooden frame. The carpenter's charges themselves could be almost a 1000 odd each time. The hole for the split will be done by the ac technician at no additional cost.

That is my way of looking at things. You could look at Whirlpool for good quality machines at the right price points. Much much better compared to the Korean majors and imports from China wearing local labels.