Recommendation for Air Con Supplier/Installer (Mitsubishi)

[Winkie]

Hi All

I'm looking to replace the Air Con in my House.

Currently have very Crappy Central Air installations, one has failed, the other 3 are so noisy that I'm going to replace them all.

I'm thinking of Mitsubishi Inverter Type. They look good, and seem to have a very good reputation, and seem to be well supported. Any views from you guys?

My requirements are (not in any special order):-

Long Life
Quiet Operation
Visually pleasing, and small size (my rooms are small so the units will be quite obvious)
Good Support
Economical to run

When I purchased my house, the Air was already installed, and whilst the installers had done a reasonable job (with all connections hidden inside the walls), the locations are far from perfect (directly above the bed), so I am looking to install these in a different location in 2 of the rooms. I need to avoid having many external pipes, and all CDUs need to be located outside the house in a single area. This will require some internal plumbing which I hope can be done inside the Ceiling space, with a single (nicely covered) collection of pipes/cables going to the CDUs. Toyed with the idea of Multi-Split and VRF, but seems too price prohibitive. So going for single Split-Type.

Would very much appreciate to have your recommendation of supplier/installer, and on Mitsubishi or other products too. In all my years in Thailand, this is my first experience of Air Con purchase, so am much in the dark.

Thank you very much, in advance, for your comments. I'm sure they will be very helpful

[lomuamart]

We had a Mitsubishi installed in the bedroom about 5 years ago.
We rent and my wife was dead against them. It proved to be pretty useless, to be honest, although we think the inside unit was an old one - new outside.
Managed to persuade the owner to install a Trane unit this time and it's working fine but hasn't been in for very long.

[Dannie Boy]

Hi All

I'm looking to replace the Air Con in my House.

Currently have very Crappy Central Air installations, one has failed, the other 3 are so noisy that I'm going to replace them all.

I'm thinking of Mitsubishi Inverter Type. They look good, and seem to have a very good reputation, and seem to be well supported. Any views from you guys?

My requirements are (not in any special order):-

Long Life
Quiet Operation
Visually pleasing, and small size (my rooms are small so the units will be quite obvious)
Good Support
Economical to run

When I purchased my house, the Air was already installed, and whilst the installers had done a reasonable job (with all connections hidden inside the walls), the locations are far from perfect (directly above the bed), so I am looking to install these in a different location in 2 of the rooms. I need to avoid having many external pipes, and all CDUs need to be located outside the house in a single area. This will require some internal plumbing which I hope can be done inside the Ceiling space, with a single (nicely covered) collection of pipes/cables going to the CDUs. Toyed with the idea of Multi-Split and VRF, but seems too price prohibitive. So going for single Split-Type.

Would very much appreciate to have your recommendation of supplier/installer, and on Mitsubishi or other products too. In all my years in Thailand, this is my first experience of Air Con purchase, so am much in the dark.

Thank you very much, in advance, for your comments. I'm sure they will be very helpful

I know very little about the subject and am also in the market for new build installation so will follow this thread with special interest. My limited knowledge is that the size of aircon unit is governed by the size of rooms being cooled - the bigger the room the higher the output in BTU of the unit and the more BTU, the bigger the unit dimensionally and correspondingly, the more BTU, the more electricity used. I don't think that one manufacturer will be very different from another in terms of size for a given BTU, although that is not necessarily the case in terms of quietness or reliability and like you, I have heard that Mitsubishi are rated No 1 but have nothing to support that.

[Nereus]

Mitsubishi Inverter Type are probably as good as any. Just be sure it IS a Mitsubishi Electric, as some are just using the Mitsubishi compressor and calling it the genuine article.
Inverter type well worth the small extra cost. For sizing there are many considerations to consider, such as the type of construction of the building, which wall is most exposed to the sun, roof insulation or lack of, are some of them

The only problem I have had with Mitsubishi has been the moving distribution vanes on the fan coil unit becoming noisy after a couple of years, due to their plastic construction.

Trane is a very good brand, again beware of fakes. There are some good reports on the Internet that are Thailand specific.

For an installer you are on your own sorry!

[Bristolian]

The only problem I have had with Mitsubishi has been the moving distribution vanes on the fan coil unit becoming noisy after a couple of years, due to their plastic construction.

Except for the above issue, I have found Mitsubishi A/C units to be generally very reliable and durable. Service technicians seem to rate them very highly and in my experience parts availability, even on older models, is good.

Again from my experience and not from any detailed knowledge of A/C, the Daiken brand is also one of the best brands and as with Mitsubishi the cost is higher that most other makes. I guess you get what you pay for. Certainly the size/output of the unit needs to match your room size, too small an output and the unit will struggle to reach and maintain temperature and usually result in the unit failing in due course.

[Winkie]

Thanks all, please keep the replies coming

Especially where to shop!

2 posters have commented on how good Trane are. I have one in my Bangkok Home and its awful, would not even consider them again. So noisy from the first day of use. sounds like a Jet Plane taking off. We only use it to pre-cool the room, then switch off when we are inside! It just shows that there is little consistency in these things - I know that Trane are highly regarded in the US, but the equipment and type of system is quite different in the US, so, good in the US, does not necessarily mean good here too.

From what I've heard and read, I still think Mitsubishi is the best to go with. Agree, it must be Mitsubishi electric, not Mitsubishi Heavy Industries one, and certainly not from AN Other, with Mitsu Compressor (which I know is quite common).

Thaks again, and keep the info coming.

Would love to hear to a good shop to buy from.

Just out of interest, does anyone know if Pure Electric sell Aircon? I've bought quite a few things from them, and have always found Sales and especially After-Sales Service to be excellent. I know that Air Con is a little more specialised, and I do need a good installer as I need a little more that the average, on the plumbing side.

[Winkie]

Thanks Bristolian

Yes, I am also considering Daikin. They seem to be ranked similarly with Mitsubishi

I believe that Daikin also have there own Shop (not a dealer) in HH. Still, at present, Mitsubishi is my first preference based on reputation and the appearance of the internal units (Daikin are good, but are a little industrial looking)

Thanks again

PS: I used to live in the Bristol Arial, and had a buddy that worked in Toys'We'Am!

[STEVE G]

...does anyone know if Pure Electric sell Aircon?

Yes, Pure Plaza do have aircon units for sale as they have some on a wall to the right near the back although I couldn't tell you much more than that as I was buying a fridge at the time!

[Big Boy]

They certainly do - my son's aircon came from them.

[bsdk1960]

Hi
We bought and got instald a "Mitsubishi heavy duti jetflow" for nearly 2 years ago for 16.000 bath
in our bedrom,and the 1 service was free. Its very silentand we save about 2/3 on our bill every month
compare to the old one.
Its a small company up on the Palau road about 300 m. after Lavale on the left side.
Their tlf no. is office no o32827298 and mobile no. : 0899999309 and they speak some english as well.
actelly they call us up after 6 month and ask if everything was working to our satisfaction.

[Winkie]

Thanks for the info bsdk

[Bristolian]

Hi Winki
I have been running 4 Mitsubishi “Mr Slim” A/C units for the last 7 years in BKK and other than routine maintenance and cleaning there have only been a couple of times when an engineer was needed to be called in, for what turned out to be minor issues and minor repair costs.

On the occasion that one of my unit’s distribution vanes was broken, I have to admit that it was actually broken by my abortive attempt to clean the unit, without checking instructions first. I have since left the task to the experts.

Daikin are good, but are a little industrial looking

I have to say that I have never seen an A/C unit that actually improved that aesthetics of a room however I do take you point and it is more important to choose the most pleasing to look at units if the room is small

I am perhaps lucky that, in Hua Hin, I have a single story house and therefore I installed a Daiken ceiling mounted, 4 way unit, about 2 years ago, in my living room. I realise that not everyone has this option. This Daiken unit has been perfect and it is super quiet. When it’s finally time to “hit the sack”, and I have switched off the lights etc., I always need to look at the A/C unit to make sure that the small operation light is actually off….really it’s that quiet.

My son, who still lives in the UK, owns a small A/C business, working with office refit companies. He always insists that there is nothing to choose between Mitsu and Daiken and they are the only units that he recommends.

PS: I used to live in the Bristol Arial, and had a buddy that worked in Toys'We'Am!

Yeah but no but: Isn’t the Bristol accent gert lush?

[Winkie]

Thought I'd drop a final post here, to close this issue.

Finally I purchased my Aircons from Big Kiang (I've never used them before, but have heard mostly very good things about them).

Bought at 12:30 pm on Sunday - installation started at 3:30pm Same day, finished at about 6pm on Monday (4 Aircons, plus a water heater). Good independent installers (but needed to watch them closely as always).

Have always been very pleased with both sales and service at Pure, but on this occasion was met only by pushy dorks trying to sell me exactly what I didn't want (maybe they had recently left Home Pro). So in this case, can only report bad experience at Pure, but will not give up on them, they've always been very good previously.

Anyway, my Daikin Aircons are running beautifully quiet. So much better than the crappy Central Air that they replaced.

[Bristolian]

I am pleased that it worked out well. I am also pretty sure that they will operate trouble free for many years.

I guess that you made a compromise on the “Industrial Looks”

[PeteC]

Should I be the one to throw the fly into the soup? We have a house full of Daikins, some with inverter and some without. Have had a problem with two big units in that the fan motor running the interior portion gets noisy. You will hear and feel an unequal flow/whoosh of air. The fan in those things is a long hollow cylinder type running the entire length with the motor on the left side. Only option is to replace the motor and it's not an easy fix to disassemble the fan unit as it comes out of the factory in one piece. It has these fastening clips that fasten when inserted in, with no release mechanism. A big time consumer for the repairman, and he really has to know what he's doing or he'll break it. Anyway, one with inverter went bad after 3 years. One without inverter after only about 18 months. Perhaps a bad batch of motors and Daikin has now corrected the problem themselves with newer units, lets hope. Pete