Air Con

[OnMyWay]

7 hours ago, Tommy T. said:

One of the main reasons we went for Panasonic is that it is known (from internet research) to have sealed motherboards so geckos or other intruders do not cause issues like short circuits.

Samsung was the brand that seemed to have a lot of fried boards.  I have no idea if they fixed the issues, but I won't buy one.

[OnMyWay]

7 hours ago, Tommy T. said:

we bought all Panasonic inverter split units

Correct me if I am wrong, but Panasonic are at the higher end of the price spectrum?

[OnMyWay]

7 hours ago, Possum said:

My top picks are Panasonic, Daikin and Mitsubishi Electric.

When I bought the aircons for my last house 2016, I looked into Daikin because they were supposed to be the best.  However, we did not have a dealer for them back then.  Now we do.  I bought Carrier and they have been without problems for the last 7 years, except one that gets a clogged drain pipe once in a while.  Not really a problem with the unit.

I'm trying to find lower cost units but still reliable.  I may end up buying 6 units and I have big renovation costs at the same time.

Edited January 18 by OnMyWay

[Gator]

1 hour ago, OnMyWay said:

Correct me if I am wrong, but Panasonic are at the higher end of the price spectrum?

When I made my purchase Panasonic was nearly double the price of the Kolin unit. Specs were nearly the same. If I recall the Kolin’s energy efficiency rating was slightly better.

The only perk, if you can call it that, was the Panasonic unit could be integrated into your home WiFi network and controlled via an app, supposedly even when you were not at home. Handy perhaps to turn it on before you got home or if you forgot to shut it off when you left. That feature wasn’t important to me as I was only looking for the most bang for my buck.

Since this is an apartment I have no guarantee that the owner or a new tenant will purchase it from me when I move; or if I’ll remove it and take it with me to Cebu.  

[OnMyWay]

31 minutes ago, Gator said:

When I made my purchase Panasonic was nearly double the price of the Kolin unit. Specs were nearly the same. If I recall the Kolin’s energy efficiency rating was slightly better.

The only perk, if you can call it that, was the Panasonic unit could be integrated into your home WiFi network and controlled via an app, supposedly even when you were not at home. Handy perhaps to turn it on before you got home or if you forgot to shut it off when you left. That feature wasn’t important to me as I was only looking for the most bang for my buck.

Since this is an apartment I have no guarantee that the owner or a new tenant will purchase it from me when I move; or if I’ll remove it and take it with me to Cebu.  

In 2016 I paid around 55k each for two Carrier 3.0 hp units, plus piping and installation, almost 130k.  It was a fair price but I should have go 2.5 hp for a bit less.  This time, I plan on paying less than 30k for 2.5 units, and the others will be even less.  Overall, I think prices have come down since then.

[Jack Peterson]

 For me, It matters not what you pay in relation to the time element you have them. I have got Daikins  and have had for over 8 years, a 3 hp and a 1.5 hp both were installed by our local Daikin Supplier and cleaned 3 monthly YES expensive to maintain But..........................

[russellmania]

We just bought TCL brand 3x 1.0hp.....1x1.5hp...and a 2.5hp for our new build in Bulacao Cebu City. House is 60% done so have not installed yet. So we all in with that brand!

[hk blues]

19 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

Correct me if I am wrong, but Panasonic are at the higher end of the price spectrum?

We looked around and Panasonic were certainly not at the lower end but not the most expensive, on par with Samsung. 

[Tommy T.]

On 1/18/2024 at 4:52 PM, OnMyWay said:

Correct me if I am wrong, but Panasonic are at the higher end of the price spectrum?

I can't tell you today how Panasonic fits in the price scheme of things. However, when shopping for these units 4 years ago, Panasonic was in the higher range than many, but lower than Daikon or Carrier, which are the big names out there to my knowledge.  Some of the other brands, such as Kopal, were similarly priced at that time but did not have the same reputation. To me, you are paying for name recognition as much as quality. We were also fortunate to have a really high quality installer/servicer who, for a long while, worked for EMCOR as an installer and servicer before going independent. He is one of the best people we have ever hired here for service, quality and reasonable pricing. Like Panasonic, he's not the cheapest around, but you get (sometimes) what you pay for here... As I previously posted, we are delighted with the four units we purchased that he installed and has serviced.

[Possum]

1 hour ago, Tommy T. said:

We were also fortunate to have a really high quality installer/servicer who, for a long while, worked for EMCOR as an installer and servicer before going independent. He is one of the best people we have ever hired here for service, quality and reasonable pricing. Like Panasonic, he's not the cheapest around, but you get (sometimes) what you pay for here... As I previously posted, we are delighted with the four units we purchased that he installed and has serviced.

This is very true. Most problems occurring in the early years of a split system are due to incorrect installation and knowledgeable installers are rare. Where I live there are probably 20+ suppliers/installers. I talked to most of them and found ONE that knew what I was talking about when I asked some basic install questions. He is in great demand though.

I'm going to start cleaning my own units this year as the cost has gone up to 1000/unit. I already own a pressure washer, can order the catchment piece from Lazada so I decided, why not?