Air Con

[Onemore52]

Is TCL a good unit? The local aircon supplier is stocking these units instead of Panasonic.

[hk blues]

8 hours ago, Onemore52 said:

Is TCL a good unit? The local aircon supplier is stocking these units instead of Panasonic.

Going by their TV's I'd say fine - not high end at all but perfectly functional.  Panasonic is less common here, at least in my experience, than Samsung and even Hitachi but we always buy from EMCOR and they do stock them as do SM Appliance. 

[hk blues]

17 hours ago, Possum said:

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?

We used to get EMCOR to do our three but we had a problem with 1 unit and I don't have faith in their technicians (previous negative experience) so found a one-man-band who did a good job and also offered to clean them for a little less than EMCOR.  We agreed and he did a similar quality job to EMCOR so we'll stick with him going forward.  I guess you could do it yourself but I'd need to buy the pressure washer first and I don't really know what I'm doing - there are some sensitive electrics in there and I would be nervous of spraying water into them!

[Tommy T.]

On 1/20/2024 at 4:51 AM, Onemore52 said:

Is TCL a good unit? The local aircon supplier is stocking these units instead of Panasonic.

Can't help you with TCL - never heard of them....

I suggest you consider a unit that is stocked in more than one store and also research a bit regarding warranty and who might install and service the unit(s) you are considering? As I mentioned previously, finding someone who is knowledgeable, skilled, experienced and reasonably priced would be quite helpful. There really are not that many around, so be careful. Also, check availability of parts.

If you have not already done so, try to Google the unit(s) you are considering and include the word - review - in your search. Also be sure to include Philippines in your search.

Edited January 20 by Tommy T.

[GeoffH]

TCL are a Chinese company, I've only seen thier Televisions though (low end stuff mainly).

 

[OnMyWay]

2 hours ago, GeoffH said:

TCL are a Chinese company, I've only seen thier Televisions though (low end stuff mainly).

Some members here have reported being very satisfied with the TCL TVs.  They don't look low end anymore and I think most are Android.

[MikeyD]

A couple of weeks ago, the fan in one of our Daikin inverter split type a/c units (2 hp) recently stopped blowing.  We turned it off since I thought it might cause damage to the unit if it was trying to cool without the fan running.  After a while we turned it back on and it started working, this has happened once more since then a couple of days ago.  We found a company that provides service near us and my wife plans to call them to come out and check the unit which is only about 6 months old.

The place that sold us the unit said that it needed to be serviced once a year.  After the issue we encountered I found the papers that came with the unit and it confirmed that it should be serviced once a year but it also said the filters should be cleaned every 2 weeks which seems excessive and we have not cleaned them in the 6 months we have had the unit.  The instructions seemed straight forward enough and showed opening the front of the inside unit and removing the filters and either vacuuming or washing them putting them back in the unit and cautioned against touching the metal parts inside the unit.  For the central a/c unit we had in the US I would try to replace the filter once every 1 to 3 months but that was a different type of system but still cleaning filters every 2 weeks seems like overkill.

For those that have this type of a/c unit, how often do you clean the filters?  And how often do you have it serviced?

[Jack Peterson]

12 minutes ago, MikeyD said:

For those that have this type of a/c unit, how often do you clean the filters?  And how often do you have it serviced?

 We have ours serviced every 3 months Filters we do not touch BUT you may have a problem with the Motorised valve in the outside unit, worth investigating 

[OnMyWay]

2 hours ago, Jack Peterson said:

 We have ours serviced every 3 months Filters we do not touch BUT you may have a problem with the Motorised valve in the outside unit, worth investigating 

Yes, I doubt that the current issue has anything to do with cleaning the filters.  I rarely cleaned the filters myself on our Carriers because I, like Jack, I would have the guys out for a full cleaning every 3-6 months.  The manufacturer is of course going to have really stringent guidelines to protect themselves.

[hk blues]

3 hours ago, MikeyD said:

A couple of weeks ago, the fan in one of our Daikin inverter split type a/c units (2 hp) recently stopped blowing.  We turned it off since I thought it might cause damage to the unit if it was trying to cool without the fan running.  After a while we turned it back on and it started working, this has happened once more since then a couple of days ago.  We found a company that provides service near us and my wife plans to call them to come out and check the unit which is only about 6 months old.

The place that sold us the unit said that it needed to be serviced once a year.  After the issue we encountered I found the papers that came with the unit and it confirmed that it should be serviced once a year but it also said the filters should be cleaned every 2 weeks which seems excessive and we have not cleaned them in the 6 months we have had the unit.  The instructions seemed straight forward enough and showed opening the front of the inside unit and removing the filters and either vacuuming or washing them putting them back in the unit and cautioned against touching the metal parts inside the unit.  For the central a/c unit we had in the US I would try to replace the filter once every 1 to 3 months but that was a different type of system but still cleaning filters every 2 weeks seems like overkill.

For those that have this type of a/c unit, how often do you clean the filters?  And how often do you have it serviced?

We get ours cleaned every 6-9 months but I also clean the filters periodically - about every 3 months.  They are very easily accessed and cleaned and anyone can do this and it doesn't require accessing any of the 'workings' of the unit.  Bi-weekly does seem overkill (our manual also suggests this for our Panasonic units) and ours are not all that dirty even after 3 months but this will depend on many factors.  I'd suck it and see and do it every 6 weeks and then increase/decrease the timescale accordingly based on how dirty they are after 6 weeks.

B.T.W. Isn't your unit covered by a warranty of some description if it's only 6 months old?