How to avoid AC purchase and maintenance miseries.
Well the title may surprise you, but seriously this is what most of us are trying to battle in the ever increasing brands, models, technologies entering in the AC market and with near zero qualified technicians who will be sent for installing and maintaining them by so called reputed brands.
Seeing all the brands and models available in the market having bad reviews and ratings it will be a harrowing experience to arrive at the final one we want to go with.
This review was long pending, for a year now to be precise as I didn't find time, but the heat in this summer made me think that I should not be selfish in not sharing what I learnt during my quest for purchasing the best available AC in India for my bedroom and the miseries which one could avoid what I went through.
In India most of the times we suffer due to our dependency on cheap unskilled, semi skilled, ill skilled, demotivated, cheating oriented, fraudulent, cunning, uneducated labor whether in unorganized sector, semi organized or reputed MNCs, I felt the AC field is no different. Not having good ecosystem for DIY culture in India is adding insult to injury.
As usual not willing to compromise, during my research, purchase and installation had to completely understand all about available split AC technologies, variants, types, brands etc and had to continuously google tons and tons of articles from around the world on best practices. After all there is a price to be paid for having geek mindset.
So here are the quick learnings I would like to share before I elaborate details which is my usual style of going deep, something like all you need to know technical series, of course though it will result being more technical, but then in India there is no other escape to avoid getting cheated.
My conclusion based on experience in general is, every person who wants to serve you(except probably one in million cases) is working hard to find innovative means to cheat you in quality, quantity, price and workmanship, his sole intention is to maximise his profitability, secure personal interests and cause the greatest damage to the purchased product, inconvenience, nightmare, leaving worst memory of the purchase for trusting their brand, product, expertise and service. I felt my experience with LG was also no different not withstanding the product itself which was being of very high quality compared to their 3rd class road side type service(both of their 3rd party contractors and company side staff as well).
Okay not to deviate from the subject now heading to the quick advise on how to prevent your AC purchase and maintenance miseries. The primary focus is given towards the split AC systems though applicability of care and caution mentioned will be similar for other types as well.
- Completely understand the AC Installation, in my case even the LG India Area service manager and service in charge for Bangalore were clueless on the questions I asked what is printed in their own AC installation manual(English manual but Printed in Korea). So remember technically you will find very few experts if at all they are still working in India and continuing to head a service division, the moment they are the best in knowledge, either they will become entrepreneurs or move to a business head position or fly out of the country. Very rarely I have come across people who are passionate in these types of positions. Well cheap labour of India to blame for, if one can earn in labour charges of Rs 73, 000(1100 USD) as in US here for the split AC installation it would have been a different story, what one pays speaks a lot for the knowledge and experience/expertise involved.
Watch this video N number of times until you understand the process fully, if you allow the slip here be ready to suffer forever with your AC https://youtube.com/watch?v=qI5IrR8PceU
Irrespective of the make and model you purchase the service team will ensure that your decision is proved wrong by exactly handling the AC right from opening the carton box to removing the AC and until the whole installation is completed, in every step exactly following the bad case or wrong way or compromised way. So before even they come to your door step ask the vendor if he is going to install the AC exactly as per the installation manual for the AC(This is not the usual user manual but is a separate sheet or book, mine was a book in addition to user manual, if none was supplied download a copy from the net from their international website, I have seen many Indian subsidiaries hide them in their Indian sites to cover up their inefficiencies and lack of expertise or for other ill intentions to make customers suffer and have no other option than to get cheated by their so called authorised service centres and contribute to their service revenue. Skip the brand who don't even have them anywhere in the world)
Tell them in advance that you will not pay the installation service and material charges unless they give you the invoice mentioned clearly with brand and gauge of the pipes, stand, fixtures etc used. For example if you bought an inverter AC they will cheat you by using regular copper pipes of lesser gauge and charge you for inverter grade one which are supposed to be heavy to withstand higher operating pressure of the refrigerant
4. Select a location for installation by studying what is good for your AC and neighbours, the service team will convince you for a location which will be very easy for them to install.
5. Do not allow them to use any other materials for the installation which is not mentioned in the installation manual(look at the installation video). To circumvent the inefficiencies in flaring and cutting the tubes with tools in abysmal dirty condition resulting in bad quality of flaring they used Teflon tapes(which I later realized is not at all recommended and is not in LG installation manual, Teflon will not sustain the chemical properties and high pressure of the refrigerant and will eventually give up causing a gas leak in the long run)
They will get you a third class quality wall bracket of lower gauge and frame width shorter than the base of the outdoor unit making the rubber pad of the out door unit(ODU) leg get in adequate base support and get ruined in the due course.(The installation engineer wanted to do away with installing the rubber pad saying they are not required sir)
Once the damage is done during installation there is no use in escalating to your city sales and service heads, in my case both of them stopped receiving calls when they realized I am a perfectionist who is not willing to compromise. Though later I had to message them that I will escalate the matter to consumer court and to their LG parent in Korea to get some response. They are thick skinned and will at max make their company service staff speak to you and send the same third class contractors another time who will only ruin your system further more. So prevention is the only cure.
Refer installation manual of at least one another brand of same type to get to understand if something which makes common sense is missing in the primary manual, for example this is from LG Canada site which covers quite well all round installation steps involved for split ACs https://lgdfs.ca/en/laxxxhv-or-lsxxxhpvart-cool-mirror-inverter-mini-split-
system-installation-manual.aspx/Download?filename=laxxxhv%20installation%20manual
%20english_20120307172917.pdf
If you ensure the installation is done exactly like in that video you can enjoy the trouble free split AC operation irrespective of the make and model for years to come without needing yearly gas refills and umpteen number of calls to service centers. Though this looks little difficult to get a professional installation done but it is like either you have to suffer later running around or suffer now once for all. Call several people around enquire them whether they do a professional job using professional tools, tell them that you will not allow their team to touch the AC unless they show all the instruments in good condition and will work exactly as per the standard installation procedure.
Most of the people will never call you back because they can't even dream to do things in the right way forget about doing in a real case, when I posted a question to one reputed online service agency who were plaguing in fb ads, they simply chose to ignore my mail, well that's the sad state of affairs here, no one wants to follow the correct process, quick money is what they are interested in.
In my case I rejected 2 installations, one from dealer, 2nd from LG contractor but the 3rd time I could not escape, I got cheated since the LG Service in charge in Bangalore told me that he has sent direct LG Service team, I realized that he lied on my face later when they again did a pathetic job and brought all the instruments for eye wash, used some cheap, substandard, under sized third party make wall bracket, under sized copper pipe, dirty tools and instruments and used teflon tape for connections.
The engineers were acting funnily just to satisfy me that they are directly from LG flaunting LG logo on their ID card.
When I took a closer look then there was a fine print that they were from a different company under LG contract, their faces turned sour and now started behaving like thieves who got identified.
However considering the knowledge level of their LG Bangalore Service manager and in charge I don't think they even have any direct LG service staff who are competent in the subject matter and does a neat job. That was evident when they removed the hot and cold inverter model from their LG India website though it is having the best specs in Indian market and I could see the AC is fully imported when it was delivered(both indoor unit and out door unit had a mention of made in Korea).
I am saving the horror story of purchasing experience of this AC for another review altogether, thanks to their sales and supply chain inefficiencies which gave me a harrowing experience for months in anticipation of receiving a damage free product.
With all the research what I finally vetted was for LG 1 Ton inverter model of Hot and Cold type Split AC LG AS-W126B1U1
Purchased the same from a local dealer in Bangalore paying whopping 47k after discounts.(looks like the model is still available online in Amazon for 52k now, though LG India has taken out the model from their website after the issues I continuously escalated for.)
Considering the future risks involved due to their third class installation and service I went for additional 3 years AMC by paying Rs 12000, at least you can sue them if they don't fix the issues.
Installation charges including material came to around Rs 6000, don't know when I will start facing issues due to their use of substandard copper piping(no installation bill was given to me to cover up the fraud in copper pipe) and use of Teflon tape.
Also during the installation tragedies emails to their LG service Ids bounced back, so if you go with LG do not expect any escalations through email, no one cares what you are going through. Not that we have many companies in India who really care for their customers and resolve issues in a timely manner.
Now coming to the detailed technical know-hows I am realizing the video link I shared in the beginning should give you a complete idea of everything involved for making the most out of your purchase, also Google will be your best bet to answer further for any terminologies used in the video.
I will takeout another day to add more information to this review if needed based on your comments and questions.
Thank you for reading and happy AC shopping!
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