Aug 29, 2009 01:05 PM
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Almost all the air-conditioners in my house were the Westinghouse. They were very efficient and ran without any problems for almost 20 years. The one that I had replaced was running since 1987.
So I wanted the replacement to be just as durable.Something of high quality, something that would last without any problems. I spent a long time reseraching and read reviews about LG & Samsung, Carrier and other companies.
I really considered getting a General - but was put off by their lack of after sales service - since their presense in India is small. So that left Hitachi in that range.
To be honest, I never had a Hitachi AC before this. So I was a bit skeptical. Then a friend of mine showed me a new Hitachi that he had purchased and I was impressed. Unlike typical ACs, this one has an air outlest on both sides. I found that look a bit different so I investigated more.
Hitachi has 2 models in its Window AC. One is the Quadricool and the other is the Quadricool TM. The main difference is that the TM has another fan that pushes air out and runs independently of the main fan - which is pulling in air. Why is this relevant? Well when you reduce the speed of your AC fan, then the hot air flow that is being pushed out also reduces. This impacts the cooling capacity and makes the AC inefficent.
In Hitachi's top most model(TM - Twin Motors), there are 2 independent motors - one for pushing cold air in and another for pulling hot air out. SO if you reduce the speed of the former, the latter still pushes hot air out as before - thereby improving the efficiency.
The Pros:- Energy Efficient - almost 4 stars- Very effective cooling - the room in which I installed this AC faces the sun from dawn to dusk. Still the cooling of this unit is amazing.- The automatic mode is uniquie - you set your AC to a particular temp and the AC will do whatever it takes to reach that temperature. In typical ACs you can set the AC to turn on at a particular time - so that when you walk in the room is cool. In Hitachi- you just need to tell the temperature you desire when at a particular time. The AC is smart enough to "scan" your room and then decide when it should turn on so that you get the desired temperature at the time fixed by you!
The Cons:- For an AC that costs almost Rs.10, 000 more than an LG/Samsung, I would have expected the looks to be better. While overall it is pleasing to the eye, there is a cheap plastic cover on the main control panel. The look and feel of this makes the unit feel cheap - Hitachi really needs to work on this._ The remote is'back lit' in the sense that the digital dispaly is backlit. Real backlit means even the keys have lights behind them - since that is what I need to press and can't see when its dark.
