Comparison of cheap and good air conditioning

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Comparison of cheap and good air conditioning. Which is the best?

Summer arrives and the stifling heat in much of the country, something we all have to deal with year after year in the best possible way whether it be a good cold shower, a swim in our pool, a trip to the beach or simply taking off layers and layers of clothing to try not to burn ourselves. The problem comes when we don’t have these possibilities to cool down or it’s just not possible or we don’t feel like having to continuously enter the shower to get rid of that heat, in many occasions a sticky heat that is almost impossible to get rid of.

The history

The problem of the stifling heat of summer began to cease being a problem from the year 1911 thanks to the investigations of Willis Carrier, who by that date began his studies to solve the problems of humidity that had an old printing press which ended up in the creation of the first air conditioning. It is thanks to him that today the problem of heat in summer and cold in winter can be much more bearable thanks to his invention and his studies.

Air conditioning today

As we said, the first beginnings of air conditioning date back more than 100 years and the first air conditioning units have nothing to do with today’s equipment except for the essence and the basis of its operation, which has changed little or not at all. At that time, air conditioning units were exclusive to the paper industry, printing houses, factories, etc., they were huge machines and, of course, energy efficiency did not exist or matter. Today we can find hundreds of brands and varieties of air conditioners, countless designs and any power at very competitive prices and with very high energy efficiencies as we could see reflected in the comparison of high-end air conditioners. Today, however, we want to talk to you and analyze the air conditioning units in its most economical version but not leaving aside the quality of these units, that’s why we will make a comparison of cheap and GOOD air conditioners!

What’s the best cheap air conditioner this year?

For this comparison we have selected the air conditioning units that we consider to have a better quality/price ratio at present, for which we will opt for units of well-known brands, with high quality standards, with a complete technical service behind them and leaving aside the own brands that every year come to the surface to begin the air conditioning campaign.

Why is a recognized brand important when choosing my air conditioner?

As in all purchases of electronic equipment and with the vital importance in the current situation of price, our search and selection of the best air conditioning equipment should not be based solely on price, since generally if an air conditioning unit is cheap, it is not cheap because they are giving us nothing, but because in order to lighten costs these do not meet all quality standards both in their manufacture and especially in the after sales service, something very important both in air conditioners and in any electronic equipment of which it is possible to need a spare part at some point in its life, since generally the parts of this air conditioner are ‘unique’ and therefore only the brand can provide it, leaving our air conditioner useless if we do not have an original spare part.

My experience has taught me that white marks, although they do have an official technical service, it is usually not very professional, since they do not usually take courses for the professionalization of these or have a wide knowledge of their own machines. Apart from this, there are many brands that after a few years on the market, disappear and are impossible to locate again, leaving hundreds of units in the gutter impossible to repair due to lack of spare parts.

For all this, we have selected for this comparative of cheap air conditioning, units that although they have a very reduced price, they come of the hand of marks with a refuted prestige and they confer us a full security, so much for their manufacture as for their service post sale.

Pictures of cheap air conditioning units to be analyzed

Comparison of cheap air conditioning, technical data of the units

We start from the premise that all the units analysed are inverter air-conditioning units with a nominal cooling capacity of approximately 3.5 kW, heat pump and with minimum energy coefficients A/A. Now we are going to analyze more in depth the technical characteristics in the following attached table, the best data of each series will be highlighted in green and the worst in red.

Marca	LG	Samsung	Mitsubishi Electric	DAIKIN	Fujitsu	Panasonic
Modelo	STAR E12EL	F-H5512	MSZ-HJ35VA	TXB35C	ASY35Ui LLCC	KIT-UE12-QKE
Potencia nominal frío	3,5 kW	3,5 kW	3,15 kW	3,3 kW	3,4 kW	3,5 kW
Potencia nominal calor	3,8 kW	4,0 kW	3,6 kW	3,5 kW	4,0 kW	4,0 kW
Consumo nominal frío	1.120 W	1.030 W	1.040 W	990 W	1.080 W	1.090 k
Consumo nominal calor	1.040 W	1.100 W	995 W	930 W	1.130 W	1.100 W
SEER	5,8	5,6	5,1	6,05	6,6	5,6
SCOP	3,8	4,0	4,3	4,06	3,8	3,8
Coeficiente energético frío	A+	A+	A	A+	A++	A+
Coeficiente energético calor	A	A+	A+	A+	A	A
Potencia sonora interior mínima	20 dB	19 dB	22 dB	21 dB	22 dB	22 dB
Potencia sonora exterior miníma	47 dB	46 dB	50 dB	62 dB	50 dB	48 dB
Precio	840 €€	650 €€	719 €	675 €	709 €	655 €

Conclusions from the comparison of cheap and good air conditioning

At first glance you can see how surprising and disparate the results of the comparison are. The first surprise is seen in the disparity of energy coefficients between the units, with particular emphasis on the results of Mitsubishi Electric units with the MSZ-HJ35VA model and Fujitsu ASY35Ui LLCC because even though they are the leaders in part of this comparison of air conditioners, we can see that Mitsubishi Electric has the best energy coefficient in heat pump and Fujitsu unit does the same in the cooling mode, It is a total surprise that if we turn the results around, they reflect the worst results in cold mode (Mitsubishi Electric) and in heat pump (Fujitsu), seeing the overall energy efficiency, both in cold mode and heat pump, the winners are first the DAIKIN unit and second place would be for the Samsung F-H5512 model.

Regarding the sound level of the units, the only surprise is given by the TXB35C from Daikin with its very high 62 dB for the outdoor unit, we think it is something so excessive compared to its rivals that it is due to the way of measuring or reflecting the measurement of the Daikin brand, since it is not very normal so much difference. Leaving aside this fact, we can see that the data is very even in all the units, with the Samsung unit again being the leader in the two registers (indoor unit and outdoor unit).

In the economic theme we see something similar, moving all the units in a very tight price ranging from 650 to 719€ and blunting a single unit, the model STAR E12EL of LG that shoots up to 840€.

Purchase recommendation

Reflecting the results given by the comparison, without going into the discounts that we can find in each unit and taking the catalog price as a reference, we see as two winners:

• On the one hand the DAIKIN air conditioning unit, because we can see that it maintains excellent energy coefficients both in cold mode and in heat pump mode, these being the second  best of all the comparisons, with a quite good interior sound level and the lowest consumption of all the units, something quite normal because it is also the unit together with Mitsubishi Electric that has a lower nominal power than the rest.
• The Samsung F-H5512 unit, because with the lowest price of all the comparisons, has the best values in terms of sound power, has very acceptable consumption and energy coefficients and is also the unit that together with the Panasonic gives us the highest nominal power in both hot and cold.

Other comparisons

If you are looking for the best in terms of energy efficiency, technical features and design, you can see in our article on the best air conditioning units the results of our comparison of high-end air conditioners that we did a few months ago.

Catalogues

Although many of these units are not directly included in the official catalogue and you have to go to a distributor or store to make your purchase, you can check the available catalogues from here:

Daikin catalogue

LG Air Conditioning catalogue

Samsung air conditioning catalogue

Fujitsu catalogue

Mitsubishi Electric 2015 catalogue