A 1.5HP Air Conditioner is a big ticket item, so this will cover quite a lot.
THE PRODUCT
This is the Midea u-shaped 1.5 HP inverter air conditioner (FP-51ARA015HEIV-U5) and it costs ₱25,798.
It's a window inverter-type air conditioner with an EER Rating of 1.5 and dimensions of 48.7cm length by 34.2cm height by 55.8cm width. It comes with a 1-year warranty on parts, labor and service, and 5-years warranty on its compressor.
The unit is u-shaped, which means it's actually made of two parts, one that faces the inside of the room (has the vents and control panel) and the other that faces the outside (contains the compressor, etc). It's connected by a thick frame, which presumably has components for transferring air, electricity, etc between the two parts. This is the u-shape of the air conditioner. It was designed to go on windows that pull down. It is to be placed on the bottom part of the frame, with the window going down and between the two parts. This video by Midea shows that setup. In this setup, it becomes a very quiet air conditioner.
It's window-type, but is kind with a horizontal top discharge vent. This means that air will be coming as a horizontal draft from the top. Below are different buttons for:
- connecting to Wi-Fi: this is setup using cellphone app to input passwords, etc.
- timer (it has both on and off timer settings)
- eco: Automatically allows the temperature of the room to increase very slightly to conserve energy.
- mode: Allows user to choose auto (automatic fan or cooling mode depending on temperature set and active reading of the aircon of the room's current temperature), cool (usual aircon mode), dry (dehumidifier), and fan mode (no cooling). A LED light will appear beside the mode chosen.
- up and down buttons for adjustment (used for temperature and timer)
- fan: Allows user to choose auto, low, medium and high modes (strength of fan air blowing). A LED light will turn on beside the mode chosen.
- sleep: This mode, let's raises the temperature slightly by 4 degrees celcius in 2 intervals 30 minutes in between. After, it returns to the set temperature. This allows you to raise the temperature slightly if its too cold, and is also a energy saving function.
- swing: Swings the louvre (up-down angles)
- on/off: Turns the unit on and off.
The panel facing the room actually looks very nice. You have a modern filter design made of holes instead of slots. It can be opened to pull out the internal filter which you can wash by just running it through water.
Once connected to the Wi-Fi, you can control the unit through the app. This allows you to setup auto on and auto off schedules. You can set all the other manual settings you have through the app as well.
Comes with some brackets, the remote, and insulation materials.
BUYING GUIDE
ANG OKAY
In its class of inverter smart air conditioners, this is the cheapest. You'll be able to find mid-tier inverter brands for around ₱20,000, but they would either be Class B (package or surface defects), inverter grade, or without wi-fi. My guess would be the u-shape of this unit turns off some people, especially those without a window that can fit the installation requirements. I installed this on a regular window type opening in my room, and it works fine.
It's very good-looking air conditioner, and from my previous air-con, my bill went down by about ₱500. The top-discharge is also really good for temperature circulation. For the most part you want to throw cold air to the top of the room since it will naturally travel downward; this makes up for the fact that, the current position of my air conditioner is quite low (I will remedy this in the future).
ANG HINDI OKAY
Let's get back to the u shape. It's quite convoluted to install. In my case, where I do not put it on a window, I had to put in a plywood in between, but this ended up a good seal. Unfortunately, one of its best features which is quiet operation, I would have to do a bit more work to get.
VERDICT
■■■■ Good buy
For what I'm getting, think both inverter technology and wi-fi, this is a steal. Add to that the way it looks, I'm very happy with the unit.
Online shopping keywords: inverter, top-discharge, air conditioner