Another air con related post, sorry!
Would just like to know people’s opinion on this.
Apologies for the length of the post but I’ll try to keep it concise.
* bought a not too old mansion (built in 2008)
* has existing Daikin air cons: three are functioning but old (2007-2010 models, one LDK and two bedrooms), one is not so old (2018 model in the small Japanese room) but not working well (very little heat coming out and external unit is making a strange noise.
* decided to replace them all together, before Summer arrives, so bought four new Daikin from Nojima (decided to stick with Daikin because of their reputation and hoped there would be more chance of using the existing piping/cabling)
Installation was today but a bunch of issues cropped up so the installation was cancelled. I did show them photos of the current installations when I bought them and they said it should be fine.
Issues
* Main issue is with the Japanese room. The room is in the midde so the piping takes a long route into a cupboard, through walls and through a bedroom (ceiling I think) before exiting outside. The engineer said that the piping coming immediately out of the unit was sloping slightly upwards. He said it should be slightly downwards for the water to drain out. Also, in the walls, he said it was using some “crimp” cable that Nojima could not use. No idea what that meant. So he refused to install that one.
* The unit in the main bedroom exits into a trunk room outside on the walkway. That’s fine but the gas equipment is in front of it which he said may cause an issue as he cannot move it to access the piping. He will confirm that.
* For the LDK unit he said that the cable thickness (he pointed at the wire going into the external unit in the balcony) is 1.6mm when it should be 2mm. Again, I don’t know what that meant but he said he will confirm.
I assumed replacing Daikin with Daikin would be least problematic but seems I was wrong.
I was surprised with the issues in the Japanese room. I assumed it was professionally installed so how can those issues exist? It’s only 5-6 years old. I asked the realtor to ask the previous owner who installed it but she did not know. The realtor blamed Nojima saying they can only do simple installations and can’t be bothered with anything complicated so they make up excuses.
I’m waiting to hear from Nojima about how to proceed. Maybe I will just get the Japanese room unit repaired and only replace the other three. I negotiated a good discount for the four units so if I need to cancel one of them then I will need to renegotiate it all again.
Does anyone here know anything about these issues? The building is only 15 years old so I didn’t expect these problems. I know very little about how air cons work. Should they be able to reuse the same piping and cables already setup?
Thanks for any input. Cheers!
by SZQrd
1 comment
1. You’ll almost always overpay at any of the big denkiyas. Always check prices on kakaku.com. You can find skilled & certified installers on ジモティー who will charge less than a big denkiya will charge you for installation.
2. The installer is right, you cannot install an aircon if the drainage is uphill. Gravity isn’t something you can negotiate.
3. The unit you got for your LDK may be more powerful than the one that was there before, or the one that was there before may have been 200V and the new one is 100V. It’s the amperage that determines the wiring gauge requirements and lower voltage means more amps to get the same wattage. Or if you got a bigger unit, it may need a bigger gauge of wire even at 200V. The installer is the expert, these guys are generally electricians as well as certified aircon installers. He won’t be jerking you around.
4. The gas company is understandably not happy about having people monkey with their stuff. It’s pretty odd to have an aircon exit through the gas equipment cabinet.
> Should they be able to reuse the same piping and cables already setup?
New aircons are installed with new piping between the indoor wall unit and the outdoor compressor/fan/radiator. Generally the electric cabling running to the socket can be reused as long as it meets the requirements for the amount of power the newly installed unit will draw.