Best brand for Heatpumps - Multiroom High Wall units

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mattwnz

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#214644 22-May-2017 16:04

Just wondering based on other peoples experiences, for what the best brand of heat pump is these days in 2017? Am looking at multiroom units. eg a single compressor, running multiple indoor high wall units. So wondering what other peoples opinions are on the different brands. The main two so far that I have looked at are Mitsubishi, and Fujitsu. But don't really know which is the better brand. eg reliability, performance and ease of warranty in case of issues.

timmmay

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#1786078 22-May-2017 16:19

I have an 8 year old Daikin and 5 year old Fujitsu. Both still work well. The Fujitsu Nocria is a higher power one, around 8.5kw I think, the indoor unit is fairly loud. We only run it on low when we're in the room, and super low sometimes. The fan is very powerful, it can heat a huge area. The Daikin is much quieter and isn't much smaller. The Fujitsu specs said it was reasonably quiet.

Because of the age I'm not sure you can apply this to newer units.

mattwnz

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#1786079 22-May-2017 16:20

Thanks, I will have a look at Daikin to see what they are like.

richms

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#1786083 22-May-2017 16:24

I have been steered off the multiple inside to one outside types by everyone I have asked and they have all said to only use them as a last resort if multiple outdoor units will not fit.

Problem I can see is that in winter I often will need cooling upstairs while heating is still needed downstairs. If they could cut around and move the heat between 2 indoor units, would be great. They cant, they can only do one or the other at a time, and take a long time to change mode on the outdoor unit, and that means that its only going under half the time in each room that needs it.

The problems the installers told me is that the additional valves to change things will often fail, and that the efficiancy when running one zone is lower than a single system is (not sure why that would be)

Cost savings only seem to happen on the 3 headed one as well.

Richard rich.ms

Malpaso

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#1786087 22-May-2017 16:41

I installed Fujitsu double units (both 6.5kw one downstairs and one upstairs) off the one outside compressor about 6 years ago. The technology was reasonably new back then I think and the installers had never installed one of them in that configuration before. Had a few teething issues to begin with but had them come back and serviced and haven't looked back since.

I've never tried one running heat and the other aircon together as i haven't had to and not sure how well it would work, but if you want heat coming out of both them, i haven't had any problems, with both running at different speeds. I wasn't loyal to any particular brand - Fleming was advertising Fujitsu fairly heavily so went for that, and haven't regretted it. I'd imagine the technology has improved over the years....

Plus it looks tidier having just one pipe up the side of the house rather than two imho....

cadman

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#1786313 23-May-2017 01:01

Daikin. Always.

timmmay

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#1786324 23-May-2017 07:00

richms:

Problem I can see is that in winter I often will need cooling upstairs while heating is still needed downstairs.

I've never needed split heating/cooling in my house. I guess on a sunny day if the house has lots of glass it could happen, but we tend to open windows first.

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richms

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#1786357 23-May-2017 08:10

Even occupied vs unoccupied room makes a huge difference. In mild cool, the bedroom with the PC in it can need cooling when the next room over which is the junk/hobby workroom that has nothing in it is too cold. I only have the crappy portable AC in there at the moment as still deciding what to do with it, needs heating as its down at 13 or so, whereas the bedroom with the PC on and me sleeping all night in it etc will go over 26 without AC.

Opening windows lets in gross air - either smoke or pollen etc so not really an option unless desperate.

Richard rich.ms

aucklander

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#1798949 12-Jun-2017 20:55

richms:

Problem I can see is that in winter I often will need cooling upstairs while heating is still needed downstairs. If they could cut around and move the heat between 2 indoor units, would be great. They cant, they can only do one or the other at a time.

they are quite common in commercial installs (or high-end residential), do some research for "simultaneous heating and cooling VRF" systems. Several brands do them, but only one (Mitsubishi Electric) is using a 2-pipe system, the rest are a 3-pipe system. They are capable (at least in theory from what I know), to transfer heat from one area to the other. But they are very expensive which makes them not really suited for a "standard" residential job with 2-3 indoors...

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aucklander

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#1798950 12-Jun-2017 20:56

you could have a transfer kit (fan + ducts + 2 grilles) between the two rooms? As a separate system from the high-walls.

Fred99

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#1799242 13-Jun-2017 12:11

Quite happy with Daikin wall mounted pump we had installed. Matt silver finish and curved front panel, it's reasonably unobtrusive. This isn't a split system - have two units, one floor-mounted - was originally going to put a floor-mounted unit in this area - but we'd have been short on wall space for tables/chairs. The two outdoor units sit side by side.

This unit IIRC is about 3.8kW (I think larger units are available with same model) , wifi control is standard (actually more useful than I thought it would be), the area is well insulated so it's not working very hard, quiet, has some PIR device so that if it's set on swivel fan, can be set to avoid blowing air at you - at least I think that's the idea.

App gives access to controls, as well as current indoor/outdoor temps (even when the unit is off/on standby as in this screenshot).

MikeAqua

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#1799274 13-Jun-2017 12:51

We had two Toshiba heat pumps installed in our previous house. I think they actually had Mitsi compressors in them.

We chose them mostly because the installers offering them were the only ones we spoke to who seemed to know what they were doing.

We were very, very happy with them.

Mike