Mini Split AC recommendations

update on Mentor from Cool Stuff Inc. in case anyone is referencing this post in the future:

during the installation, he began working with our outdoor outlet before we saw and let him know that we absolutely need that one and cannot repurpose it for the AC (it’s our only power source outside.) unfortunately, we didn’t test it before he left, and after the fact realized it no longer works. we have spent the last 2.5 months calling him trying to get him back here, unsuccessfully. i understand he is a small operation and has been quite busy during this very hot summer, but no matter the price, this is really unacceptable.

It also raises questions on the validity of his ‘warranty’ – how good is it if you can never get him back to your home to fix anything? i held off adding this to his review because i wanted to give him the chance to make it right, but at this point it feels safe to say we’ll be calling an electrician.

Guest User | 3 years and 9 months ago

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Guest User | 4 years ago

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thank you!! i have several more estimates coming this week, i will let you know where we land with pricing. appreciate your help on this!

Guest User | 4 years ago

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5k per floor sounds low. If I remember correctly, I got quoted 15-18K per floor. One came in at a whopping 27K per floor. However 11k for one unit is too high.

hkapstein | 4 years ago

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Ok fwiw I paid about 7k per floor with the short ducted units which were more expensive than wall mounted minis, but on the other hand in some situations I needed less heads because I could split the ducting. But that was not this year, and also I knew exactly what I wanted and had a mechanical diagram which made it easy for them. I had a quote at 5k, but is was not an authorized dealer which affected rebates and warranties but it would matter in your situation. If I were faced with 11k and could find cheaper I’d just buy a precharged mr. Cool kit and a masonry bit, please tell me you at least own a drill. If you don’t own a drill but you own a brownstone, please buy a drill. The rigid brushless is nice, but a ryobi will do, that’s about as cheap as I would go.

I’d wire it to the panel, I’d wire it to the panel with 10/3 cu wire type ac cable with a ground strip. You might need only 12 gauge if the mca for the unit is under 20, and you definitely don’t need the neutral, but I always run it. Now in your case it will probably be an electrician doing, which was included in my 7k per floor. Electricians usually charge a premium for 240v connections, but the labor is similar to any new circuit, so I think a few hundred bucks would be fair depending the difficulty of routing the cable. But 30 feet number 8 plus a whole day of labor shouldn’t come out much over 500 bucks, but I’ve been quoted up to 800 by some.

Guest User | 4 years ago

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FWIW I install mitsubishi mini splits…you can drop me a line at errol832000@hotmail.com

Guest User | 4 years ago

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Hi Urbandad! looks like Cool Stuff is our best bet so far…just wanted to see if you have experience working with him? there aren’t any reviews online, understand he’s a small business which is why his prices are so great – just want to see if there’s any way to vouch for him. and yes, we own a drill! but the understanding for the rest of that is pretty limited 🙂 I looked at the Mr. Cool DIY units – do we take care of the hole and the electrician can handle the rest? thank you so much for your help!

hkapstein | 4 years ago

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I see he has eight google reviews, all of which are five stars a many have detailed comments, but online reviews are online reviews. I bet he’ll give you a reference if you ask.

I had him bid my job a few years back. He gave the best bid, and I felt like he knew what he was doing, and he definitly wanted the gig. I had some complexity on the job since it was part of a larger project and I would need to coordinate the schedule with other contractors, lines at one time, ducts and another time, solve some problems with the compatibility of the machines and the need for branch boxes and where to route everything etc. I ended up negotiating with one of the bigger companies and they agreed to pass some of contractor rebates to me and that got us within 10% so I felt that made sense for my job.

I thought he could do the job, but it didn’t seem like the best situation to try somebody new. I liked him though and I planned to keep him in mind for a smaller job, and this situation seems like it could be a good fit. Also he does the work himself, so you’re not paying extra for a smooth talking salesman.

There’s something to be saidd for right sizing the contractor. Ice age/ice berg/arnica have larger crews and more overhead and probably are not as competitive or interested in a job that one or two guys could do in half a day or so.

hkapstein | 4 years ago

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With the Mr. Cool and similar DIY products, the lineset comes with refrigerant in it so you don’t have to deal with the complicated part of handling refrigerant and charging the system which makes it pretty doable. I’m sure you can find a youtube video that shows exactly what’s involved.

You would have to deal with setting up the outdoor unit on a pad outside, probably a plastic one, or you could hange it on your facade with brackets if there is space, drilling the holes, and running the lineset through the holes, and connect it to the indoor and outdoor units, and mouting the indoor unit to your wall. It’s a real project, it’s not like plugging in a window unit, but a handy person can do it. I think if you read the instructions and watch a video you’d probably know if it’s in your skill range.

Once it’s in place, the electrician will wire it to your panel and add a new breaker for it. It also normally needs a power disconnect switch near the unit so it can be powered off for service without going all the way to the panel. The electrician will know what to do, what siz e wires to use and where to put everything. Probably electrician charges 400-800, it really depends on how easy it is to run the wire and how much he likes you. If you have a subpanel in your yard near the unit, it would be less, if you have to fish the wire through 100 feet of finished wall or run a conduit to your main panel, it would be more.

markwalker | 4 years ago

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We used RichAir for our whole house system, and recommend.
And do ask about rebates from Con Ed, and from the mfr of your system.

xchx | 4 years ago

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I would check out Mr. Air NYC — good, quick work, excellent communication, fair prices. Ask for George.

Guest User | 4 years ago

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Thanks everyone for your advice with this! We went with Mentor at Cool Stuff Inc. who completed the job for $2300 – and was able to come this morning. He did a great job and we are very pleased. Thanks again Urbandad for the great recommendation and all of the info!

chemosphere | 4 years ago

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so, what happened here? Is he providing a vastly different service than the $11,000 quote? Did the firm that gave a quote that high make a mistake? Are they ripping people off?

hkapstein | 4 years ago

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Yes, tell us numbers!

Guest User | 4 years ago

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Our estimates came in at 2300, 3800, 4800, and 11k…the main difference between the bottom 3 and the 11k was that they took care of the sheetrock, patching, and painting for the hole, and included any masonry if that was required.

for 2300, we definitely got what we paid for, which left a bit of a hole where the unit was installed that we’ll patch on our own, and outside of that my only complaint is that it was installed a bit off center on the wall where we specified. the condenser is on bricks outside, instead of a bracket like the other estimate included, but overall we are happy with the work. for 2300, we got a 10 year warranty with mitsubishi, and 3 years for labor/maintenance, while 3800 included 6 years for a Daikin unit, 2 years for labor. for 11k we got the full 12 year parts with Mitsubishi and 12 years labor. We also don’t qualify for any of the rebates with our unit and contractor choice, but the money we saved on installation outweighs anything we ‘d get back in a rebate.

i guess it’s more like Urbandad mentioned, where the initial estimate was someone who is just used to doing bigger jobs?

Guest User | 4 years ago

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Larger companies have office staff etc. handling communications and this can increase their costs. Though sometimes that added staff doesn’t necessarily equate to better service.

chemosphere | 4 years ago

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Did they have to run a new 220 line from the panel? Was this included in the $2300?

hkapstein | 4 years ago

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A 9000 btu unit probably runs on 120v. Probably they should have run a new circuit to the panel, but maybe there was a circuit for the window unit being replaced, or they tapped into an existing circuit. I’m not sure if you can tap a regular branch circuit for this code wise, but it wouldn’t be much different than plugging in a window unit in terms of the power usage.

Guest User | 4 years ago

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Yes they repurposed 2 outlets – 1 for the unit and 1 for the condenser, included in the price. I can’t speak to the specifics around the circuitry but luckily we had 2 spare outlets nearby that they were able to leverage for installation.

hkapstein | 4 years ago

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Well you can plug in a 18,000 btu unit into a regular 120v 15 amp outlet. However if you plug in a 15a appliance like a hairdryer on the same circuit you could have issues with the breaker popping. I’m not sure if it’s to code, but I’m pretty sure even if you had a licensed electrician wire it they wouldn’t do it to code(ie pull permits for one electrical point), and they might even do it like this.