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hanguker
Joined: 16 Mar 2005
Location: Korea
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 Posted: Sat May 12, 2007 5:26 pm Post subject: Buying an air-conditioner $1500 vs. $4000 with same BTU? |
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| Does anyone know about air-conditioners? I want to buy a standup (15 pyung) +wall hanging (6 pyung) set. The prices here vary a great deal, from $1500-4000 for the same BTU. Is there any difference in A/C technology or am I just paying for brand and style? Some of the more expensive are "signature series" and have automated cleaning "robots" and fancy hepa-filters. I don't think that stuff is important. Can I get the same cooling and efficiency from a cheaper model? |
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eamo
Joined: 08 Mar 2003
Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.
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| Posted: Sat May 12, 2007 5:34 pm Post subject: |
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Air-cons have become like refrigerators and washing machines here in Korea. Over-engineered and over-priced. Samsung, LG et al worked out that people will pay 2 million for one of these appliances if they added every possible gadget to them and put on a glossy paint job.
I would get a second-hand aircon for around 300-400,000. Make sure the filter is clean and refresh the coolant. It should work just like a new one. |
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mrsquirrel
Joined: 13 Dec 2006
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| Posted: Sat May 12, 2007 6:15 pm Post subject: |
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| eamo wrote: |
Air-cons have become like refrigerators and washing machines here in Korea. Over-engineered and over-priced. Samsung, LG et al worked out that people will pay 2 million for one of these appliances if they added every possible gadget to them and put on a glossy paint job.
I would get a second-hand aircon for around 300-400,000. Make sure the filter is clean and refresh the coolant. It should work just like a new one. |
You do realise that you will be flamed by somebody for making such a sweeping comment, not sure who by but I have my suspicions as to who the first flamers will be. They do take it rather personally on here. |
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ChuckECheese
Joined: 20 Jul 2006
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| Posted: Sat May 12, 2007 6:15 pm Post subject: |
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If you're gonna buy an air conditioner then just buy an air conditioner. Don't buy the ones with fancy gadgets and filters.
If two air conditioner has the same BTU output then their cooling/heating output is virtually the same. It doesn't matter which one you buy. Also consider the serviceability of the unit, i.e. which one has the best warranty and serviceability.
All that other gadget crap is not necessary when you're looking for an air conditioner because more gadgets the unit has there are more chances of it breaking down due to other gadget's malfunction. Therefore, if you need additional gadgets like an air purifier, it's better purchased separately so that when one breaks, other's still running and also much easier and cheaper to service as well.
Good luck. |
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kimchi story
Joined: 23 Nov 2006
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| Posted: Sat May 12, 2007 7:07 pm Post subject: |
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| mrsquirrel wrote: |
| eamo wrote: |
Air-cons have become like refrigerators and washing machines here in Korea. Over-engineered and over-priced. Samsung, LG et al worked out that people will pay 2 million for one of these appliances if they added every possible gadget to them and put on a glossy paint job.
I would get a second-hand aircon for around 300-400,000. Make sure the filter is clean and refresh the coolant. It should work just like a new one. |
You do realise that you will be flamed by somebody for making such a sweeping comment, not sure who by but I have my suspicions as to who the first flamers will be. They do take it rather personally on here. |
First! ahhsssssa!
Seriously, tho, I never thought about a used a/c unit - that's good advice. |
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dogshed
Joined: 28 Apr 2006
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| Posted: Sat May 12, 2007 7:28 pm Post subject: |
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| eamo wrote: |
Air-cons have become like refrigerators and washing machines here in Korea. Over-engineered and over-priced. Samsung, LG et al worked out that people will pay 2 million for one of these appliances if they added every possible gadget to them and put on a glossy paint job.
I would get a second-hand aircon for around 300-400,000. Make sure the filter is clean and refresh the coolant. It should work just like a new one. |
So far all I've seen are the kinds of air conditioners that have to be installed. If I have one installed in my apartment I don't see how I could sell it used without paying for someone to remove it and reinstall it somewhere else.
Don't they have window units or some kind that don't involve cutting a hole in the wall or running copper lines? |
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hanguker
Joined: 16 Mar 2005
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Sat May 12, 2007 10:31 pm Post subject: |
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I don't think anyone is going to flame eamo for the comments. They make a lot of sense. I've done a lot of appliance shopping with the wife and the prices can be outrageous on a lot of them. In particular, there is a clear price difference of 200-300K between regular beige color models and their "wine" (or whatever the color of the day is) kin.
Some of the gadgets are quite interesting, though. The robots are little mini brushes that slide up and down your filter to clean it regularly (due to break just after warranty). They also offer neat little digital displays on everything from fridges to A/Cs that are entirely useless. There a multi-super-mega filter systems as opposed to the dreaded regular filter that comes with all A/Cs. (The fancy ones destroy the dreaded cartoon bugs with the nasty grins that you see in the poster ads). Some even have a ???night mode???
Here's where it gets rich! Add about 1M won and you get an A/C signed by non other than Andre Kim! Few thousand more and you get "real crystals" encrusted on the unit...I'm not joking, LOL.
I just want to know if there is any engineering in the more expensive ones that "make it go better,"??? 
Also, eamo...where can you buy nice used units? I live in Busan. Are there used appliance shops in Korea where you can get nice stuff, not a 10 year old thing from an old video-room? |
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JongnoGuru
Joined: 25 May 2004
Location: peeing on your doorstep
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| Posted: Sat May 12, 2007 11:42 pm Post subject: |
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| hanguker wrote: |
| I don't think anyone is going to flame eamo for the comments. |
Think again.
Eamo, put down the damn bottle and consider what you just posted!  USED air-conditioners?? WTF is wrong with you, are you high??!!
(how's that?  )
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| Also, eamo...where can you buy nice used units? I live in Busan. Are there used appliance shops in Korea where you can get nice stuff, not a 10 year old thing from an old video-room? |
I'm not in Busan, but there are "recycling" centres around Seoul that sell all kinds of household & office furniture, appliances, even computers/monitors/printers. You might scout out those. Years ago I bought from one of them a handsome, genuine-leather, "self-important chairman-of-the-board" sofa & chair set for an office waiting room: 400k + 50k for delivery. Near-new condition. The sort of thing that sells (new) for 3 million & up. And I wasn't even looking to buy a sofa set that day. It was just too good of a deal to pass up.
But as for the used A/C market, it's very spotty. Your best bet is probably looking online. Because on the street, unless you're clever & cool & in-the-know, your options are:
a) Paying body appendages for NEW (And new A/Cs fall under the three-year-rule -- if you're not certain you'll get three years of personal use out of it, then you're cheating yourself. It's costly to buy, costly to install, and possibly costly to remove if ordered to do so by a landlord.)
and,
b) Like you said -- the clunky, gunky, nicotine-stained, 10-yr-old A/C from "Smokey PC Bang".
What always seems to be missing from the used A/C market are the high-end, barely-used 2003, 2004 & 2005 models -- the ones that millions of Gangnam millionaire families regularly discard to make room for this year's new & improved model. How come we can't readily find those (offline)? Well actually, you sometimes can around the backalleys of Yongsan. And a lot of builders end up carting them home because the Gangnam bajillionaire families will frequently use the occasion of a total remodelling job to upgrade their A/Cs. They like those flat "framed picture" types of wall-mounted units now. You know, the ones with the Picassoesque designs on them. Or sure, ones with Andr� Kim's autograph for a few million won more, I can see that.
| eamo wrote: |
| Air-cons have become like refrigerators and washing machines here in Korea. Over-engineered and over-priced. Samsung, LG et al worked out that people will pay 2 million for one of these appliances if they added every possible gadget to them and put on a glossy paint job. |
Too true. It's like, "Ma'am, we're gonna stick you for the 2 mil. no matter what. Resistance is futile, so hand it over".
| dogshed wrote: |
| So far all I've seen are the kinds of air conditioners that have to be installed. If I have one installed in my apartment I don't see how I could sell it used without paying for someone to remove it and reinstall it somewhere else. |
And I'm sure this is why you'll find everything from used cars to used TVs to used spoons on Buy/Sell/Trade, but almost never any used A/Cs. People are typically in such a mad panic to decamp that ringing the after-service dudes to come by & disconnnect the A/C is just not something they want to bother with. And of course reinstallation in a new location means new pipes, new connections, new holes drilled, etc., and that means the (waegook) buyer must also ring up A/S and have them come over to do the install (whereas that's effortlessly arranged when buying new). |
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hanguker
Joined: 16 Mar 2005
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Sun May 13, 2007 12:28 am Post subject: |
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| Thanks for the help guys. Gave me some perspective. |
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