Frigidaire FAC124P1A Compact II 12,000-BTU Room Air Conditioner with Electronic Controls
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Tools and Hardware Reviews of Frigidaire FAC124P1A Compact II 12,000-BTU Room Air Conditioner with Electronic Controls
Customer Review: Competent AC; incompetent installation instructions
Summary: 3 Stars
The air conditioner itself is perfectly fine. It blows cold air, as advertised. What is not perfectly fine, are its incomprehensible installation instructions, which are supplemented with washed out, unfocused photographs. The instructions would have been more useful if badly trained seals had put them together.Customer Review: Decent unit
Summary: 3 Stars
We're generally satisfied with this AC unit. We live in an NYC apartment and this is for our living room (with hopefully some spillover coolness to make the entryway and kitchen passable).
Our living room is 16 x 12 feet with 8 1/2 foot ceilings. The unit does cool it down but we don't think it has the cooling power of the older unit we used to have. It is a little louder than you'd like but that's true of most of them still.
Still heavy (though less so than our old unit). Had to have our super correctly install it with the legal NYC supports required. Overall no major complaints and would generally recommend it so far - we just bought this summer of 2010 so can't speak to longevity.
Customer Review: Does the job well
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this air conditioner despite reviews that it is too noisy. It is no louder than other A/C units I have had before, and works well so far. I haven't had it long. The unit was very easy to install and was cooling my apartment less than an hour after it arrived.Customer Review: Excellent A/C At An Excellent Price
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a fine air conditioner and a good value. It is compact and fits easily in most standard windows. It's electronic controls offer many refinements/conveniences which your old a/c does not. It is also much more efficient than your old a/c, and the electronic controls make operating it efficiently simple and straight-forward. Manuals and installation instructions can be found at:
http://www.frigidaire.com/products/roomair/window_mounted/compact_II/prod_FAC124P1.asp
To address some of the points raised in the other reviews: this is a powerful unit. It is meant to cool 650+ sq. ft. It is easily up to that task, and in fact does a pretty good job of keeping my entire 1300+ sq. ft. house comfortable. As such, it is not a good choice as a bedroom unit, unless you have an enormous bedroom. Although it is no noisier than competitive units of the same capacity, the compressor and blower do produce some noise and you would not want this unit 6 feet from your ear when trying to sleep at night. That said, I have it in a hall window about 10 feet from my 3 bedrooms, and the noise level is very reasonable and acceptable. The blower is electronic and continuously adjustable, which helps quite a bit.
The construction of this unit is no less robust than most other modern a/c's, with the possible exception of the top-end brands costing twice as much. The case is all metal. The vents and vent covers are plastic and need to be handled with normal care, but they are not especially delicate. The switches seem robust. All the functions can be very conveniently controlled via remote. The remote "beep" which confirms operation is not particularly loud and not being able to turn it off is not a problem. The vents offer slightly less control of the airflow than the unit this replaced, but the difference is minor and of no real consequence.
The window mounting is achieved with conventional accordion "wings" which are easily installed, and if need be, replaced. Again, they are no less robust than competitive units and if used with normal care and common sense, will likely hold up as well as any of this type of equipment does. There are a/c's which are designed to use a "sleeve" mount, which in my opinion is more of a pain than a convenience.
This unit is inexpensive in comparison to the competition, and is just as well constructed as most and has the same features. It cost me about 20% less than the next lowest priced unit (a Kenmore) and 25%+ less than anything I could find at the big-box home-repair stores. I cannot say if it will live as long; I'll report back in 20 years and advise ;-)
The unit is heavy (80 lbs.), but comparable to the competition. It will take two of you to put this in and out of the window, but even two smaller folks can hand this simply and easily.
I would recommend this unit. I purchased mine at a local store of a major national electronics chain for $285.
Customer Review: Excellent Product!
Summary: 5 Stars
This unit is fabulous!! I have 1200 square feet of space and my ceilings are 7 feet and this unit has no problem cooling it! I keep my area at 73 degrees. Plenty cool enough for me. I know it says 640 square feet, but it runs perfect. I also love the auto features. It shuts down when the temp is met! The fan also adjusts itself to run at a speed required to cool the area. The noise level is what is to be expected from such a large unit,(12,000 BTU's). I have no cons for this unit. I am very happy I bought it! BTW... the temps in my area are in the low to mid 90's and high humidity. If you are in the market for a air conditioner... BUY THIS ONE!