recommendations for 4 zone Mini Split Air Conditioner pls

[luv2liv]

is this any good?

GREE Multi-21 Quad Zone 33438 BTU Wi-Fi Ductless Mini Split Air Conditioner & Heat Pump with 25 ft. Install Kit-230V/60Hz MULTI30HP410 - The Home Depot

The Multi-21 4-Zone 33,438 BTU Wi-Fi Ductless Mini-Split Air Conditioning System can heat or cool 4 zones up to 1,500 sq. ft. (combined) without distribution boxes. Powered by GREE's energy-efficient G10 inverter and a variable-speed compressor these units save energy, reduce indoor/outdoor...

www.homedepot.com

the only reason i am shopping on HD or lowes is because this will be my first time installing the system. if anything goes wrong, i can always return the DOA to the store instead of shipping it back or something. Strange that there are no reviews and i have never heard of Gree.

i have heard and seen many Mitsubishi. so they must be good right? https://www.acwholesalers.com/Mitsubishi-MXZ-4C36NA2-3-MSZ-GL09NA-U1-MSZ-GL12NA-U/p57037.html but afraid of DOA and shipping would be a nightmare. not even sure how to return something that big.

would be nice to have a wifi enabled system that has integration with HomeAssistant....

 

[herm0016]

we went with mitsu hi2 will heat down to below zero outside temp as a backup to our hot water boiler. Mitsu makes good units. ours is 2 9k heads and a 12k head. its wonderful after not having A/C for years. we just did the bedrooms in our house.

are you going to buy a vacuum pump and nitrogen bottle and all that?

 

[Greenman]

is this any good?

GREE Multi-21 Quad Zone 33438 BTU Wi-Fi Ductless Mini Split Air Conditioner & Heat Pump with 25 ft. Install Kit-230V/60Hz MULTI30HP410 - The Home Depot

The Multi-21 4-Zone 33,438 BTU Wi-Fi Ductless Mini-Split Air Conditioning System can heat or cool 4 zones up to 1,500 sq. ft. (combined) without distribution boxes. Powered by GREE's energy-efficient G10 inverter and a variable-speed compressor these units save energy, reduce indoor/outdoor...

www.homedepot.com

the only reason i am shopping on HD or lowes is because this will be my first time installing the system. if anything goes wrong, i can always return the DOA to the store instead of shipping it back or something. Strange that there are no reviews and i have never heard of Gree.

i have heard and seen many Mitsubishi. so they must be good right? https://www.acwholesalers.com/Mitsubishi-MXZ-4C36NA2-3-MSZ-GL09NA-U1-MSZ-GL12NA-U/p57037.html but afraid of DOA and shipping would be a nightmare. not even sure how to return something that big.

would be nice to have a wifi enabled system that has integration with HomeAssistant....

Gree is from a Chinese company that manufactures for several different brands. I have two projects that have Blue Ridge units, they seem to be holding up (Blue Ridge is made by the same company that makes Gree).

 

[dphantom]

we went with mitsubishi and loved them. Easy to install and ran well.

 

[13Gigatons]

Bosch: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Bosch-G...-with-Heat-Pump-230-Volt-8733954446/312372599

 

[Aikouka]

Given the design of my house and the layout of the HVAC lines, I don't really have the best cooling upstairs. I think this is largely exacerbated by the garage being below some of the rooms and how the garage can easily get to 80F+ in the summer.

One solution that I've considered is the ductless mini-split, and similar to @luv2liv, I was looking into a quad-zone unit to handle four different bedrooms. Although, given that I'm rather new to HVAC as a whole, there are some things that I'm not sure about. I think the biggest question that comes to mind is how exactly would it be setup? In my situation, two of the rooms are against the back of the house and two of them are against the front of the house; also, one of each of those is against the side of the house.

             FRONT YARD
|---------------------------------|
|                |                |
|   BEDROOM 1    |   BEDROOM 2    |
|                |                |
|---------------------------------| <-- OUTSIDE
|                |                |      WALL
|   BEDROOM 3    |   BEDROOM 4    |
|                |                |
|---------------------------------|
              BACKYARD

So, what comes to mind is that Bedroom 3 and Bedroom 4 could likely be easily serviced by a mini-split heat pump in the backyard, but what about Bedroom 1 and Bedroom 2? I'm assuming that they'd just run a longer line set from the backyard to service the front-facing bedrooms. Although, unless you used a drain pump, the indoor unit would still have to be on an exterior wall with a drain pipe. That likely isn't a big deal for Bedroom 2, which could drain to the side, but Bedroom 1 doesn't really have a good option there (unless you enjoy drain pipes on the front of your house). Also, such a custom setup definitely seems to push the DIY-friendly units out the window.

Although, one other factor that comes to mind is... if I effectively replace my whole house HVAC in these four rooms with a mini-split system, won't my whole house HVAC be oversized?

As a side note, a few potential side projects that I've been considering are trying to better deal with the garage's heat. One project is putting an air-pocket-based thermal barrier on the garage door (i.e. a bit less weight than you'd get from just adding foam). I've used my thermal camera in the garage before, and it was quite obvious (and unsurprising) that the door was the hottest area in the room. In regard to the door, I also want to check the seals around the garage door and the door to the backyard to ensure less permeability. Also, one common theme in this house is poor insulation work, and I'd like to see how good the insulation is between the garage and the living areas. In looking into the plumbing that passes through the garage ceiling, I've seen a few areas that look fairly lackluster, but that has also been common in this house when it comes to insulation behind plumbing. (I usually put solid foam insulation behind it.)

 

[herm0016]

Insulate your garage door for sure. I just bought 1 in polyiso with the foil face and it has helped in summer and winter here a lot. My garage used to be near ambient temp, not it does not go below freezing till the outside temp is near 0 now.


They could run lines in the attic as well to the front rooms. I would not want lines all over the outside of the front of our house. We are similar and ran the line to the front bdrm up the back side into the attic at the eve and across to the front bdrm. We have a 3 zone Mitsubishi hyperheat system and are very happy with it.

 

[Aikouka]

Insulate your garage door for sure. I just bought 1 in polyiso with the foil face and it has helped in summer and winter here a lot. My garage used to be near ambient temp, not it does not go below freezing till the outside temp is near 0 now.

Sounds like I'll need to prioritize adding the insulation to the door.

Another interesting thought that I've been having is the potential to add another door to the garage. Currently, the garage has a door to the backyard, but lacks a door to the front yard. It's always possible to go into the backyard and through the gate, but it's locked, which means you have to make sure you have keys with you. The reason why I think this might be applicable is that I'll normally leave the garage door open while I'm mowing the front yard as I'll usually need to swap batteries at least once (I don't usually start with a full one). I did this yesterday, and the garage ended up being in the mid-80's, which ended up affecting everything else.

I figure that if I could easily go in and out through a normal door that I could avoid letting extra heat (or cold) into the garage through a persistently open door. Albeit, as noted, I could just use the gate. I figured it might be a bit easier to add a door to where a window already is located. (It's a brick siding.) Just a thought!

They could run lines in the attic as well to the front rooms. I would not want lines all over the outside of the front of our house. We are similar and ran the line to the front bdrm up the back side into the attic at the eve and across to the front bdrm. We have a 3 zone Mitsubishi hyperheat system and are very happy with it.

Speaking of brands, it seems the one that I see the most is that MRCOOL brand. It looks like they're doing a bit of a new-age, grassroots advertising campaign by sending review units to YouTubers. When I searched up mini-split videos on YouTube, it's pretty safe to say their videos came up a lot. However, I don't know how good the brand is. I've heard a lot of good things about Mitsubishi (your post included), but the one thing that I like about MRCOOL is that they include a smart controller that plugs into the wall unit. Although, I believe Mitsubishi also has other options such as a ceiling-mounted register, which interests me.

I'm also wondering how recommended something like this would be for a bit of an HVAC newbie? (I'm fine with your basic electrical tasks.) I don't mind getting my feet wet, and as noted before, I don't really know any good HVAC contractors around here and have been bit too many times in the past to trust one with a pricey job. (I once had an HVAC person attempt to measure a duct by measuring the vent cover. I had to correct his measurement after he mentioned the size.) I'd rather spend money on items like a vacuum pump, bend tool, and flaring tool rather than pay someone to do a rush-job for me.

 

[herm0016]

the mr. cool units are precharged with some kind of connectors that will keep the vaccume, which means unless you use only the line-set they send with them, it will not be charged the correct amount. Im sure they work fine, but probably not as good as a properly plumed, nitrogen purged, vacuum tested and charged unit. you can usually install and plumb them yourself, and have an hvac company come out to test and charge it for a few hundred bucks.