Pioneer 12K BTU Ductless Mini Split Inverter Air Conditioner w/ Heat Pump Expired

If you look at comparison specs for the two voltage units the 230 volts has a lower SEER and COP rating. Also uses more energy annually. I generally agree with your statement but for this instance the 120 unit wins.

I have installed 2 of 3 ductless mini splits since December. I had no prior HVAC experience except recharging car AC.

The Pioneer unit (which I haven't installed yet) came with little bits that the LG units I installed lacked and were a PITA to find. The Pioneer manual sucks. LG has an installation manual that is excellent and most of the info is general so download that. Youtube is your friend (AC Service Tech and HVAC School if I remember right).

You get an indoor unit and an outdoor unit, lineset (meaning two "flexible" copper pipes with flare fittings ), the communications cable between the IDU and ODU (14awg 4 conductor-- this was really hard to find locally), and the . The outdoor unit has a sticker on it with useful info like breaker size (min/max) and refrigerant charge (ODU ships with refrigerant in it but only for a certain piping length).

I had an electrician install the breakers and I help him run the wiring. I had to get double 110v breakers to make space for a 220 breaker. The breaker size is printed on the ODU and then of course it has to match the manufacturer of your panel. I needed 10/3 and 12/3 conductor wiring in my area even though my units didn't need the extra wire. You need a service disconnect (these basically come in two sizes at Home Depot, 30a or 60a, and fused or non-fused ).

Other stuff I bought:
2.5" hole saw to make the holes in the walls
Liquid tight cable housing and fittings where your high voltage wiring exists the house. Comes in two sizes but the larger size wasn't that much more expensive
Nylog Blue which you put on all the flare fittings
I bought a small adjustable wrench to go with my large one because it's easy to over tighten the brass flare fittings. Fit was kinda tight near the ODU too


Things I learned:
HVAC technicians are expensive, so I did all the installation work (except breaker) and called one out to double check my work, nitrogen pressure test and vacuum which requires tools that aren't economical for one installation and it's also got quite a learning curve. I did this with my first unit.

If you can stick to the lineset length that the unit comes pre-charged for, you'll skip the step of having to add or remove refrigerant

the outdoor unit vibrates kinda a lot. I have mine wall mounted on rubber feet outside the garage under an overhang and I can hear it in the garage throbbing. If it wasn't bolted down it would walk away. The bozos who installed my original system just put it on the ground outside free standing and it had constant issues until it filled with snow and ice and died.

don't install the indoor unit over a doorway. There's lots of wood (header) up there. Oops. I have zero carpentry experience so...

Double check your wiring and then check it again. I was three days into the first install and tired and I swapped two wires on the IDU and blew out the control board on the IDU and a fuse in the ODU. I should just have had my wife check all the wiring (it's easy L1 black L2 red 3 white GND green). Control board swap was easy ($120 and a two week wait on SupplyHouse.com) and the fuse was just something from Ace, though finding it in the guts of the ODU was a pain (wiring diagram is printed on the inside of the service covers of all these units).

1/4 copper lines bend REALLY easily. If you kink one of these, you're done and need to buy another. The larger sizes are more forgiving

There's fancy lineset covers to attach linesets to the wall and cover them up but I just used large zip ties screwed to the siding and covered with plastic gutters from Ace.

insulate the condensate line and keep it off the ground. Mine was close to the ground and when weather got cold a little mountain of ice built up toward the condensate line. I cut it shorter to make sure it never plugs up.

These things rock though. I'm totally sold on them and will be installing on our other house and my mom's.

It's definitely a good price. But from experience in installing both units, if given the option, I'd rather have their WYS (Midea OEM) than this WYT (TCL OEM) model. Just based on overall built quality.