Air Conditioner

@planner

Can  you recommend another A/C seller that you feel has better competitive pricing. As far as my wife negotiating a better price it’s not that they are overpriced but rather she is a Dominican woman who drives a hard bargain no matter the price.

I go looking when I need them. .there is a place in Santo Domingo called JJR technology and they run amazing specials.  Also Corripio at times has the best prices but not always.

Cecomsa in Santiago has a great reputation, not just for A/C units, but electronics as well.  They also arrange for installation, and deliver.  I have bought many things from them, and they stand behind their warranty.  My business partner buys millions of pesos monthly from them in A/C units, TV's and appliances.  cecomsa.com

Thanks Planner and UncleBuck I have checked out some of the places you mentioned and there pricing is way more than Refripartes. Thanks again for the suggestions though. 👍

Fifteen minutes ago, I was obsessing over how to install a split AC unit for my bedroom. My bedroom is on the south face of the house. Oh, no, woe is me! The south side of the house is the worst place to install the outside part of the split unit. It gets sun all day long!

And then I looked out the window. It's dark. And I realized that my bedroom AC would only be used at night. And there is no sun at night! Whew.

Hahahahaha. Too funny!

I purchased two from this location, very good price i think and excellent service.

(Lenox) according to people and reviews are very reliable. not noisy at all and efficient so far, going on one year.

Refricentro Rubiera

4.2

(125)

Tienda aire acondicionado en Santo Domingo, República DominicanaCerrado

Compras en tienda · Retiro en tienda · Entrega a domicilio

Av 27 de Febrero 438, Santo Domingo 10114, República Dominicana

@planner you are a gold mine of information. I might need this information in the future.Thanks!

@planner lol jjjjj

Well this is interesting.  If your asking what is the best heat pump/split ac unit to buy, I guess the one that comes with the longest warranty and a reasonable price. The more you take care of it, keep it dry and not in direct sun, the longer it should last I am guessing.  But I am a renter here so I dont have to do that.

But if you want to explore not using air conditioning then you might want to consider this:

The ideal situation here in such a lovely climate, is to find (or build) a home that has screens on the doors/windows, to have them open so you can get a nice breeze.  That is why I like to live on the 2nd floor or higher.  Most nights here in the winter months are perfect averaging 24C or less.  Then if you are lucky to live in a quiet area so you dont have to hear cars and blasting music,  or worry about someone breaking in, you dont need any air conditioning!  Problem solved.  No extra electricity costs. 

Nothing beats that as DDMcGhee already said.  But if you are living in Santo Domingo, thats not likely.

Here in Punta Cana some of the condos and villas have central air. You can always keep the temperature the same and you can have decent air quality if you get good filters, but this is costly.  Central systems are alot quieter than split ac units.  But usually you will find these systems running not in homes but in high end hotels.

Air quality and noise pollution are factors if you open your windows.   In Jan/Feb I was on the south coast in Juan Dolio.   Although I was on the 10th floor, with a great view of the ocean they burn the garbage often so there was a steady stream of smoke blowing and there is a sugarcane factory which causes alot of air quality problems.  The hotel down the street was blasting music 3 times a day but only for 20 minutes.  A little distracting if  your reading.

I AM NOT COMPLAINING.  Just saying, I rather not have air conditioning but then I also would like decent air quality.  If you know what you want, you can always search and find it.

@DRforme What store in Santiago are you getting your units from ? Do you know what brand? And is installation included in the price?

@markmceathron7  I have had very good experience with TGM, now I have a new one inverter with 21 of 26 in the savings scale, and I recomend the store Refripartes,

Refripartes is a well known  vendor and they stand behind their products!   TGM is good!

@Freedmeister Ihad installed a power regulator made in the states with my house electric system.

This helped a lot with the constant surges and everyday power issues.

I also bought the proper electric cable guage for the air-conditioning to carry the proper voltage without burning up.

Just a suggestion

@crabelramble

if your room hold cold air with a ductless ac unit , it will also hold cold air with a central cooling system  , the cinder block has a skim coat of concrete on it and usually fresh coat of paint , and actually be more efficient  if used with zone thermostats in each part of the house that come with auto. reset and  can be set at desired temps when not in use so the while house doesn’t have to be at 66  all day 

I am having this removed. Please. Take a classified. We do not permit self promotion

@polo1club

   if your cinder blocks can hold the cold from ductless it can hold the cold from central  air

just remember to get zone thermostats for areas of the house not used that often  , the thermostats can be programmed to turn

on - off  any hour , day of the week ,  remotely, any temperature , there good if you traval and your worried about mildew or the smell of musk , you could if you wanted run the ducks for the unit outside  the house and they incase it with insulation and a type of plaster

Thanks everyone for your AC posts - all good info. My place in the Punta Cana area is closed up for most of the year. We only run the three split AC units as needed if we are there or if we have guests or tenants using the condo.  We live full time in south Florida, which has a similar climate to DR. Here in Florida though, most condo developments use central AC rather than splits. One thing that is pretty much never done here is to turn off the AC completely if the condo is unoccupied for months at a time. This is done not to keep the place cool per se, but to keep the humidity under control so that mold doesn't develop.

Is it normal practice to turn off all the split ACs in a condo in the DR (esp near the ocean, like in PC) or do folks leave maybe one unit turned on at a higher set temperature to try to control humidity in the condo, or is the price of electricity so restrictive that it isn't worth it?

The cost of electricity and maintenance is much higher. I don't know anyone who leave air on for months at a time

@planner I didn't think so. I just wanted to hear it from someone in the know. Thank you!

De nada!

    Thanks everyone for your AC posts - all good info. My place in the Punta Cana area is closed up for most of the year. We only run the three split AC units as needed if we are there or if we have guests or tenants using the condo.  We live full time in south Florida, which has a similar climate to DR. Here in Florida though, most condo developments use central AC rather than splits. One thing that is pretty much never done here is to turn off the AC completely if the condo is unoccupied for months at a time. This is done not to keep the place cool per se, but to keep the humidity under control so that mold doesn't develop.
Is it normal practice to turn off all the split ACs in a condo in the DR (esp near the ocean, like in PC) or do folks leave maybe one unit turned on at a higher set temperature to try to control humidity in the condo, or is the price of electricity so restrictive that it isn't worth it?
   

    -@kevlion88

We do not keep our AC on all the time, even though we have enough solar energy in our system during the day; however, we rarely turn our split unit on "air condition". We use the "dehumidify" function on the unit and it works very well, while using a lot less electricity.

We only use ac in the bedroom at night if needed and only to bring temps down a bit to around 24C. I don't like ac, especially at those stupid low settings some people tend to use. It makes adapting to the 'normal' outside temperatures a lot harder.

A heads up for fixing old ac units; Electronics fail fast here but the condensors and fans last a long time. Nowadays universal controller kits are available to repair any ac. We just had 3 20+ year old ac's redone and they work as new.

I hav a guy come every 6-8 months to main  them ( clean the coils and wash everything on the inside , charges $1000 pesos for a little bit of $$ its worth it , it also reduces the electricity draw

I'm completely off grid solar and have 5 mini-split units in my home and have them connected via wifi, What we do is turn on different rooms on for a few hours daily when away from home via phone app and can also monitor our solar power via another phone app

Filters....

At the risk of sounding like an idiot, did you all know your mini splits have removable, cleanable filters? Well we didn't, but we do now! Clean your filters everyone!

@Brewpub56,

I did and its nice to share as that is what this group is (and should be) about.

@Tippj I know you are correct as part of my "day job" is to pay attention to cooling in Computer Data Centers... Dirt causes heat and heat kills everything..

Dust, humidity and heat, not to mention salt air! 

Clean filters monthly, full clean every 3 months depending on use

Hello Everyone, if some one need a great (and reasonable) a/c specialist in Punta Cana/Bavaro and around area I can recommend one.  Speaks English too

@Brewpub56

good one!

@planner

Good afternoon

Hope all is doing well!

Can  anyone recommend a good AC installer in

the Puerto Plata, Cabarette area?

Yes I can I. Puerto Plata.  His name is Ruben +1 (809) 459-6204. He does not speak English. This is also how WhatsApp.

Has anyone heard of American Brand? I am about to purchase an 18000 btu unit and inverter for $42500. Not sure about unit and cannot find anything about the manufacturer. Wanting to be sure it is the quietest I can afford. Any one have any ideas?

@LiveAtlanta

That price seems very high for 18btu

Are you buying it from a store?

And it's not an air conditioner and inverter. It's an inverter style air conditioner which means energy efficient.  What is the efficiency rating or SEER?  Price will depend on this number and brand plays a part as well

@CHRISTOPHER DAVID56

Yes, it is coming from an HVAC store, here in Las Terrenas. Santos, the owner is coming over to review the install and I am just thinking of questions to ask. Brand seems to be "American". Not USA.

He is asking 42500 plus 4k for installation

    @CHRISTOPHER DAVID56
Yes, it is coming from an HVAC store, here in Las Terrenas. Santos, the owner is coming over to review the install and I am just thinking of questions to ask. Brand seems to be "American". Not USA.
He is asking 42500 plus 4k for installation
   

    -@LiveAtlanta

LT has an HVAC store? News to me! Our units are AirMax and came from the capital.

See if you can get the photo of the model & serial number and do a Google search on it and see if any information comes up.

Example air-conditioning , brand name + model number + serial number

@ddmcghee

Amen!