Diamante Essenza 11,500 BTU 17 SEER2 115V High-Wall Ductless Mini-Split Air Conditioner Inverter Heat Pump with 16 Ft. Kit

Quick shipping from Jacks Small Engine, no damage to cartons. Two boxes as usual with mini splits, very well packed by Pioneer. Only minor glitch was I ordered a 240V unit and got a 110V unit. ALWAYS double check the labels, it would have been bad news to connect a 240 V supply to this unit. Easy enough to sort in the breaker panel (this is a shop building), just pulled the ganged 240 breaker, dropped in a single breaker and blanking plate, connected the now open wire to the neutral bus. Easy Peasy. I didn't care, but suspect they would have had the unit picked up and replaced quickly. We had bad weather coming in and this was to replace a failed Mr Cool unit. Once the spring rains start around here the ground is muck for a month or two, so wanted to get the job done while the sun was shining. Pioneer includes some interesting line set gaskets and a sealant that looks very much like Nylog Blue. The line set and flare nuts are very good, I shortened the line set by about 2 feet and the lines cut cleanly and flared very nicely using a good quality offset cone flaring tool and a film of nylog on the flaring cone as lubricant. These units take several minutes of running the outside unit before the inside fans turn on, a bit longer than the Mr Cool units I have in several other buildings. Started to get that sinking feeling on the first heating run, then the inside kicked on and all was well. Once the heat comes on, it's nice and warm. When the next mini split needs replacement or a friend asks what to get the Pioneer unit is very nice for a quite low price. I waited around 3 weeks before writing this and the shop building has been held at 66F the entire time, 70F when I'm working in it. The remote will probably have you scratching your head, the info IS in the manual, but it's all pictograms for modes, the tiny little image that looks like a sun (sort of) is the heat mode. Have to give Mr Cool the point on remote clarity. Maybe I'm just set in my ways but "HEAT" is far easier to figure out the meaning of than a 6X6 pixel image of a vaguely sun like image. I'll get used to it, no harm, no foul.

Read the instructions twice and started the install! Everything went smoothly. I paid an electrician to install the 15 amp breaker and an outdoor disconnect. The cost for the master electrician was $300. I installed the whip from the disconnect to the unit and called an HVAC specialist to vacuum out my lines. The cost was $150 and he also opened the valves and checked for leaks. I then installed the outdoor line cover, nice clean look! I installed it in early October so I haven’t really used the AC portion, but the heat pump has been running ever since I installed it and is keeping our bedroom and the back of the house 74° it has been from the 50s all the way down to 20° outside and has worked flawlessly! I plan to install a 24,000 BTU unit in the spring for the other end of the house, kitchen living room, etc. The remote control is nice! The unit is very quiet and I am very anxious to see how it does this summer! This can easily be installed by someone who can read and comprehend and has at least intermediate skills. Installing the inside unit would be a little easier with a second person., but I did it by myself no problem! A good friend of mine recommended this to me. He had the same unit and it performed flawlessly for 10 years before he had to replace the outdoor unit.. he also told me that it dropped his electric bill substantially! This is the main reason I went with a mini split and plan to install the 24,000 BTU in the spring. Both units combined will be less than 35 A compared to my 60 amp central unit. The inside portion of the unit is DC and runs all the time the fan kicks up and the oscillator starts when it is actually heating or cooling so there is always air circulating in the room, which is nice!

Let me start by saying that this mini split has truly exceeded my expectations in every aspect. Simple Installation: The installation process was a breeze, especially with the help of a YouTube video guide. Following the steps provided, I found it surprisingly easy to set up. The clear instructions and straightforward components made the process much smoother than I anticipated. Flawless Performance: Since the installation, the mini split has been performing flawlessly. It cools my garage efficiently and maintains a consistent temperature. The cooling and heating modes work like a charm, ensuring that I'm comfortable year-round without any hiccups. Vacuum Pump Success: I took the extra step of investing in a $100 vacuum pump, and I'm glad I did. Pulling down a vacuum on the system was a seamless process, without any complications. The mini split held the vacuum without any issues, which speaks to its quality and durability. Access Line Challenge: The most challenging part of the installation was drilling the 3-inch hole for the access lines. However, I realized that this would likely be the case with any mini split installation. It's a necessary step that requires patience and a strong drill.

We bought the 220V / 12,000 btu mini-split for our very drafty 273 sf cabin, and so far, we couldn’t be happier with it. The cabin was hand-built back in 1960 and it’s purpose was to be a storage shed. We bought the property in late 2019. There is no house yet, but this building is so well built that we converted it into a rustic cabin that we can stay in when we visit. Enter the need for climate control. We at first tried using a big space heater in the winter, and a portable A/C unit in the summer. The heater was loud and could barely keep us from freezing. The A/C worked, but was ridiculously loud, and we had to dispose of the condensate regularly. Neither could be run when we were gone, so we often arrived to a very hot or cold cabin. Enter this bad boy! Installation would have been relatively easy had we not been trying to do it in the July heat. (220V has to be hard-wired, so you’ll need an electrician if you can’t DIY.) That was a challenge! But once it was in and charged, it was awesome. The heat of summer was passed before we really got to test it, but it was super nice to be able to set it for 85 while we were gone, and simply switch it to turbo cooling when we arrived for the weekend. Now we are here in January. It was 23 degrees F outside last night, but the heater had us up to 68 (and slowly rising) when we turned it down for the night. This morning, it was 15 outside, but we were very comfy in our bed. My atomic clock said we were 57 inside. I switched the mini-split to turbo heat to take the chill off. It’s been very nice to be able to leave the cabin with the mini-split still on. The cabin doesn’t get super hot or cold, and I haven’t seen much difference in the electric bills. Also, it’s mounted on the wall, so it doesn’t take up any floor space, nor do we have to give up a window for it. We won’t know until next summer how well it can combat the Texas heat, but so far, we’ve been very satisfied.

First thing-do your research about what the installation entails. At minimum, you need a hole saw, pipe cutter, lineset flaring tool, manifold gauges, and a vacuum pump, in addition to an outdoor breaker box. I did a wall hangar for the outdoor unit, I got a "universal" kit off Amazon. It wasn't designed for an outdoor unit this small. Be advised, the outdoor unit is smaller than standard. I had to use zip ties to secure it because only 2 of the 4 bolt holes lined up on the wall hanger. Installation is pretty straightforward, and it both looks and works great! It's so much better than a window rattler, and so much less destructive to your house than a thru-the-wall unit. It is very effective at heating and cooling, although I knowingly got a 1 ton unit for a 100sqft bedroom, so I can't really evaluate how it would do in a larger room. I was blown away by the price given that it has an inverter for the compressor. I work in commercial HVAC and regularly see brand new 50+ ton units without a variable speed compressor, so it's impressive and very energy efficient. It also means that you don't hear the unit "kick" on and off when you use it, and the temperature is maintained well rather than bouncing back and forth between too warm and too cold. First thing is the sound. Wow, is it quiet. That's what you'll think when you turn it on. It's almost impossibly quiet. You can stand next to the outdoor unit and not realize it is running. So why didn't I give it 5 stars for sound? Live with it for a while. You'll notice that, while it makes no constant noises, the metal in the indoor unit expands and contracts with temperature changes (which happen all the time as a normal operation of an AC system) this causes metallic pops and bangs to occur roughly once every few minutes while the unit is in operation. They resonate against the drywall and are pretty loud, at least compared to the nearly silent room. The head of our bed is against the same wall as the unit is hung from, and I've been shaken from being almost asleep repeatedly due to a sudden bang from the indoor unit. The system for hanging the unit is well thought out from a cost and ease of install point of view, but it does not account for how the unit expands/contracts. Don't get me wrong, it's still so much quieter than a window rattler. In fact, if it had a louder fan generating a baseline white noise, it would mask the bangs. I run my window fan with the window closed just to mask the bangs when I sleep, otherwise it is quite jarring. For this price, I'm still thrilled with the product, but if any Pioneer engineers are watching this: seriously. Account for the expansion and contraction of the indoor unit coil, guys. This wall bracket mounting system is not up to the task. The other thorn is the controller. Let me be clear, I cannot complain at this price range. One of the main reasons variable speed compressors are not common in commercial HVAC is not the cost of the equipment, it's the complexity of the controls. It is so much simpler to program logic that just turns a device on at one temperature and off at another. And the more complex the controls system, the less likely the building engineer or owner will understand it, and then the more likely they'll mess something up and end up wasting a bunch of energy or have to have the contractor come back for a warranty call (almost never related to the warranty, almost always a controls issue). So kudos to pioneer for doing an inverter, including the controls. However, as in any product built to a price, there were compromises. Smartly, in heating mode, not only does the compressor ramp up and down, it will also turn off to avoid overheating the room. However, in cooling mode, the compressor does not turn off. It slows down to its slowest speed, but it keeps running. If you run it at night, in an empty room with the lights off, set to 70, you can come back to a 60 degree room. It gets it down to 70, then runs at the low compressor speed, but the minimum speed is usually about 50% speed, somewhere a round 25% capacity. My 100sqft bedroom can easily have less than a quarter ton of load when nobody is in there. A better controller would be able to turn off the compressor in a low or zero load situation. Again, the complexity of the microcontroller in this unit is already 10x that of your average window unit, but let this be a warning to anyone putting this in a small room. Do not let the unit run when you are not in the room at night. It will get too cold in there. Usually I do not worry if an AC unit is too big. That's only an issue in humid climates. But because of how this controller works, it should be a consideration. I know the 3/4 ton unit is so close in price, that's why I ordered the 1 ton unit. But in hindsight, I'd have gotten the smaller unit. Overall, I'm a happy customer. I just wish that it didn't make banging noises when I want to sleep, and I wish the compressor would cycle at low loads. Oh and the "I feel" feature doesn't work. Just use the temperature control on the indoor unit and set it a degree or 2 higher than you want. That works much better.

Bought this unit about 3 years ago, it was finally installed several months later. It's a pretty good unit, I've been mostly happy with it, but the deal breaker for it is customer support is lacking. If you want something reliable, and a company that stands behind and supports their product to help you achieve a long service life, then look somewhere else. If you need them to be able to keep the heat on in the cold sub freezing months, or keep cool in the heat of summer, You might want to look somewhere else, otherwise you might have the same luck I'm having with them. NONE! The problems this unit has had are not in themselves major problems. Stuff happens, fix it and get on with life. But you have to be able to fix it to be able to get on with life. With this company, customer support is non-existent. They claim in the advertising to be there for us with parts and technical support, but that doesn't appear to be the case. At the very least they can say why they haven't been able to ship the part they promised (Several times) and help finding an alternative. Both of the other brands I'm familiar with , M, and S (First initials only to prevent censorship) have a much better track record with Customer support. The full story below As mentioned this unit was bought about 3 years ago. It was finally installed several months later. Upon installation it was discovered that the system had no freon. The valves were not tightly closed from the manufacturer. An A/C tech had to be called to check for leaks, evacuate the system and recharge with freon, and for peace of mind an overall check of the system installation. It was determined the system was fine, aside from the lack of freon and that the freon had leaked from the valves not being tightly closed. Inconvenient, but not the end of the world. Didn't even bother the company with it. About a year later the unit shut down and would not work. Tried calling tech support for help with the code displayed, but had no luck. After some time passed decided to shut down the power to the system and reboot to see if that helped. It did. More recently, late October 2023, the outdoor unit started making noise. When the noise got worse it was shut down again. Diagnosing the issue, discovered the fan blade had self destructed. So, emailed the company (Using their website) early November looking for a replacement, they never responded. So next they were called. Nov 13 to be exact. The person took the information, made the order, and said it would be shipped right away and I would have it in 3 to 5 days. Well wouldn't you know it, our low temps reached into the low 20's with highs in the 30's shortly after. These units don't work very well without the fan blowing the air across the coils. Trying to be patient waiting for the part so I can get the heat working again, called them again on 11-27. They apologized for the delay, but gave no reason. They promised that it would ship the next morning. Called again on 12-08, but they were closed. Called again 12-11, they said they would create a new shipping label and ship it out that same day expedited. I would see it very soon. Called again 12-14. The parts department person talked to the shipping manager and said it would be shipped first thing in the morning, 12-15. Called again 12-15 having received no email with tracking info, decided to call and make sure it was sent out. First call they hung up on me. Second call they answered. After putting me on hold for about 5 minutes came back said the shipping department was at lunch (At 4:pm their time), and he would have to find out when they come back from lunch and call me back. Needless to say I was not called back and they are now closed for the day.

My shop is about 460sqft and an old (40's) detached garage and wasn't insulated. In Seattle, this mean I could really only work there for about 3 months in the spring and 3 months in the fall. It also meant my mill, lathe welder and other machinery and my precision measuring tools had to be coated in protectant to stop the flash rust and corrosion from condensation when temp rise quickly from below freezing. I insulated with R13 in my 4in thick walls and then installed the 12k BTU unit. So far this winter I have had the unit set to minimum heat setting (62*) and 'ECO' setting and the temps inside remain above 60*! We didn't see high temps in the fall after I had finished insulating so, I can't tell how it will be in the summer but so far I'm VERY satisfied. Shipping was fast and predictable. The few things I learned: Aside from the fear of messing something up, the instructions are very good. There are also YT videos to show others doing the installs. I tend to overthink so just following instructions and doing a little research helped. It wasn't clear whether a vacuum was required so I bought a cheap vacuum pump and that worked perfectly. Some say you don't need this. I figured better safe than sorry. It also helps detect if I had a leak so, it seemed like cheap insurance. I mounted mine on the wall and when the compressor unit comes on it creates some vibration. I can hear it inside our house but my wife - who can hear rabbits fart in our yard - says she can't hear it so, maybe it's not as bad as I think. I cut my gas lines so they were as short as possible given the placement of the interior and exterior units so moving the exterior unit to the ground will be a bit of a pain but I will do that. I installed the hose/wire cover to pretty up the install a bit. Plan on making a few trips to the hardware store to get conduit and other fittings etc. I'm very particular about the looks of the install (well, my wife is really and I have to meet her standards) so I took a lot of time to integrate the unit into the existing infrastructure and electrical. I wish I'd done this years ago! Easy peasy!

We had been getting by with a portable air conditioner for the past couple summers in our skoolie (converted school bus home) and finally installed the mini split this summer. Obviously install is harder than a portable air conditioner but it takes up no floor space and is so much better at cooling the space than other air conditioners. We've also used the heat function on cold mornings and it seems to work well. Keeps our bus below 80 even when it's 95-100 out with the sun beating down on the metal. We have a full 40ft bus and it effectively cools down the whole thing, but we do have a blower moving the air which helps significantly