O General AC Technologies in India – Review 2024
Heat during the peak summers becomes oppressive. Despite holding out to the heat valiantly, you find yourself reaching for the AC remote. And if your AC is old it’s pretty likely that AC fails to cool as desired. You ponder buying a new AC. If you have friends who have worked in the middle east and ask them for an AC suggestion, they are likely to suggest you for General. So, is going for an General AC a good choice? Will it really satisfy your cooling requirements? What new features do they come with? We will answer all these questions in this article.
General also called Fujitsu General is a Japanese air conditioning brand manufacturing air conditioner with headquarters in Chennai. General provides a complete catalogue of ACs ranging from windows to split, from cassette to ductable satisfying residential and industrial cooling needs alike. Let us now look into the main features and technologies they come with.
Latest General AC Technologies
Hot and Cold
Whenever you hear a word AC, what comes to the mind is an appliance which blows chilled air bringing down the temperature of the enclosed space to comfortably cool levels. But the pioneers of air conditioning systems invented it with an idea of “conditioning” or setting it to a desired/specific temperature. So theoretically ACs should condition the temperature in the winter too as per the user’s need i.e., it should heat the room during the frosty winters. Well, modern premium split inverter ACs from General are capable of implementing that theory (of heating during winters) too. They come with a built-in heater functionality which reverses the air conditioning cycle. This results in the circulation of hot air inside the room. General ACs can cool the room even in the frigid temperature of -15oC.
The best part is that it does not use a heating element like conventional heaters. This means they are not much more energy efficient than the dedicated heaters but also eliminates the risk of low oxygen—a typical problem with the ordinary heaters.
Human Sensor
General ACs come with an embedded human sensor which can figure out how many humans are inside the room for optimal cooling. It catches the movement of the people in the room and when people leave the room it smartly adjusts itself to operate on the lower capacity for energy savings. Similarly, when there is a large assembly of the people inside the room it amps up the performance for maximum cooling.
V-PAM Inverter Technology
As mentioned earlier General offers each and every type of air conditioner. You will find both inverter and non-inverter split air conditioners by General. Inverter is arguably one of the most important technology from an energy saving perspective. That’s because air conditioners are generally the biggest power eating home appliance.
You may ask what inverter technology in the first place is. Well, to be really simple, inverter technology is analogous to the car accelerator. When the compressor needs more power, it gives it more power. When it needs less power, it gives less power. With this technology, the compressor is always on but draws less power or more power depending on the temperature of the incoming air and the level set in the thermostat. The speed and power of the compressor are adjusted appropriately.
General AC models from ASGG series comes with V-PAM inverter compressor that adjusts the frequency as per the ambient atmospheric conditions for comfortable cooling and efficiently managing power consumption. V-PAM stands for vector-controlled pulse amplitude modulation which is a technique to minimize electrical losses. Losses are minimized by improving current waveform into a sinusoidal waveform. V-PAM inverter technology reduces the effect of magnetic flux (flux results in power losses) and enhances the speed of inverter compressor which translates into faster room cooling.
The compressor used in new inverter split AC models by General comes with 2-cylinder rotary compressor which can work even in temperature as high as 52oC.
High-Density Multi-Path Heat Exchanger
For rapid cooling technically faster heat exchange is required. This is exactly done in modern inverter ACs by General as they come with high-density lambda type heat exchanger with multi-path efficiency. They are designed with high performance grooved piping which expedites the heat exchange process.
Easy to Maintain Negative Air Ions Deodorising Filter
Modern General air conditioners come with negative air ion deodorizing filter to deodorize air prior to circulation. This process removes offensive odour which is generally in the negative air ions. Additionally, it also helps in removing minute dust and dirt in the air. This way besides providing comfortable cooling, it also circulates the clean air.
The good thing about this filter is that they are easily removable and also washable. So, you can manually clean the filters, time to time to enhance the longevity of the appliance.
Auto Restart Function and Sleep Function
Power cuts aren’t uncommon in India, especially in small town and villages. With power coming and going not only endangers longevity of electrical appliances but also resets their running settings i.e., supposed you were running your AC on fan-only mode (compressor turned off) but after a power cut, AC’s settings are set back to default and compressor may start working again. Even temperature settings would be altered. But thankfully modern General ACs come with Auto Restart function that keeps a log of running settings before the power cut and after the power cut, it will restore the previous settings back. So now you can sleep peacefully all night without worrying about AC settings getting changed after a power cut.
Pros and Cons of General ACs
Starting with good things first, major strength of General brand is in its versatility. It offers every type of air conditioner—be it that conventional but anachronistic, windows AC, or the efficient inverter split ACs, you will get what you want with General. Even businesses needing centralized ACs have all the choice in the form of ductable, cassette or VRF type cooling setup. General is one of the most used brands in the middle east. And remember the heat in the middle east is pretty harsh and dry. So, it is safe to conclude that General ACs do well in very high temperatures. The cooling speed is also one of the strong points of General ACs as they can cool the room within the span of a few minutes. General ACs are robustly build thanks to the usage of sturdy fins, ABS plastic, fire retardant components, special polyurethane coating on metal parts and hydrophilic coating on heat exchangers.
As for the cons, their service network is not that strong as their market share is less in India. Customers often complain about after sales support. Even installation charges by official technicians is on a higher side. So, owning and maintaining General AC can be a costly affair. Another thing is that General ACs are no more sold on popular e-commerce site. Which means either you go to the General’s official site to buy their AC or visit the nearby store which have General models
Conclusion
General air conditioner has surely got the good qualities with a robust build that makes one of the go-to brands for home cooling. But then this comes at a premium, not just in the buying cost but also in the installation and maintenance. But if you have a deep pocket you can definitely go for this brand as this AC will not disappoint you during the peak summers.
Some Good General ACs:
About the Author:
Hussain Kanchwala is an Electronics Engineer from University of Mumbai. As an Analyst at BijliBachao he keeps a tab on latest technologies in gadgets and appliances, tracks businesses of white goods companies and monitors the consumer behavior. With a background in engineering, penchant for detail, and flair for writing he regularly write reviews about brands and their products. More from this author.
