There are probably three things. I wish I knew about mini splits before
I installed mine and I wanna share those with you today. The first thing I
wanna share is a little more universal, but basically it's how much quieter
they are and how much faster they are, especially when compared to the
window unit that I used to have here. In my shop I've had this 84 pound beast
blocking half of my view and hanging its butt out the window since the time
I built this shop and I've used this as my sole source of heating and air
conditioning for this particular building here, and it's done an okay job,
but it's slow to heat things up. It's slow to cool things
down and it is just loud. So these are all things that
I haven't enjoyed about that. Not to mention there's a danger
factor, at least for my situation. Every time I mowed the lawn, I'd have to watch my head for that
corner and the edge of that thing, hanging out the side of the wall
here. And it was always dangerous. I have smacked my head on that thing
several times. Believe it or not, I've even cut myself because
that thing is just so in the way. So I'm glad to have that out of my life. And ever since installing the mini split,
I've noticed a few things. Number one, I have my view back. So half my
window, isn't missing over here, which is a definite
good thing. Number two, it is so much quieter because that was
an all in one unit and everything was right there you hear the fans, you hear the noise and it's
distracting and it's loud. I end up filming in here quite a bit. So I actually had to turn
that off while I filmed, which would make me
extra cool or extra hot, and then I'd have to stop the camera and
then turn the thing back on and hope it could heat up, but it still couldn't catch up quite as
fast as a mini split can with the mini split, your fan is separate,
your condenser is outside. And so you're not hearing that. The other nice and convenient thing about
the mini splits is that they're up and they're out of the way. Now I'm not
trying to make this a sales pitch. I'm just trying to tell you kind of the
night and day difference we've seen when installing a mini split versus a
window unit. The same thing applies. We've tried heaters, the little mobile heaters that you can
put around as well as the little mobile air conditioning units. And they are loud. They're in the way they're inconvenient. So the mini split has been a big
win in all those aspects. Now, the second thing I think everyone should
know about is that there are a lot of advertisements for this. Mr.
Cool Third gen DIY mini split. It's a pretty awesome product. Um, there's a few main differences between
a product like that and it's competition of comparable specs. Now, one of the biggest things besides those
three is the price. So for example, I ended up going with a unit called
Tosot and for the 12,000 BTU 220 V unit, that one costs $920. If you get the comparable
one from Mr. Cool, that's gonna run you $1,500. So
what's the difference in 580 bucks? Why is it so much more? Well, there's three things that I was able
to find the first one and probably most important is that the Mr cool has what
are called pre-charged lines or the line sets that connect your indoor unit
to your outdoor unit are pre-charged. You don't have to vacuum pump
them. And that's very convenient. It's a nice thing. And I think that's
a lot of what gives it, the DIY title. Now, the fact is when I did some research, you can actually buy a vacuum pump and
the gauges and everything you need to do this yourself in under 30 minutes for
130 bucks. I mean, that's pretty crazy. So 130 bucks for the biggest
factor of that price difference. I'll put links in the description
below to what that looks like. Now. I actually made a video that you can
check out that shows exactly how I went through this process and it walks
you through every bit of it. So if you're interested in
seeing what's involved in that, you can see that video up here. Now, the second thing that's different is that
those lines have what are called quick connect connections. And
that is also very convenient. It's a really nice thing basical, instead of using two adjustable
wrenches to connect your lines, you just do kind of a slip on quick
connect thing and you're sealed up and you're good to go again, very convenient, but it's gonna save you
literally a few minutes maybe, and not to me worth that extra price. The third big difference is
WiFi or smart capability, basically with a Mr. Cool, it's got
WiFi built in, which I think is awesome. That is a great feature to have, and
that's something I wanted for mine. And it didn't come with wifi until I
discovered that you can get something like this. This is called the Sensibo
Sky. It runs about a hundred bucks. I just got mine the other day with a
coupon 15 bucks off. So $85 for this, and this gives me full control. I can
use my, I Alexa, my Google, my Siri, any of those. And basically I
can control the temperature. I can turn it on or off. I can set
it to a consistent temperature. I can tell the shop basically out here
where I'm at to warm up or cool down before I come out, Alexa. Set, woodshop AC to 68 degrees. The heat set to 68. Any of those sorts of things for a
little add on like this. Very cool. So what it comes down to is you're paying
$580 more for these three differences, but I just don't think they're worth
580 bucks. If I can basically pay, let's say, you know, 230 bucks at
most for those three differences, then I get to keep that other 350
and that's money in my pocket. So I'm definitely gonna go with something
a little more affordable and take care of those things myself. Now, the third thing I think a lot of people
don't realize before getting a mini split is that there is a lot of
electrical work involved in doing this. This is not something that you can
just plug into the wall. For example, a lot of window units I know
you can actually just plug
into a standard 110 volt outlet. That is not the case here. Even my window unit that I've
been using this whole time, I actually bought it while I was building
this shop so that I could run a 220 volt wire, which is what it required
and do the specific outlet
that it needed and put that in the shop so I could plug it in don't
how much use I'm gonna have for that 220 volt, cuz it's got a kind of a
funky plug, but I've got that plug. If I want to try something else with it. And I needed that to run
that size of a window unit. The mini split is kind of like
a central air sort of thing, but it's a ductless mini split. I mean, you do have to have a lot of the same
features that you have on a full size air conditioning system, because it's
a fairly large and capable unit. There are a few caveats with that. And number one is by code in the
United States, you need to have, what's called an AC disconnect,
hooked up to your condenser. Basically your condenser is that outside
fan part that controls everything and pumps the air in, cools it
down, heats it up, all of that. And near that within a few feet of
that, you need to have a switch, basically a big AC disconnect where if
a service technician comes to your place to work on it, he can just turn that off. Whether it's a flip off or you
pull a plug, remove a fuse, whatever the case may be, and these
are cheap, they cost like 13 bucks, but that has to be there. That's
electrical work that someone has to do. In addition, you're almost definitely gonna have to
run a new circuit breaker in your circuit breaker panel and then run that with the
appropriate sized Romex cable to that AC disconnect. And then you use what's called a whip
to connect your AC disconnect to your condenser. Now, if this all sounds totally
overwhelming, that's understandable. And again, in my other walkthrough video,
I'll show you all the steps for that. You can check that out, but there's
a lot of electrical work. Now, the cost for all of that electrical
stuff that I mentioned by the way is not very much it's anywhere between 50
to 150 us dollars depending on your setup. And most of that depends on how close
your circuit breaker panel is to your condenser. And what's in between. Now, this is not something that's specific
to any one type of mini split. This is all mini splits.
Even if they're a 110 volt, 9,000 BTU, the smallest units
that you can typically get, you still need to do all
the same amount of work. It's just a code requirement in order
to do this, you can't plug them in. There's no wall outlet that you're
gonna be able to throw that. And you're not supposed to be able to do
that at least within the United States, in other countries, that may be
an option, but certainly not here. So you'll want to check with your local
code to see what's involved with that and maybe check out that other video
to see if it makes sense for you and if you're comfortable doing all that. So
with all those three things mentioned, I have to say that having installed
the mini split, I love it. And I would do it again in a
heartbeat. All of those steps, they may seem kind of overwhelming, but there's a few things that I just
wanted you to know about before you get into a mini split and see
that you can do it yourself. You just have to be aware of
what you're getting into. Now, as I mentioned before, I'll put links to all of the products
that I've mentioned here and all of the things we've talked
about in the description. If you do wanna look for a unit that
I've trusted and that I've been using and enjoying I'm using what's called Tosot, and you can actually get a much better
deal by buying from their website and they'll still ship free
anywhere in the United States, but that's a lot cheaper
price than buying on Amazon. So check out those links
if you're interested. And if you have questions
about installing a mini split, leave those in the comments below and
I'll do my best to help out there. I'm Nils with LRN2DIY,
thanks for watching.
