If you ever want to go in for a Split A\C, pls take care to avoid the Onida 1.5 ton split. Not that it’s performance is bad, its cooling power is awesome.................that is as long as the unit actually ’works’.
Onida has tied up with Hitachi for its outdoor unit (ODU), which means the compressor is highly effective. It is the indoor unit that gives you a hell lot of problems.
They have advertised ’L’ & ’C’ bend coils in their indoor units with the same problem........water leakage.
Water leakage, heavy fan noise (imagine that in a split A\C), electronic timer problem...........u name a problem and you have it in the Onida Split A\c.
Now comes the funniest part, after making a lot of noise the unit stopped one day after one year ,
The noise, presumably was from the fan in the indoor unit.I called up the technicians (artic business corp, Chennai) and they promptly took away my fan motor saying that they would replace it.
I waited, waited ...........and waited giving calls now and then.........3 weeks went by. Whenever I called in they would say that spare parts is not availabe in Onida company itself.
A manufacturing company which does not produce enough spare parts!
Finally I made the fellow give back my old motor and went to A\C fitter. He worked on the motor and rectifed the problem (he didnt even mention about replacing!) and got it working fine.
1 month went by.......the unit stopped working again.Called the new fitter and he said there was problem with board.Got that rectifed....took a week to do that.
Cost of the unit : Rs.22, 000 -
Total cost of repair: Rs.3000 -
Repair frequecy: within 1 year of purchase
So, to put it simply u can go in for a higher end brand ending up paying more for once than going through this harrowing experience with a lower priced brand which does not even produce enough spare parts.