Customer Reviews

Panasonic Standard Air Conditioner, 7,800 Btu

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

We have owned and operated two of these units for one summer season, one in our bedroom and one in our kitchen. They replaced 15 year old A/C's. Both new units are semi-permanently wall-mounted. The units are amazingly quiet - I can finally sleep with A/C (previous A/C's were too noisy). It quickly removes excessive heat from the kitchen, even when cooking at suppertime, the hottest part of the day. The thermostatic control works very well and given the small size of the unit, it cools the air very quickly and keeps it uniformly at the set temperature. This unit is nicely sized to cool one, average-sized room. Units were professionally installed so I cannot comment on the ease of installation.

All of the reviews I read about this machine before I bought it said it was quiet and efficient. They were spot on.

I had one installed in our master bedroom (through the wall, not the window frame), and it's been a joy. Hot afternoon naps are a pleasure because it cools this upstairs room down to 70 degrees with no problems, and is extremely quiet. It's so nice my wife got one for her upstairs sewing room that faces west. She loves it too.

I don't know about long-range durability, because there are quite a few plastic parts, but the units should last at least five summers, and the low cost won't prevent me from buying another if need be!

I personally haven't had many problems with Japanese products.

Everything about this A/C is first class. I love the remote control. The only exception is the limited spread of air. It has a circulating vent but the range is only about 45º. So it must be located where that is less of a problem.

Very good A/C for the money. My room is about 250 sq/ft, and it not only cooled off my room, but if I opened my door, everywhere else downstairs too.

First, to end a mystery: Amazon doesn't tell you, but this is the model CW-XC83HU. That model number does not appear on this page, or on your invoice if you buy one. Why not?

I bought one of these in mid-summer, attracted by the price and thinking that I might pop this into a window during particularly hot days. What a rude shock it was to open the box and, right off the bat, find it almost impossible to lift the unit from the box.

Apparently considering "through the wall" installation the default, Panasonic ships it with absolutely nothing attached to the exterior case. Not one piece of mounting hardware for a window installation is attached. This gives very little to grab onto while lifting the unit, and makes it virtually impossible to test for cooling ability.

I managed to get mine propped into a window, trusting gravity and the friction of the window sash to keep it in place, and stuffing cardboard in the gap next to it. Running at the maximum, it did not seem to be providing as much cooling as the rating suggests. Luckily I did not get as far as trying to clean the filters or any of the other issues faced by other reviewers, else I might have broken parts to deal with as well.

While waiting for it to cool me off, I checked the installation instructions, and saw the amount of labor involved. Seems to me that you better be darn sure you want this unit to be in a window for a while, before you start the process. It's never fun to move an air conditioner, but at least some units come with window mounting hardware attached, leaving only a few steps for the customer to complete.

I assume that most small air conditioners in the USA are mounted in windows, which is why it seems annoying to put the customer through the extra work -- as if we are actually completing the last two or three steps in the unit's construction. The extra work makes the "low" price seem suddenly higher.

For the coup de grace -- Panasonic features a rebate form on its website, and supposedly I should qualify for a rebate for this unit based on my purchase date and so on. But Amazon does not put the Panasonic model number on its invoice OR its shipping form! So how do you prove to Panasonic that you bought one?

I tried calling the number on the rebate form, and got channeled to a guy who could not help me without a promotional code of some kind. So I called Panasonic and waited 15 minutes on hold, only to reach somebody in the appliances division who moved at a snail's pace with every question. Could she check the serial number against that model number? Yes, but that simple question had me on hold for another ten minutes. The rep seemed trained to respond to every question with the phrase "I don't know what you mean."

As I write this, I don't know if I will bother trying to rush out to the post office with this rebate form, since my other paperwork from Amazon does not seem to meet the criteria required for the rebate. All I know is, Panasonic and Amazon have teamed up to waste a big chunk of my time, and to make me very frustrated. It almost doesn't matter if this air conditioner actually cools air. My experience with it so far has been a drag, and even if it works great, I will feel that I have only reached breakeven.

I finally installed the thing afer jumping through quite a number of hoops. Although the size of my room requires 5500 btu, this unit (supposedly 7800 btu) cannot keep it cold.

On a smaller note, here is one more present from geniuses of engineering at Panasonic. To take out the air filter on the unit you need to lift the grill, which you are supposed to do every week to clean the filter. First time i did it, i broke the plastic tab that keeps it on the cabinet, so the grill is hanging loose now. Whole thing is made out of flimsy plastic and generally have design and robustness of a small plastic plane model. Another part that breaks immediately is some flimsy thing they call frame guide. Whorever designed it should go back to Japanese prison where he must have taken his engineering classes.

I bought this one on the consumer reports recommendation and i am pretty dissappointed so far. I haven't run this unit yet, so i don't know how it really works. What i could tell though is that it's tough to install. One of the problems is it is supposed to support itself by two massive bolts. But guess what, these bolts are too short for my sill, so i am running around hardware stores looking for bolts that'll fit.

All construction of AC is incredibly flimsy -- there are small plastic details all over that my cat could break if she wags her tail. I would discourage anyone from buying this one. Panasonic should stick with electronics.