It’s often taken for granted, but we all rely on air conditioning heavily. It’s one of the key components for temperature regulation in homes, commercial buildings, industrial environments, and every other form of structure we find ourselves in daily.
In your home, your air conditioner might be an ambient tool chugging along in the background, but it affects your ability to do everything from escaping the heat to simply enjoying your downtime with family after a long day of work. If it’s not up to snuff, your quality of life will plummet.
So, it’s a good idea to get the best air conditioning system possible. Not taking the cheap route or grabbing whichever random model you can find will help ensure that you have a reliable unit that works as intended; when you need it to.
This can be a little difficult to do since there are countless brands available, and each brand has tons of different models that vary in quality.
To help you find the best air conditioning unit to meet your needs, we’ve put together this list of the top 5 air conditioner brands with info on each one to help you make the right choice.
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Why Go for the Best Air Conditioner Possible?
We won’t lie. Air conditioners aren’t cheap, and it’s often tempting to go with the lowest-priced unit available just to save a couple of hundred bucks.
However, it’s best to set aside a good budget and make your purchase based on specs and the general characteristics each brand offers. Then, do the same when looking through a brand’s product line.
If you take the cheap route, which isn’t very cheap at all in the first place, you’ll likely experience issues such as repair and maintenance problems, inefficient energy usage, or downright poor performance.
So, try to take the general price ranges we provide with a grain of salt and focus on the unique traits each brand offers. The initial savings you get from the cheapest options usually aren’t worth it.
Top 5 Air Conditioner Brands
1. Daikin
Daikin has been a staple of the air conditioning manufacturing industry since 1924, and there’s a good reason for it. The Japan-based brand has consistently put out the most reliable air conditioners on the market.
Daikin air conditioners are known for their long lifespans, exceptional performance, and lower need for maintenance or repairs. The brand is so reliable in terms of quality and performance that it’s the top pick for HVAC companies across the globe, and thanks to the company’s international business model, you can pick one up pretty much anywhere.
However, that unbeatable quality comes at a fairly high price tag. Granted, you’ll save money, in the long run, thanks to the years, or even decades, of reliable service you’ll enjoy.
Remember, it costs quite a bit to have a repair technician come out to your house. Units that don’t require that service often are typically going to pay for themselves fairly quickly when compared to cheaper options that lack quality.
The brand isn’t known for adding gimmicky features. With Daikin, you get a highly-reliable product based on proven design elements.
2. Fujitsu
The Fujitsu brand of air conditioners is known for its massive selection of varied designs, and this is the brand’s greatest strength. Since there are tons of varied options to choose from, you can likely find an air conditioner that is perfectly suited to your home in the Fujitsu lineup.
Want a simple wall-mounted AC for a single room? Fujitsu has several models to choose from. Need a mini-split system to cover a small, two-bedroom house? They have that, too. You can even find complex ducted systems that can cool the largest homes on the market.
More importantly, the vast majority of Fujitsu’s products are known to be made with high-quality standards in mind. The reliability and longevity are right up there with Daikin too.
However, there is one shortcoming to the large selection Fujitsu provides: You may get overwhelmed. There are so many options available that, if you don’t understand your needs or get a professional’s help, you may get something that simply doesn’t match your needs.
In terms of price, this is towards the higher end of the spectrum.
3. Rheem
Rheem is a widely popular brand in North America, but it can also be found in international markets. The brand is known for having a great selection of products across a range of performance levels.
This means that, if you’re a bit low on cash but need air conditioning fast, there are low-cost options available. However, for bigger spenders, Rheem also offers a variety of fancy units with a myriad of features.
Rheem also tries to innovate its designs a bit. Notably, the brand has started adding its signature eco-friendly energy-saving technology to many of its higher-end products and mid-range options. This can help you lower your energy bill while reducing your carbon footprint, and it fits in perfectly with today’s push for green energy.
In terms of quality, Rheem is on par with other brands, but you should expect to get what you pay for. With their highly discounted models, you’re not going to get the reliability and performance of a Daikin or similarly priced product. Expecting such is unreasonable.
With that being said, any of Rheem’s models should keep your home sufficiently cooled for years to come if treated properly.
4. Carrier
Carrier is the “every man’s” air conditioner brand. Their products are priced around the mid-range mark, and they have 18 models available to cover pretty much any living environment you need to cool.
The brand is also the HVAC industry’s second most recommended brand in North America, and it’s highly regarded in other regions, too.
What you get here is a standard product with an average buy-in price, and you don’t have to worry about the brand not having a model suitable for your needs. Although, you will want to get a professional’s opinion before picking one of their 18 models. They’re vastly different and not designed to be one-size-fits-all solutions.
However, there is one caveat you should consider. Despite Carrier being highly regarded, it has had some issues with reliability.
Some of its models typically need repairs or maintenance much sooner than other industry staples, and that can quickly make its standard pricing less attractive in the long term. After all, Rheem offers budget-friendly units if you’re not worried about the long-term.
For this reason, we highly recommend only purchasing a Carrier AC if you’ve had a professional recommend it. True professionals will know which models to stay away from and which ones will give you your money’s worth.
5. Actron
Actron is an Australian-made brand, and it has a few unique traits that make it stand out. First, most of its models are fairly standard when it comes to price, but they offer exceptional sound quality.
An Actron air conditioner won’t sound like a Boeing 757 is flying over your house the entire time it’s running. In fact, you probably won’t even know it’s on. This is a trait of all of Actron’s air conditioning model’s and it’s one of the reasons the brand is so popular.
However, the Actron ESP series is what you should be looking at. The ESP series is designed with energy efficiency in mind, and very few air conditioners on the market can beat it at reducing your energy bill and carbon footprint. Even better, the ESP series doesn’t leave the standard price range the brand is known for.
Reliability is also on par with the industry’s top brands. While no brand is known for matching Daikin, Actron is comparable with Fujitsu, Mitsubishi, and other standard brands, but none of the Actron models suffer from the issues present in some Carrier models.
Get a Professional’s Help
Don’t look at this list and settle on a brand. Your home is unique, and it will take an AC with the right specs and capabilities to cool it properly. For the best AC uni to suit your needs it is advisable to contact your local HVAC specialist, give them a general idea of your home’s layout and size, and see what they recommend. But at least now you have some quality knowledge to go into the conversation with.