Air Conditioner Btu 2 Unit

Since its founding in 1883 Friedrich Air Conditioning Co has had one manufacturing standard - quality without compromise Over the years the companys products have changed but the commitment to quality has endured Today the fundamental direction of Fr...

Amazon Sales Rank: #47900 in Home Brand: Friedrich Dimensions: 15.94" h x 25.94" w x 29.00" l, 114.00 pounds LCD remote control BTU Cooling 11600 EER 8.8 Cooling Amps 11.5 Net Weight 86 lbs

Most helpful customer reviews 19 of 20 people found the following review helpful. Mediocre Initial Impression (2.5 stars) By obmot **UPDATE** I have now provided an update below to my "first take" review... **UPDATE 2011** see bottom of this initial review... I just had a Friedrich Kuhl SS12M10 installed in my NYC co-op apartment. Since it is a brand new install, this is my "first take" or "very preliminary" review which I may update in the future. I hope you find it helpful. My apartment is a 7th floor 500sq/ft co-op in Manhattan. I had a Kenmore 10,000 BTU window unit (75010) which worked great but was not programmable, and on 95 degree+ days, didn't seem to have enough 'oomph' to cool the 500 sq/ft adequately. So I opted to get a bigger unit, 12,000 BTU, which is programmable. Hence, I settled on the Friedrich Kuhl SS12M10. Because I live in a co-op, we are not allowed to install our own window units for liability reasons (i.e., dropping onto the sidewalk below). Hence I had an HVAC contractor deliver and "install" (cough) a new SS12M10 unit. Suffice it to say, it was quite an ordeal as the contractor was extremely disorganized/forgetful etc. The 2 people he sent to install it were two 20-somethings with little more than a sawzall and duct tape for a "custom framed install" (which cost me $600). What a joke. And they showed up 5 hours late just as a bonus. But the 1-star contractor has nothing to do with the unit/Friedrich. I just miss the days when people knew what they were doing (i.e., a quality job) and didn't do a half assed job for twice the money. Anyway... Of note is that almost all of the new Kuhl's the contractor has been receiving have been damaged or have a defective control panel backup battery (CR2450). He finally found one unit that wasn't damaged (dented/cracked, etc.) but that had a bad battery. I accepted that unit for the install. n After the "custom framed installation" (another big hacking cough) I got to see how the unit performed (it was 92 degrees out). By this point, my apartment was up to 85.5 degrees inside. First, I had to go to radio shack and get a new CR2450 backup battery, which was easy enough to install. I started up the unit, and frankly, was not overwhelmed with its performance. Rather the opposite; the new refrigerant certainly doesn't seem to push out air as cold as my 5-year old R-22 Kenmore unit. Also, even on high setting, the fan doesnt really push out a lot of air or "throw" it very far into the room (2-3 feet on high setting). Accordingly, whereas my Kenmore 10,000 unit would cool my apartment from 85 to 78 in about 45 minutes on medium, yesterday it took the Kuhl 12,000 BTU unit a full 3-4 hours on max setting. Very disappointing - but as a `high efficiency' unit, perhaps not shocking. The programmable timer is nice, although I have noted two things. First, what the unit thinks is 78 degrees is really 80/81 degrees per the digital thermometer I own and have used for years. Second, in full "auto" mode (i.e., the unit selects fan speed), the fan never goes higher than two-bars, "medium" (out of low, med, high, and max). Thus, due to the temperature sway, if the unit shuts off after (finally) reaching 78 degrees, and the apartment quickly goes back up to 81 - the unit turns on again but with the fan only on low or medium, and thus it takes a good 45-60 minutes to get back down to 78. I will say, on the plus side, the unit appears to be quite good at removing humidity from the room. In terms of noise production it seems to be the same as, or a bit louder, than my Kenmore 75010. I would say it is typical window unit with fan noise + compressor noise when running. However, for a 'premium' unit, it would have been nice if Friedrich had 'rubberized' the top outside of the case so that you don't have to hear the constant PLECK PLECK PLECK PLECK of water dripping onto it from the dozens of window units in apartments on the 13 floors above me. It's odd how their promotional materials