Upgrades are important..it prolongs the aircon life. Workman ship can only do that much. If the material use not best means, it just means more servicing next time.
Workmanship is the most important factor for aircon installation.
A lot of the complains here and elsewhere are due to workmanship issues and not material. Unless the company has no reputation, unlikely they'll cheap out on materials and use something lower spec than the stated requirement. I'd say some companies even like to push higher spec materials just as a way to earn more margin, but they know it doesn't have any real world benefit to the consumer
There's a lot of things in workmanship that can go wrong.
1 example - for new installation, is the complete refrigerant pipe network under full vacuum for at least 30 minutes to one hour to remove all moisture in the refrigerant line? The smallest amount of moisture in the line will significantly cripple the cooling ability.
Some installers may do the vacuum step, but not with a good, well maintained vacuum pump that can actually achieve true vacuum.
Or they just do a quick 5 minute job, and the moisture is not completely evacuated out from the line. This vacuum step is compulsory and actually taught to trained Mitsubishi aircon techs.
Second example.. is the insulation material securely and tightly wrapped around the pipes to ensure complete, 360 degree coverage? If it's loose then there will be condensation and eventually water starts leaking out of the trunking.
The list goes on... I would say when aircon shopping, never only look at on-paper specs, but reputation of the company. A lot of companies are low priced for a reason - a bad reason.
