The LG's are starting to give us grief ... how BAD are they?

[Ireland]

As the title suggests, we are starting to get some of the problems that have been mentioned on here in the past about the LG air-con units.

Most of them can be got going fairly easily but nevertheless they happen and are annoying and costly.

Should we steer clear of them altogether or are they as good as anything else in that price bracket?


I look forward to the replies .....

[The Viking]

Hmm,
Unfortunately so am I unable to answer your question as a truthful answer on an open forum could send me to court and maybe even jail...

[p_p]

Hi Ireland.
Have you spoken to Graham Hendra, LG tech manager, he's very good and also a very nice guy.
What's the problems you are experiencing?

[robin r33 gtr]

I have installed loads of lg equipment over the years and have not being unhappy with anything. I still maintain units i installed 5 years ago and still working perfect. When i first started fitting the units i was a bit unsure. But all has worked fine for me.

what sort of problems are you having ?

[Latte]

Ireland,
2 or 3 years ago i wouldnt go near LG, however in fairness to them they have listened to customer complaints and improved their aftersales service considerably something Daikin could well heed ( Sorry Frank).

I think a lot of the problems were design issues (Pipe elbows splittting) for instance and they have tried to rectify. They are as good as anything else out there in that price range. if you want something fairly basic then they are ok.

Regards

Raymond

[Abe]

Ireland,
2 or 3 years ago i wouldnt go near LG, however in fairness to them they have listened to customer complaints and improved their aftersales service considerably something Daikin could well heed ( Sorry Frank).

I think a lot of the problems were design issues (Pipe elbows splittting) for instance and they have tried to rectify. They are as good as anything else out there in that price range. if you want something fairly basic then they are ok.

Regards

Raymond

I have installed loads of LG kit, my problems really started with their R407 Kit.

Anyway the problems I suffered were:

Leaking valves on the outdoor unit
An outdoor inverter that never worked from new ( Did they not check unit before shipment? )
I wouldnt have felt so agrieved had it not been that the outdoor unit was fitted some levels up requiring scaffolding.

An indoor unit which had a smashed fan, probably damaged by a careless carrier, thrown from a height, so the box and casing showed no damage, only on start up of unit, shock horrow when the flap was opened, to reveal the mess.

Other niggly issues, some outdoors come with fan speed controllers, some dont. I installed 2 10 Kw outdoor units, both identical, one had one didnt, one kept cycling, other ran continuos. :eek:

Mind you, one outdoor ran a cassette, the other ran a wall mount. Still..........Scary. :)

Louvres tend to stop working after about a year or two.

Apart from these I have many installations which are working perfectly after years. The R22 units were superb, the R407 dire. I have very little recent experience of R410 except the Floors mounted systems. The floors I rate highly. All are working really well

Another was the issue of having a minimum of 6 to 7 metres between outdoor and indoor unit. Back to back installations became a problem . I believe this is because LG have no accumulators in them.

It gave me the impression that LG scrimp on controls and not incorporating pressure controls, rather letting sensors do the checks.

Also technical manuals are virtually non existent, or shall I say, "were", Im not sure now, maybe situations changed.

But on the units I suffered problems, I lost money, and the compensation was derisory from Distributor.

I dont mean to be critical of LG. just constructive. Im not rubbishing the product. I realise they are endeavouring to improve their quality issues, and I hope that I am assisting by bringing these up. In fact if I recollect correctly, the UK Technical Manager has mentioned that he welcomes reports of problems that engineers have been experiencing.

Maybe other members can relate their experiences if relevant.

[Makeit go Right]

We are starting to get some of the problems that have been mentioned on here in the past about the LG air-con units. They are annoying and costly. Should we steer clear of them altogether or are they as good as anything else in that price bracket?

A key question you have to ask is, if repairs are needed during the warranty period, will the distributor provide the spares quickly AND pay some kind of reasonable labour allowance? The labour allowance, at least, remains an issue.

While that answer remains a costly/annoying no, you will have to add on contingency sums to insure against problems with the kit – some kit more troublesome than others (higher contingency). That will normally bring your estimate/costs up to the prices of the middle range equipment, in which case, you might as ell just go with the better equipment in the first place.

If you loose the order with that higher price, you can often pick up the maintenance after a year - after the installer has had all the potential problems, and wound up the customer with the call-backs. Plus, future installs from that customer.

[Ireland]

We have had a few units going out with either error 5 or 24 on them (communication error or pressure issues respectively).

We just have a couple of jobs coming up which could involve up to 50 units being installed and I'm a bit nervous of the potential problems down the line if they all start to act up.

[paul_h]

I have installed loads of LG kit, my problems really started with their R407 Kit.

Anyway the problems I suffered were:

Leaking valves on the outdoor unit
An outdoor inverter that never worked from new ( Did they not check unit before shipment? )
I wouldnt have felt so agrieved had it not been that the outdoor unit was fitted some levels up requiring scaffolding.

An indoor unit which had a smashed fan, probably damaged by a careless carrier, thrown from a height, so the box and casing showed no damage, only on start up of unit, shock horrow when the flap was opened, to reveal the mess.

Other niggly issues, some outdoors come with fan speed controllers, some dont. I installed 2 10 Kw outdoor units, both identical, one had one didnt, one kept cycling, other ran continuos. :eek:

Mind you, one outdoor ran a cassette, the other ran a wall mount. Still..........Scary. :)

Louvres tend to stop working after about a year or two.

Apart from these I have many installations which are working perfectly after years. The R22 units were superb, the R407 dire. I have very little recent experience of R410 except the Floors mounted systems. The floors I rate highly. All are working really well

Another was the issue of having a minimum of 6 to 7 metres between outdoor and indoor unit. Back to back installations became a problem . I believe this is because LG have no accumulators in them.

It gave me the impression that LG scrimp on controls and not incorporating pressure controls, rather letting sensors do the checks.

Also technical manuals are virtually non existent, or shall I say, "were", Im not sure now, maybe situations changed.

But on the units I suffered problems, I lost money, and the compensation was derisory from Distributor.

I dont mean to be critical of LG. just constructive. Im not rubbishing the product. I realise they are endeavouring to improve their quality issues, and I hope that I am assisting by bringing these up. In fact if I recollect correctly, the UK Technical Manager has mentioned that he welcomes reports of problems that engineers have been experiencing.

Maybe other members can relate their experiences if relevant.I do warranty repairs for heaps of major brands in australia, and I've had problems like them in those brands too.
Mind you, they sell millions of them so it's bound to happen to some of them.

One brand made in thailand has a minimum pipe run of 3m. That's not because there's no acumulator, it's because they are precharged for 7m, and having a short pipe run means high head pressures in heating mode, and an audible gas surge when cycling on/off from the indoor unit.
One brand made in malaysia nearly always breaks the indoor louvre, either the louvres are weak or the motor puts out too much torque. That same brand nearly always fries the cond fan relay, causing it to run continously.
Heaps of dented and bashed panels occur every year as well on both brands.

edit: Interesting to read that you have to deal with faults, here in australia the manufacturers pay a contractor to sort it out. The company I work for is one such contractor. We don't sell or install, we just get called by the installer or customer go to troublesome units, repair them and send the bill to the manufacturer.
In my opinion it breeds lazy/bad installers though, so many jobs I've been called to is just the installer not wiring or piping it up right.

[Andy W]

My problems were too many to list, LG did not want to know, their distributors told me to stand the costs my self and I have never received a single penny for any repair I have ever carried out to one of my installations, Shorts Environmental are the worse distributor on the planet, and I stand by that statement.

The last 18 months I have fitted all Fujitsu and only went back to one where I over tightened a flare, I purchased a torque spanner to prevent that from happening again.

[Ireland]

Yeah, we are stuck between a rock and a hard place at the moment as to what to do going forward.

What other options are there, though?

We do a lot of our work for builders, etc who just want to provide air-con as cheaply as possible.

If we don't use the "budget" units then someone else will.

At the moment we are having to compromise on quality at times to get the jobs but that is just the nature of the business I suppose.

Decisions, decisions .....

[Andy W]

If we don't use the "budget" units then someone else will.

At the moment we are having to compromise on quality at times to get the jobs but that is just the nature of the business I suppose.

Decisions, decisions .....I would sooner cut my profit margin and fit something hald decent.

[paul_h]

I agree, either move to australia, where it's no longer a problem because installers don't have to deal with manufacturers faults. Or install stuff that you think will save you hassle and money in the future.
I couldn't live with the fact that I was installing second rate stuff, even more the fact that it was my responsibilty that it worked, even though I didn't design or manufacture it.
I'm not an installer though so my viewpoint's different.
What type of units do you install, conventional or inverters?

[Ireland]

What type of units do you install, conventional or inverters?

Normally we'd install inverters.