Senville LETO Series Mini Split Air Conditioner Heat Pump, 9000 BTU 208/230V, Inverter, Works with Alexa, 0.75 Ton, White

I started looking up different brands for a mini split unit to replace my decades old unit in a second story condo. My contractor recommended a couple brands as well, and Senville was one of them. I ended up choosing Senville primarily because of the WiFi connectivity even though there were some issues in the Amazon reviews about that. Secondarily it advertised a better than average SEER efficiency rating. The reason I valued the connectivity over efficiency is that the room I was installing this unit in is very small and the ability to control the AC and Heating away from home would allow me to minimize the time the unit was running anyway.Senville arranges shipping separately from Amazon. It was a bit strange being contacted by a third party to arrange the shipping, but they were able to supply information from the order upfront at the beginning of the call and didn't ask for personal identifying information besides contact info and address to ship to. The unit actually shipped within a week, which was shorter than the original shipping time estimate.I had my contractor install the unit and thankfully the basic 16ft lineset that came with the unit was sufficient. I wouldn't have minded upgrading to the 25ft lineset if needed, and it was advertised clearly on the Senville website anyway. The remote to the unit worked easily. The unit blows air smoothly to the other side of the room (almost 20ft away!), which I wasn't expecting. It's also quiet, around the same volume as my ceiling fan, which is quiet even on the high setting. I don't intend to run the unit much, or during hours when I would notice the volume much, but it still feels good that it meets this benchmark. Haven't run it long enough to confirm the SEER rating of 21, but given the quality of operation otherwise I have a lot of confidence that it will meet that rating.The final hiccup occurred when I tried to get the unit connected to the Senville app. After following the instructions a few times I called the customer service line. I found out that the USB dongle that comes with the unit to give it internet connectivity actually comes in two varieties: one for connecting specifically to the Alexa app only, and a different one for connecting to the Senville app on iOS or Android. Unfortunately the listing on Amazon for this mini split was ambiguous (to me, anyway) about there being different USB dongles and my order came with the wrong one.When I explained the situation to the customer service representative he offered to send me the correct dongle for free. The whole process contacting customer service probably only took 15 mins, from looking up the contact info on Amazon all the way through getting an email confirmation about the new dongle being shipped.This experience gets five stars from me for the overall high quality operation of the unit, the unit meeting my design needs, and Senville's easy customer service handling a small issue quickly and painlessly.

There were a couple of issues that happened with my order. One was that the outdoor unit did not work. Long story short there was no refrigerant in it. I got in touch with customer service and after listening to me they promptly sent in another outdoor unit which arrived after several days. After that one was hooked up everything was working well. Cools and heats the room that it's installed in very well. I could control the unit with the remote but I could never get the Wi-fi to work. Apparently the Wi-fi dongle was missing. I reached out to customer service again and they sent a new Wi-fi dongle. After that got installed I was able to connect this with Wi-fi and then control it through my phone.So far so good. The unit is working very well. I guess sometimes you just get a lemon but the company made everything right. I would not hesitate to order another unit from them given the fact that they stand by their product.

This is a great, high-quality product that functions well. I thoroughly recommend the Senville for quality and performance.The install is a difficult level DIY and should only be attempted after proper research and with proper tools.Physically installing the units is easy. Wiring the units is not difficult but is time consuming, especially accounting for running a dedicated 20A electrical circuit.Line set installation is more involved. I chose to hang the inside unit before attaching the line set because of how I chose to run the refrigerant piping inside the room and then straight through the wall to the outside unit. I made my own wall pass-through sleeve from 3" pvc to give a little more working space. The included sleeve is very thin and flimsy. Line set flare nuts MUST be torqued to spec. I had one nut that failed and had to remove, replace with an included extra, and reflare the connection when I found the leak during the first pressure test. I shortened the refrigerant piping at the outside unit to fit with no looping of pipes. I used an eccentric flaring tool to remake the connection after shortening.Next step of pressure testing with nitrogen MUST NOT BE OMITTED. You will need a HVAC charging manifold, special fittings, a micron vacuum gauge, HVAC leak test soap, a compressed nitrogen tank and regulator, and a vacuum pump. A competent pro installer will do this--but many HVAC techs skip the pressure test step.I pressure tested and found the bad flare nut leak, repaired it, and pressure tested again to 300psi nitrogen. This forces most air and water out of the lines. I left the lines on pressure, applied leak test soap and left the set up for over 1 hour. There was absolutely no leakage according to the HVAC manifold gauge.After pressure testing, a vacuum test was performed using a micron vacuum gauge to make sure all nitrogen, air and water vapor was removed from the lines. You will need special fittings as mentioned, to insure that the lines remain isolated from the pump after evacuating. I vacuumed down to 220microns and let it sit for 30+ minutes. The gauge remained well below 300 microns. (the standard is to remain below 500 microns). This step double checks for leakage and confirms removal of all gasses and water before releasing the factory charge into the system. Next, isolate the gauge from the system using the special fittings, and release the refrigerant charge from the compressor into the system. After a final check for leaks after removing all gauges and fittings, the system was ready to power up and test run.Note: the flare nuts are crudely shaped on the outside (seem to be cast, rather than machined) so normal open ended wrenches do not fit them well. You will have to use adjustable wrenches to adjust them when installing. Using a torque wrench on those flare nuts is difficult because of the non-standard finish and sizing. A $175 adjustable wrench head HVAC torque wrench (made by Yellow Jacket) would really assist here, but I had a standard torque wrench with crow's foot wrench adapters. I made it work... but that's not an easy way to do it. I doubt many techs carry the special torque wrench and will just do the flare nuts by feel based on experience.The test run of the unit revealed no leaks, so I wrapped up the line set at the connection points and finished the install. I used a line set cover flashing to protect the lines where they emerged from the outside wall. Zip ties where needed to secure the wrapping tape. Big HVAC type zip ties screwed to the wall to mount the indoor line set in permanent fashion. double checked the drain line was working properly without restriction by pouring water in the top of the inside unit and verifying full drainage. I left the primary drain line joint uncovered inside so I could have access if there was ever a blockage.The unit heats wonderfully, cooling is great, too, but I will have to confirm how that works on a really hot day this summer. You will have to run the cooling check on manual cool override if temperature is below 62º outside (it was cool here on the test day). The air output on cooling feels ice-cold.Spend the time and money to install it correctly and the Senville will serve you well, I think. If you are not comfortable doing it DIY, then hire a good installer.You will not have factory warranty without a professional installer according to Senville. I chose DIY anyway after researching the process and finding than some installers skip the pressure test. (Senville in fact does not insist on a pressure test in the install manual.)22 months in, I could not be more pleased. Keeps my garage/workshop comfortable year round (outside temps ranging from 7° to 97°) and has very little impact on my power bill. Just keep the filters and fins clean for best efficiency. So far, I have not needed to clean the blower wheel. No problems with the condensate drain at all.

The unit was well packaged. No damage. The condensing unit is well built. The install was fairly easy for me ( retired from 42 years of commercial RHVAC). Works great, cold ac and heat pump warmed my room very quickly. The only minor complaint I have is the electrical cord should be about 2 foot longer so it could be attached to the line set all the way to the condenser..