Mr Cool DIY 2-Year REVIEW: I wish I would have known this BEFORE BUYING...

Contractor with 25 years of experience here (I've personally worked for 2 different HVAC companies for over 4 years as well). DIY mini splits are by far the best bang for your buck. Don't go with a offbrand that won't be in business 3 years down the road, and don't do a half-assed rush job on the install. You'll be fine. Plumbers were crying the same way HVAC guys are now back when PEX, and sharkbites hit our market 20 years ago. They realized that the average person could handle the work themselves reasonably well in most cases. Most companies, and many contractors are charging entirely too much for their work. There are many reasons why this is happening. There isn't a "smoking gun" as to why this is happening. Some of it is the price that materials has gone up (not as big of a chunk as you might think), price of fuel, insurance, etc. If they're a large company they have a lot of overhead (office, shop, utilities, maintenance, staff, advertising, ect). BUT a lot of it is just old fashioned greed. Many are charging hundreds of dollars a hour simply because they can. It's shameful. Your best best is to find a honest independent contractor in your area, and develop good business practices with them. I can assure you they do exist. They are out there.

The only way to alleviate the mode switching problem is to install only single head units. Honestly, as an hvac professional, that is my normal recommendation if there is not an excessive number needed. It simplifies things when each indoor unit is independent. Also if there is a leak or a problem with the outdoor unit, you don’t lose heat or cooling in the entire house. Not a criticism, just an observation.

If you live in the south do not use the crappy insulation given for the Freon lines. Just a little of exposure to summer UV here in Dallas where there was a small gap exposed was disintegrated by one full summer of sun. The foam at $3 for 6 feet is much better than that provided.

I’ve had my one ton Mr. cool for four years. Cleaned it every year. Works perfectly

Looking at a larger MrCool split system to replace my central air system with a leaky coil. Was quoted $4500 to replace coil, $13,000 to replace with like-for-like. Insane. Or I can get a MrCool 3 or 4 ton system for half the price with a higher SEER rating. I feel like HVAC companies refuse to work on them because they feel threatened by DIY systems.

Loved the video. Your integrity is outstanding!! You could have made things up to make yourself look flawless...you owned up to the good and the bad. I really appreciate the fact that you ask for critics. It teally helps everyone. Thank you so much. Getting ready to do my second unit...

Mini Splits are widely used in Asia and Europe. My wife and I lived in S Korea for a few years and used these units exclusively. They were not Mr. Cool's of course but usually Samsung or Mitsubishi. The only issue I had with them was the inside blower getting clogged up with lint. There is a spinning blade in there that looks like the fan blower on a central unit, just smaller and longer. Even if you take the filter screens out and wash them frequently that blower will still get clogged and slow down. Eventually it will start leaking water down the wall from the lint building up and clogging the drain line. The drain lines clog easily. I also noticed the heat pump side of the unit will heat all the way down to fairly low temps. Around 10-20 degrees F. Below that it may start icing up at the outside condensing unit. You MUST keep snow from piling up around the outside unit or it will not heat. You can pour water on the ice to get it to melt quicker. Overall I love these units and I plan to put several in my house so I don't need to run the central air units. Good video!

Enjoyed your video. I'm soon starting my install after sitting in the garage for 9 months. The tips you mention are helpful and easy to understand. You inspire me that i can do this! Thanks.

Seems to me a small business opportunity exists to do maintenance on DIY mini splits.

Finally got it up and running. The only delays we had was because we realized we needed some extra parts (I’ll list that below) youtube.com/post/UgkxihMYiJNXcHdbH-7ihymsLz61l7jVy… . So we have a loft where our current hvac just couldn’t seem to keep cool during the summer. We have been using a window unit since we bought this house over 6 years ago (all the houses in this neighborhood were built in the 80’s and majority of the houses built like ours use a window unit). I hate window units because they are just so noisy and the one we had really only cools one side of the loft. I had contemplated upgrading our current HVAC, but with all the rising prices these days, it would take years before saving up enough to do that. With the advice of my father-in-law (used to run an HVAC business), he recommended we get an inverter instead. We thought we bought everything we needed, but there were just a few other parts we didn’t anticipate needing (which is what caused most of our delay). My friend and father-in-law did all the work to get it installed and running and now we have nice cool air circulating nicely throughout the entire loft. It is very quiet and even the outside unit is much quieter than our main HVAC unit. Saved ourselves thousands getting this.

Thank You! I wish more YT creators would do follow up on stuff. Especially expensive stuff!

I've installed two Mr. Cool systems. One is the split system with air handler as in a central HVAC system and the other is a 24,000 btu unit in my shop. Both have been in for two years. So far, no problems. Easy to install if you don't kink the lines.

My MrCool unit is 3 years old and used continuously with it running whisper quite. I also purchased mine from Ingram's Air. I has a exterior unit control board burn up that was honored under their warranty. I had to provide the labor.

The humming is not the motor. It’s the holder sub-assy lack of lubricant so the axis of the cross-flow fan rubs against the hole of the holder sub-assy and makes the humming noise. You can put some lubricant or just WD40 in the hole of the holder sub-assy, the the noise should go away. The holder sub-assy is on the left end of the indoor unit. You should be able to find it on the service manual. 80% of the noises of the high wall indoor unit of mini split are because of this.

Well done for doing this and having the courage to get in front of the camera - full admiration! 👍

In Europe and in Norway where my wife’s family is heat pumps are the top standard for old & new construction and the tech is getting better all the time.

Just wanted to say my experience with support has been pretty good as well. We were having problems with the settings you discussed shutting units off and support guy back to us with the hour and kept with us for a couple of days until we figure out what was going on. First the record, we had set up the app, as well as the remotes and they were fighting with each other. Use one or the other and everything should be fine. Right now I'm looking into the cleaning because we are expecting temps of close to 110 next week, that's why I'm here commenting on your video 🙂

I live in Arkansas, hot humid summers and cold winters. About 80 degree diff in seasons. I've owned mine since 2021, they have had the motor noise for at least 6 months now and I had to clean the fan out as it was clogged and not blowing very well. Other than that they remove humidity very well and on 100 degree days keep my not so well insualted house around 71 inside!

The way I solved the lack of insulation and drafty windows in my cinder block home was to build a wood-frame wall inside the house along the exterior walls. Basically I built a house inside the house with the insulation right up against the cinder block, and tight seals around the windows. Now it is insulated and the drafts are gone. And now I can hang a picture on one of those walls, since it is a standard drywall wall on the inside.

Thank you for clearing up these myths and the very helpful tips. Just installed two of these units and the savings was $8000 compared to a contractor.