COMMENT: I don’t know what it is about air conditioning companies like LG but they always seem good at promising the earth when their resellers quote a system, but when it comes to customer service, they are less keen to follow through to ensure a good customer experience.
In fact I suspect that some air conditioning operators actually want customers to call them with problems so that they can do a support call at $125 an hour.
Last year I installed an LG Multi V air conditioning system into a brand new house. It cost over $50,000 and was installed by Sydney based LG reseller Orion Mechanical.
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| LG air conditioning controller next to automation system. No relationship between the two. |
Despite the purchase price, LG via their reseller Orion Mechanical failed to supply any form of proper manual relating to the operation of the system.
After several calls to Orion Mechanical they finally emailed an instruction manual, however it was for the wrong system.
Finally mailed out four LG instruction books of which, only one page in each manual related to instructions in English for the control system we had purchased and even then it was the most basic of instructions.
Since then we have had constant controller problems with the unit. My latest problem is a simple HL message which locked me out of using the interface to turn on the air conditioning in a bedroom and bathroom area.
When the system was installed we chose not to interface the air condition system or the control system into the home automation system. This was quite deliberate. Instead we chose to locate separate air conditioning control panels throughout the house.
I did this because I was of the opinion that LG along with a lot of other mainstream air conditioning Companies have to date failed to deliver IP based interfaces or macro’s that allow for easy integration of an air conditioning system in to a home automation system.
Many installers like Orion Mechanical claim that they can integrate a system into a home automation system however nine times out of ten they are only integrating an on/off control function.
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| The one page of basic LG instructions for a $50K air conditioning system. |
If I was going to integrate an LG system into my home automation system, I would want to get more control than a simple on/off switch. Ideally everything in the current control interface including temperature, heat or cold control should be interfaced into thesystem.
When the system was originally commissioned, an employee of the Company ran through how to turn the system on and off, they failed to give out any written instructions as to what to do when the LG system failed or when an error message appeared.
After complaining to Orion Mechanical, they then mailed out four instruction manuals, 2 were not for the system we had.
Of the 70 page manual that related to our system, only 14 pages were in English. Of the 14 pages in English, six were carton images of safety precautions, 1 was a front page, another was a table of contents. Another page related to a wireless remote control that we did not have, 4 pages related to maintenance and service instructions such as do not over cool the room or what to do if the room has a peculiar odour.
Only 1 page related to the operating instructions for the $50,000 air conditioning system we had purchased.
Nowhere in the instruction manual was there any reference to error message or instructions on what one should do when an error message appeared on the control screen. There was also no instruction as to how to operate the air conditioning system.
Finally we got someone from Orion Mechanical to respond to only to have them claim that the reason for the fault was that the HL on the display means hand lock and that that wall air conditioning control is prohibited from use by your home automation interface.
The only problem was that the LG air conditioning system unit was not connected to the home automation system that we used nor had it ever been.
The email instructions we were given by Orion Mechanical said “Please make sure that the home automation interface relay for this indoor A/C unit is making a permanently closed contact at the LG dry contact board installed at the indoor unit”.
They then said “Good luck with sorting it out”.
Prior to getting the email from Orion Mechanical, we tried to search the internet for information. A visit to the LG web site was an utter waste of time. Not only did they not have any information relevant to the air conditioning system we had purchased but a search by model number failed to deliver any information on the system we had purchased.
We are still waiting on a response from LG.
If your having problems with an LG air conditioning system or an LG product let me know at dwr@4squaremedia.com
