First Impressions on Daikin R-32
Daikin's full lineup is here. It's late, but fashionably late.
For the better part of 2025, we were waiting for Daikin’s R-32 models to arrive. In 2026 they are finally here. And I’m glad to say that they’re better than ever.
What We Like
Profile. Daikin is taking a curvy design refresh to their indoor units, both wall and floor consoles. Here’s how the wall unit looks like:
I think it looks fairly clean from the front. Here’s the side profile:
And here’s the floor unit:
Now, the floor unit is substantially different from last iteration’s. Though it still occupies roughly the same space as a radiator, the front grille is flatter. I think the power button is quite clean, and the remote feels good as well.
Wifi. However, the biggest update is that Daikin has now hopped on the wifi train and all of their indoor units are connected!! Including the floor units, which isn’t the case for LG (and potentially Mitsubishi, though we haven’t tried installing a Mitsubishi floor unit this season yet).
Remote. Standard remote, seems like the floor units have a different remote vs. the high-wall units. Fairly clean, no notes.
Outdoor unit. The lack of a branch box for a 5-port setup is a major, major coup over Mitsubishi & other brands (LG requires 2). It saves money, and also reduces a potential point of failure. It’s not often that you can both save money AND get more reliability, but this is a case of that.
Form factor remains unchanged:
I do think the Mitsubishi 3D HyperHeat series has an advantage in this department since it’s smaller, but unless you’re installing one of these in a tight space or balcony, it’s not a huge factor.
Lineup. Historically, Daikin has been missing some rather common items from their lineup: for example, a multi-positional air handler that you can plug into an outdoor unit along with a couple of mini-splits. With their CMXV units, this is no longer the case:
So, we’ll be installing a bunch of those this spring.
Remote Diagnostics?! You know all those flashy press releases & articles about Quilt & Jetson? I’m glad they’re on the market - and in the case of Quilt, I’ve met the team before in Redwood City since I’m from the Bay & I can attest that Paul & Co. are genuinely nice, helpful people1.
So it shouldn’t surprise you that I’m super hyped that Daikin seems to have remote diagnostics as well:
They’ve actually had this for years, and apparently it’s live in like 300k ducted systems in the US alone. While LG has some diagnostics capabilities, it’s only the homeowners who can access it via. the ThinQ app, not the contractor; however, for preventative purposes (e.g. identifying which heat pumps are having trouble during a major blizzard), it’s EXTREMELY helpful for us to be able to take a look at fleet health.
So we’ll try it, and let you know how it goes!
What We Don’t Like
No ceiling cassette. Daikin, for now, doesn’t have a 1-way ceiling cassette out on the market. This is one of the more common items people ask for when they don’t want mini-splits, and I get it: they look good!
If you really want these, we’re offering Mitsubishi. More expensive, but I will note that the 6k BTU version of this is the smallest one you can get.
Efficiency. SEER2 ratings are ok, HSPF2 ratings are kinda mid, tbh. That said, however,
Also, this is secondary to the fact that it was one of the highest performing brands during this tough winter, with a 98%+ uptime through the 2 blizzards:
I am, at the end of the day, OK with average efficiency in exchange for sheer reliability in extreme conditions. This winter has changed me. I didn’t have to shovel in 2015, and after this winter, I will do anything to squeeze that last little bit of reliability from a heat pump, and this includes forgoing some efficiency.
However, I still maintain that Daikin’s excellent turndown ratio allow it to perform on par with the best in smaller rooms & houses, which here in the Boston Metro is most of them.
What’s Next
Spring is so close. We’re almost there. By summer, we will have installed ~25 more Daikin outdoor units & probably 7 or 8 more Mitsubishi ones.
This will bring our fleet total up to ~50 Daikin ODUs, and we’ll test out remote diagnostics where we can.
Stay tuned for more!
Even if, as some of you LC readers know, that they’re quite expensive & don’t have MSRP pricing..