Honest Review of LG, Mitsu, Daikin, Midea+

The January 2026 Update to Last Year's 2025 Model Showdown

We wrote an article last summer about all the new R-32 & R-454B models that were hitting the market. Now, we have a TON of real-world installation experience with these models.

So here’s my half-year update. Table of contents:

• LG: Great wifi integration + UX, sleek looks, but annoying to install

• Mitsubishi: Expensive, great build quality, but ducted units are kinda mid

• Daikin: Affordable, reliable, no frills, efficiency kinda mid but good for small units

• Midea Ducted: Actually really good, but supply houses kinda sparse

• Midea/Carrier/Bryant Ductless: Affordable, good stats but looks & feels cheap

LG: Looks Great, But Annoying to Install

There’s something really interesting about Korean engineering vs. Japanese engineering. I think Korean brands are more likely to try putting cool new features in their products, whether it works or not. We experience both the good and bad of that in the past few months, because we installed dozens of LG systems.

An LG Mini-split

What’s good?

Their units look good. Like, objectively, these are some of the slimmest units you can get when it comes to mini-splits, and they’re wifi connected straight out of the box, and the phone app (LG ThinQ) is objectively a good app, because this is the single app that LG uses for their smart TV, washer, dryer, air purifiers, and god knows how many other things because LG makes a TON of consumer products. Plus, they have drain pan heaters built in, standard on every condenser. And the ducted air handlers are sleek.

I think this is precisely what I expected out of a company that produces flat screen TVs. BUT. It comes at a cost.

What isn’t?

Note: the following only applies for the multi-port ductless units. Unitary ducted is fine.

The single most annoying thing is that LG requires auto-addressing as a part of their setup process, and the auto-addressing process only works like 50% of the time. The other 50% of the time, it fails and the installation tech is annoyed, because now you have to manually address it via. remotes on the indoor units, which is kinda ridiculous because you LG didn’t even need to try to work auto-addressing into their process.

For a technical explanation of what auto-addressing is, feel free to read this footnote¹. But if you’re a consumer, you just need to know that LG units are good once they’re properly set up, but for some reason due to this auto-addressing step, it’s really annoying to set up. And if you don’t install LG regularly, you’ll get confused why this is happening because this doesn’t happen to any other brand.

I think they’ll fix this in a few years, but until then, it’s a downside to LG.

Oh, honorable mention: their KUMXA361A outdoor unit is really efficient (22 SEER2! 11 HSPF2!) but requires working with multiple branch boxes. These days, we generally prefer working without branch boxes just because it keeps things simple.

Mitsubishi: $$$, Reliable, but Ducted is Mid

Mitsubishi rightfully is regarded as the highest quality brand on the market, and they deserve it. Everybody knows how to install this thing. It sticks to what works (no auto-addressing!), finally has wifi out of the box, and the performance stats are top of the line (23 SEER2, 12.5 HSPF2) - for the ductless & mixed setups, at least.

But when it comes to ducted performance, it’s a different story.

The nicest Mitsubishi photo we took. This is the FX unit; the GX units are smaller.

What’s good?

Anything with their ductless units. Best-in-class, reliable, everyone knows how to install them. Compatibility between ductless units & air handlers if you want to connect them to the same outdoor unit is pretty seamless. Overall easy to work with, reliable pick.

What isn’t?

It’s expensive! I think that’s justified for people who want premium product. But on the ducted side, you can get better deals because Mitsubishi’s SVZ model just.. doesn’t seem that good compared to all other ducted models.

Case in point, from the analysis a half year ago: the SVZ residential model has an HSPF of 9.2, and a SEER2 of 17.10. Yikes. The PUZ/PVZ model does a little better, but not by much:

Here, take a look for yourself: SVZ-AP30NL & SUZ-AK30NLHZ

Like, honestly, I think Mitsubishi just didn’t focus on upgrading their ducted equipment at all between the R-410A models and the R-454B ones beyond compatibility with new refrigerant. So, if you’re looking for better value, you may benefit from trying another brand.

Honorable mention: Mitsubishi requires a higher amp breaker vs every other brand, and you can see that reflected on the submittal. If you’re worried about panel capacity, look around.

Daikin: Affordable, Reliable, Very No-Frills

Everyone else rolled out their new models at the start of Summer 2025; Daikin didn’t make their models available until the end of 2025. But they are finally here, and we can tell you that Daikin is probably the best affordable option if you care only about reliability and cost.

What’s good?

Really simple mechanical design = fewer points of failure. This is the key with Daikin. Their ductless systems require no branch box, which makes it easier to swap out individual mini-splits, and makes installation easier.

Of course, the other brands each also have multiport units that don’t require a branch box (LG’s KUMXA301A, Mitsubishi’s MXZ-3D30NLHZ) but the key here is that Daikin is one of the only brands that allow you to connect 5 indoor units to 1 outdoor unit with no branch box. This is critical, because there are a lot of triple deckers around the Boston metro that have 3 bedrooms + kitchen + living room, and this is precisely the setup I would use in those situations.

Daikin historically has had really good turndown (low heating & cooling output), which makes it more efficient for smaller spaces. It’s also super quiet.

Update: it does apparently have wifi out of the box for mini-splits!! Just found out 1/21

Daikin's app. Super simple, no frills.

What isn’t?

The wait! Daikin’s units came out half a year after all the other brands.

The SEER2 & HSPF2 ratings are real mid (average), even for ductless. For example, the 3MXT and 4MXT models are at 9.5 HSPF2. The flagship DH9² ducted model is clearly optimized for long heating seasons (think: Texas, the South) with a high SEER2 of 19.2 but a low HSPF2 of 9.2. The mid-static air handlers are ok.

But that’s why I say it’s no frills. Average performance, good Japanese build quality, basic app at an affordable price point.

What Makes Ducted Installations Hard

Midea Ducted: Actually a Great Air Handler, So Far

You know who has a great air handler? Midea, apparently! SEER2 at 18, and HSPF2 at 10, which considering that most of your bills will be due to heating, is pretty good.

They mostly distribute through other brands (“Custom Comfort” from Granite Group = Midea, Carrier / Bryant mini-splits = Midea, it’s a white-labeling play), but recently they’ve taken a step to put out equipment with their own brand name. We know, because we installed a test version of their Gen3 air handler half a year ago, and we’ve been running it since.

Closet configuration, & low-boy config in a low basement

What’s good?

Pricing. Super affordable units, and it’s the same story with Bryant, Carrier mini-splits, etc. They’ve kept prices in check as the budget option you typically see from contractors alongside a more premium option (Mitsubishi), but with this particular iteration, their performance is actually right up there with the best.

So far, performance is good. We have 2 of these air handlers conditioning a house in Cambridge, and the homeowner has had no complaints during this cold winter so far. Ducted AHUs are slim & works well for smaller closets, and also can split into 2 for low basements.

We know their R&D lab integrated sensors into the early testing version we installed for remote monitoring; if they roll this out more broadly, this would be a game changer.

What isn’t?

Distribution seems to be really limited. We have a supply house we know that carries Midea directly, but so far all the other big distributors of Midea product (e.g. Distributor Corp. of New England, AKA DCNE) only carry white-labeled ductless products for brands like Carrier. This means that if the single supply house decides to not carry Midea’s ducted systems anymore, you would now have no local partners.

Midea would be in a much stronger position if they had, say, 2 or 3 supply houses in the area that supported their ducted systems. Particularly one closer to Boston.

Bosch Ducted

Heard great things from contractors about build quality, but I’m going to avoid this until we definitively decide to not invade Greenland/break off our trade relations with Europe/tank international relations. I feel ashamed of the US just typing this sentence.

Update: we are no longer invading Greenland (for now). However, cold climate Bosch models still lose ~30% of their heating capacity in 5°F weather, according to AHRI testing, so we are declining Bosch for 2026.

Midea / Carrier / Bryant Ductless: Hmmmmmm

Look, I know I’m not supposed to be making judgements based on looks, but… these units have this outer plastic finish that just looks a little less than premium. FYI, the ductless side for all of these brands are manufactured by Midea.

Video credits

What’s good?

Honestly, functionally probably perfectly fine. Build quality probably not as good as Mitsubishi & Daikin, but I assume in most cases they heat & cool alright.

What isn’t?

We haven’t directly installed these, so we can’t speak to the stats or the experience the same way we can talk about every other brand. But like, if I don’t care about wifi, and want a solid mini-split, I’d probably choose Daikin over this.

My message to Midea: you guys are so close to creating a really compelling mini-split. Just spend the extra $10 or whatever on a nicer finish on the outer casing. Yes, I am vain sometimes and if you are totally utilitarian, maybe just ignore what I say and go with Carrier/Bryant/Midea ductless.

Fujitsu: Defer to Endless

Hey, shoutout to Matt Kid, who runs Endless Energy down the road in Marlborough. He actually wrote a fairly detailed review on Fujitsu units based on his company’s installation experience, and it is… a bit of a thumbs down. We can’t speak to it since we don’t have a lot of experience with Fujitsu, bit I recommend giving Matt’s blog a read here: https://goendlessenergy.com/why-we-stopped-installing-fujitsu-heat-pumps/

From one heat pump writer to another, I tip my hat.

Conclusion

I think you have a lot of options in the market these days. It’s a big, competitive market. For us, I think we’ll focus on keeping things affordable in 2026. We’ll factor all of this in as we decide what to install for spring & beyond.

1. What is auto-addressing? Well, when you connect multiple indoor units (say, 4 of them) to a single outdoor condenser, like the one below, you need to be able to tell the condenser which port to discharge refrigerant if you turn the mini-split on in the living room vs, for example, the bedroom.

That’s usually done by manually wiring the communication wire to a specific location. Here’s an example (ty Mechanical Pros youtube channel):

In this example, you don’t have 4 such connections. But if you had 4 connections, you’d have to wire communication from Room A to Communication Slot A, which needs to match the refrigerant lines going to Port A. This is not very difficult if you have only 3 or 4 indoor units going to 1 outdoor unit; this is way more difficult if you have like, 8+ or more complex setups that are more common in commercial settings (think: 10 outdoor units conditioning a hotel).

Auto-addressing exists to alleviate such concerns in large, commercial installations, but in my opinion, aren’t really worth it in small-scale residential unless it works.

2. DH9VSA241C, etc.