Croma portable AC - How good is it?

T

thenvk

Adept
Hi,

My brother and cousin both are looking for an AC. Room size is 12*12 to 14*14 max. Both of them stay in rented house and might need to keep on moving at least for next 2-3 yrs.

I searched internet and found that there is one model from chorma which is portable and can be moved between rooms.

Any one here used it? any thoughts on portable Ac's would be really great.

http://www.cromaretail.com/Croma-1-Ton-CRC1067-Portable-Air-Conditioner-pc-77-355.aspx
http://www.cruiseac.com/portable.php

thanks.
 
Hello,
I do own and have been using the Croma 1 Ton Portable AC. Here is my feedback
First the good points
1. Its portable! Thats why I bough it so that we could move the AC from room to room without installing extra ACs.
2. Its cost effective. When we bought it, I guess it was around 20k. Not really sure but most likely it was around that range.
3. Can be used as a dehumidifier. This is very useful during monsoons when humidity is at its peak. Dehumidifying makes the room quite refreshing.
Given your room dimensions it should cool the room. Though not ideal as croma says its should be used in a 10X10 room so it might take longer to cool but it does cool effectively.
Don't expect great results but it does a relatively good job of cooling the room.
4. After sales service : Really surprised with this. Usually we need to call companies (during free service period) to get the free service done. But was amazed that Croma called up twice during the year for service and serviced the AC.
5. Is well built and looks sleek.

Now the weak points
1. Noise. Its quite audible as the compressor / fan are all inside the room so you can hear the noise.
2. It needs a duct to go out to the window. Hence, you will need to raise the height of the AC by putting it on top of a stool / stand. That way the AC can throw the hot air outside.
Keeping the duct outside is really important - they provide a flexible pipe for that so you simply need to attach that to a window and see the remaining part of the window is covered so that hot air does not come inside.

Let me know if you need any other info.
 
Ok I was not aware of the pricing for Sharp. The Croma one retails at around 24k and if the MRP of Sharp is say 30k then I think you could easily negotiate and try around the 25-27k range. Main thing for comparison would be the noise levels.
 
@Prole73 No. When I was purchasing a portable I found Croma Portable AC the cheapest and did not find any other viable option. Now you have a few companies that manufacture such ACs so you could evaluate. But I think Croma might be available for the least price as they have control over distribution, service and import so they can work on lower margins.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Aman27deep said:
That's 1 ton for 30k, this is 1 ton for 24k. Big difference, man.
Click to expand...

That's a Sharp Aman and their ACs are generally well regarded in terms of performance, maintenance and noise. Between the Chroma and the Sharp, I'd go with the latter eyes closed. :)

/OT - I happened to notice a Sharp inverter based AC installed at my neighbourhood DTDC franchise and when the cooling was active (i.e. the compressor was working), the power consumption indicated on a small backlit display read as 0.2 kW! That's way too low. No wonder, in the long run inverter based models turn out to be money savers!
 
Gannu said:
That's a Sharp Aman and their ACs are generally well regarded in terms of performance, maintenance and noise. Between the Chroma and the Sharp, I'd go with the latter eyes closed. :)

/OT - I happened to notice a Sharp inverter based AC installed at my neighbourhood DTDC franchise and when the cooling was active (i.e. the compressor was working), the power consumption indicated on a small backlit display read as 0.2 kW! That's way too low. No wonder, in the long run inverter based models turn out to be money savers!
Click to expand...

Wow, I know some people have PC's which consume more than that :p
 
agantuk said:
Capacity is what is usually used to specify tonnage. This must be a 2 T, but I am not sure if portables have a different scheme
Click to expand...
The power consumption of just 4amps is to low for a 2 ton even if it has a inverter based compressor.This is mostly around 1 ton or less.
 
We have a CROMA portable ac which we purchased in april 2014.

But already its compressor has started malfunctioning. It cools for about 20-30 minutes then conks out.

And their after-sales service is horrendous to say the least. First off, it is difficult to get through to their call center. Then they take all the time in the world to send their mechanic. And when the mechanic finally showed up, he promised to return in a day or two for repaing it. It has already been five days, that mechanic has not shown up nor is he taking our calls.

Besides, there seems to be no office/official who can be approached for resolving the issue.

In a word, God Be With You if your ac conks out.

We had bought the acc because we had thought that the TATA name was one of reliability. It seems it is not so

prtk said:
Hello,
I do own and have been using the Croma 1 Ton Portable AC. Here is my feedback
First the good points
1. Its portable! Thats why I bough it so that we could move the AC from room to room without installing extra ACs.
2. Its cost effective. When we bought it, I guess it was around 20k. Not really sure but most likely it was around that range.
3. Can be used as a dehumidifier. This is very useful during monsoons when humidity is at its peak. Dehumidifying makes the room quite refreshing.
Given your room dimensions it should cool the room. Though not ideal as croma says its should be used in a 10X10 room so it might take longer to cool but it does cool effectively.
Don't expect great results but it does a relatively good job of cooling the room.
4. After sales service : Really surprised with this. Usually we need to call companies (during free service period) to get the free service done. But was amazed that Croma called up twice during the year for service and serviced the AC.
5. Is well built and looks sleek.

Now the weak points
1. Noise. Its quite audible as the compressor / fan are all inside the room so you can hear the noise.
2. It needs a duct to go out to the window. Hence, you will need to raise the height of the AC by putting it on top of a stool / stand. That way the AC can throw the hot air outside.
Keeping the duct outside is really important - they provide a flexible pipe for that so you simply need to attach that to a window and see the remaining part of the window is covered so that hot air does not come inside.

Let me know if you need any other info.
Click to expand...
 
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