While surfing the net for a quick round-up conducting an e-survey on Air Conditioners, came across this interesting piece available at the Hitachi India website.

Just look how precisely and swiftly (in same mastered fashion like what the story-book-character samurai / sumo do!) they have mauled the other brands while highlighting the plus points of their own...

Why are Hitachi ACs better than others?

Advanced Hitachi Air Conditioners	Other Air Conditioners
Available with all Direct Efficient Technology features	Not such type of features available
Most of Hitachi ACs are having highest Energy Efficiency Ratio (EER) in its category	Energy Efficiency Ratio(EER) is not so high
Power consumption is less so more is the saving	Power consumption is more so less is the saving
Pay back period is less than 1 year	Pay back period is more than 1 year
A digital power index gives you detailed information of the consumed power ensuring that you monitor your usage	Make you wait for the electricity bill to know how much power is consumed by your AC
79% of Hitachi sold split ACs are 5 star rated	This percentage is not more for other brands
Higher BTU than rated,so more cooling	Lower BTU than rated,so less cooling
The sound level is much more lower( 34dB) for 1.5 Tr split AC.	The sound level is much more higher
The turbo fans with lesser number of blades make the most silent AC as air cutting is less	Available with ordinary fans which creates more noise as the air cutting is more
Undergo both strenous and sophisticated 41 reliability tests only to come out as the world's more durable AC	Generally undergo by routine tests and R&D procedures
Unbelievably stringent Japanese Tochigi standards ensure the best of quality and durability	Adhere to ISO 9001 which are basic manufacturing standards
A unique customized My mode allow you the flexibility of three programmable comfort modes	Have a single sensor to adjust the temperature
Hitachi's patented 3rd generation Kaimin technology increases the room temperature by 1 0 C every hour to ensure just the right cooling and uninterrupted sleep	Make you get up in the middle of the night to change the temperature settings
The patented Auto climate technology intelligently changes timer settings to give you the most comfortable settings as per the condition out side	Do not have any such sensors
The innovative air delivery mechanism enables spiral airflow creating a "whorl" effect ensuring no hot air pockets in the room	The linear air flow doesn't cool the room uniformly
The patented Auto humid control automatically reduces the relative humidity level to 27%	Do not have any such technology to reduce the humidity level automatically

Quite reasonably, one may ask, who can vouch for the ultimate outcome of all these tall claims and marketing gung-ho? All companies boast of out-of-the-world features so very boldly, but do they really deliver when it comes to the real world operations?

I doubt so. Although Hitachi has a niche name of its own, and though there are so many reasons to believe to their boastings considering its a world-renowned brand name; yet I have enough reasons to doubt the claims laid by them, having burnt my fingers with my previous purchase that advertised similar tall claims (Europe's one of the very famous brand-- Haier's) split AC unit, that was launched a few years back as an out-of-world innovation operating on some DC-inversion technique and saving enormous energy bill amounts). Couldn't judge if it actually saved any extra penny consuming relatively lesser energy units, but I can definitely vouch that its spares and additional remote aren't available even within the 3-4 years of its launch here in India.

The regional corporate / service centre of Haier in Delhi raised their hands in a bit more struggling fashion as compared to their local dealers in the markets (who gave in without even a try!!). They said they tried in entire warehouses of the country, but couldn't find even a single extra piece of the remote, which could replace our own badly injured one. Sigh!

Sadly and ultimately, after all the search and inquiries about a new remote failed utter miserably, now when I'm looking to phase out the old unit and purchase a new BETTER one, I'm again getting nervous breakdowns reading such tall claims by various manufacturers..  all singing a different high-note (high-quality) self praise songs... and in the process demeaning other competitor brands and products.

I dread these claims now... and just like 'the burnt cat dreading the milk', am afraid of putting in my hard earned money again based on such tall claims alone. Better off to ask friends and neighbors about their actually installed units and checking in person which one they vote.

Wish me luck, guys!!  :-)