The Best Air Conditioners To Buy Online In Australia
Trying to stay cool at home can be pretty difficult if the Australian weather has other plans for you. That's why it's worth considering one of our recommendations for the best air conditioners that you can buy to maintain the perfect temperature at home.
Best Overall Split System Air Conditioner
Samsung 5kW Reverse Cycle Split System Air Conditioner
- 5-year warranty
- Auto-clean function
- Very quiet
- 2.5 star cooling and heating energy rating
This Samsung air conditioner isn’t the most powerful unit on the market, but it comes with a lot of useful perks that make it a sound investment for just about any home. You get a fast fan setting that can cool down your room pretty quickly, but you also have a dehumidification mode that can work as well as any air purifier on the market.
This unit also comes with an eco-mode setting that will run the air conditioner at a lower speed but will allow it to use less power. The sleep mode reduces the noise from the fan so that you can fall asleep even with the AC turned on. You also have a 24-hour timer that can allow you to cool off or heat up your home while you’re still at work, or that can simply allow you to turn off the AC while you sleep.
Best Split System Air Conditioner for Large Spaces
Mitsubishi Bronte 8.0kW Reverse Cycle Split System Air Conditioner
- 5-year warranty
- Very powerful
- Allergen clear and Photocatalytic washable deodorizing filter
- 2.5-star cooling power rating
- 3-star heating power rating
The Bronte is a little noisier and a little more expensive than the previous unit on our list, but it makes up for it by having an impressive 18 metre reach on full blast. This means that this is a much more powerful unit than your standard air conditioner.
This unit also comes with an anti-allergen filter that can help reduce pollen and dust particles, which is a great feature for people suffering from hay fever or too much dust in their homes. You also have several different fan speeds depending on how fast or quiet you want the AC to run, multiple timer settings, and a 5-year warranty for all of the parts.
Best Split System Air Conditioner for Small Spaces
Samsung 2.5kW Reverse Cycle Split System Air Conditioner
- 5-year warranty
- 4-star cooling and heating power rating
- Limited range
- The outside unit is quite noisy
Similar to the previous Samsung unit on our list, this air conditioner comes with five different fan speeds, a 24-hour timer, and can work at a whisper-quiet 17 dBs when in good sleep mode. You also have several useful small features like the indoor temperature display, the filter cleaning warning notice, and the dehumidification function.
In addition to all of this, you also get a great built-in filter that catches most of the air contaminants that might be present in your room, and it comes with a self-cleaning function that expels moisture from the inside of the unit in order to decrease the chance that bacteria builds up.
The decision on whether you go for this unit or the previous one will depend on what sort of AC you’re looking for. This model is more cost-effective and it’s a lot quieter. However, it’s also less powerful and it can’t cool off or warm up your rooms as quickly.
Best Budget Split System Air Conditioner
Kelvinator 2.5kW Split System Reverse Cycle Inverter Air Conditioner
- 5-star cooling and heating energy ratings
- 5-year warranty
- Customers were impressed with the build quality
- Noisier than many other models
While this may be one of the more budget-friendly air conditioners on our list, that doesn’t mean that it has fewer useful features than the others. One of the most notable of these is the control app that allows you to turn the device on and set the temperature remotely regardless of where you are. It also allows you to set a timer and check the internal temperature of your home so that you can set it to the ideal speed for when you get back from work.
The downside of this unit is that it’s actually pretty loud and it takes a bit of time before it can reach the higher fan speeds. Speaking of which, you’ll get an impressive selection of 12 fan speeds, as well as a sleep mode, and an auto-swing function.
All in all, this is one of the best air conditioners for people that are working on a budget, and it comes with a ton of useful features, but if noise is a deal-breaker for you, then this isn’t the model for you.
Best Premium Split System Air Conditioner
Fujitsu 7.1kW Reverse Cycle Split System Inverter Air Conditioner
- 5-year warranty
- 4-star heating power rating
- Human sensor
- 2.5-star cooling power rating
While the upfront purchase cost of this air conditioning unit might be a bit on the high side, it makes up for it with a multitude of features that are designed to make it as economical as possible.
Namely, you have an economy mode that allows you to limit the power output so that you can reduce power usage, as well as several timer settings and an auto shut-off feature. The most impressive of these features is the human detection feature that uses motion detection sensors in order to determine whether or not there are people in the room. It reduces the speed of the fans if the room is empty and increases them once someone walks in.
The system also comes with a Blue Finn exchanger that keeps the outside unit running in both hot and cold temperatures, an ion deodorisation filter that intercepts harmful particles from the air, and even an automatic airflow adjustment feature that automatically speeds up or slows down the fans.
Best Energy Efficient Split System Air Conditioner
Mitsubishi Avanti 2.5kW Reverse Cycle Split System Air Conditioner
- 5-year warranty
- 5-star cooling and heating power rating
- Not the most powerful unit
The 5-star ratings in both the cooling and the heating category make this an obvious choice for a very energy efficient choice as far as air conditioners go, but this model comes with a human detection feature that’s usually only installed on much more expensive models. This one feature can really help to make the electricity bill a lot more manageable.
The infrared sensor detects when a human is in the room and adjusts the temperature and fan speeds accordingly. This allows it to switch to a more energy-friendly speed every time you leave the room, which really makes an impact on the overall power consumption. The unit also comes with an R32 refrigerant, which is known for being very energy efficient.
The one flaw of this unit is that it doesn’t really manage to cool down large spaces too effectively. We’re not saying that it won’t be able to help cool you off, but if you’re sitting more than 10 metres away from it, then it might take some time before the heat in the room drops to the temperature that you’ve selected.
Best Portable Air Conditioner
Rinnai RPC35WA 3.5kW Cooling Only Portable Air Conditioner
- The filter is removable for easy maintenance
- Comes with a built-in timer
- Noisy operation
- Only 2 years warranty
The best feature of this ac unit is naturally going to be the ability to place it virtually anywhere in your home. The size may limit the range at which it can cool down a room, and it takes a long time for it to have a noticeable effect on the temperature if it’s more than a few metres away from you, but that’s hardly an issue when you can simply move it closer.
This is a great little unit and probably one of the best air conditioners for anyone that just wants to cool off a bit, but doesn’t want to waste the electricity that normal AC units require in order to constantly keep the room at a certain temperature throughout the day.
The Rinnai also comes with a dehumidifier feature that can soak up the excess moisture from the air, four omnidirectional casters that allow you to easily move the ac even on thick carpets, and 3 fan speeds that you can switch between by using the remote control.
Best Window Air Conditioner
Kelvinator 3.9kW Window-Wall Reverse Cycle Air Conditioner
- 5-year warranty
- Very compact and easy to install
- Four fan speeds
- 2 star heating and cooling energy ratings
A window air conditioning unit is a lot easier to install thanks to the fact that it doesn’t require an outside unit in order to run like standard air conditioners. Additionally, the 3,9kW power output actually makes this unit a bit more powerful than a few of the standard air conditioning units that we have on our list.
The Kelvinator has both cooling and heating settings, which means that it can be used all year round, and it also has a dust filter and a dehumidifier that are especially useful during allergy season.
The range isn’t all that large and it might take a while to cover a room that’s more than 10 metres in length from its window mount, but the auto mode can ensure that your room is kept at the exact temperature that you set it to without you ever having to lift the remote.
Best Air Conditioner Brands
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries produce good all-rounders. Their products are energy-efficient, pack quite a punch, and most of them are split systems, so they can both warm up and cool down your home. Some units are going to be more energy-efficient and less power-focused, but that’ll ultimately depend on the sort of features that you’re looking for.
Fujitsu air conditioners usually have a slightly steeper price range than a lot of other ac brands, but they make up for it in the running costs of their devices. The Fujitsu air conditioning catalogue is full of energy-efficient units that have several economic features that minimize power usage while keeping the fan speeds relatively high.
How to Choose The Right Air Conditioner
When talking about split system air conditioners, you probably want to consider both the heating and the cooling power, since that’s probably the whole reason why you’d want to get one in the first place. For this purpose, we’ve included both the heating and the cooling rating in our reviews, and you can easily notice that we consider anything above a 3-star rating to be a good rating.
Certain systems are going to have a better cooling rating, while others have a better heating rating, and while you’d ideally want both to be pretty decent, if you had to choose between the two, we’d prioritise the cooling.
You can easily find a heater for the winter months, and that’s if you don’t have a full heating system installed already. However, an ac is your only real option when it comes to cooling down during the summer months, so it’s a good idea to get one that actually has some fan power.
What Size Air Conditioner Should I Get?
The size that the air conditioners don’t always represent the power that they can produce. Certain portable ac units have more kick to them than a lot of full-sized air conditioners. The only way to tell what sort of air conditioner you should get is to check the listings online and find out the recommended room dimensions.
The more powerful units are usually a lot more expensive, so the price range is usually an easy way to determine the sort of fan speeds that you’ll be getting. We’d recommend not spending too much money on an ac unit, since you won’t need all that much power to cool down an average 10x10 m room.
However, if you live in a sizeable house and you find that a standard unit just isn’t cutting it, then you might need to spend a few more dollars in order to keep your home nice and cool. Just make sure that the unit you get is energy efficient so that the running costs are at least kept reasonably low.