u/JudithFSummers

Moving into a small studio in PJ end of the month and the bedroom is tiny enough that 1HP should be fine. Budget is tight after deposit and agent fee so I'm trying to keep aircond plus install under RM1k if possible. The TNB tariff change last year is also making me a bit paranoid about the bill once I start sleeping with it on every night.

Browsed Shopee on and off for the past two weekends. The gap between brands is narrower than I expected at this HP tier. Daikin FTKE 1HP inverter is on sale around RM1,155, basically my ceiling once install is added. Acson entry inverter sits around RM1,400 which is more of a stretch. Comfee came in the cheapest by a fair bit after stacking the store vouchers, but they only launched in Malaysia last year so there's basically no multi-year usage out there yet. Shopee reviews look ok but everyone has only had theirs a few months.

Stuck on whether saving a few hundred on the newer brand or stretching to a Daikin sale actually makes a difference for a bedroom unit that won't run 24/7. Half tempted to think any 4-star inverter from a real brand is basically the same thing after 3 years anyway.

We shipped about 800 control boards uncoated last year, going into outdoor cabinets at water treatment sites. Around the 6 month mark started getting RMAs, intermittent comms dropouts. Pulled some back and the failure mode looks like dendritic growth between QFN pads on units in shaded cabinets that hung close to dewpoint overnight. Coating needs to happen for the next batch, no debate.

Going back and forth on whether to ask our CM to fold it into the assembly flow or handle it through a coating-only shop afterward. Initially the CM path looked cleaner, one PO, one vendor. But we kept our process docs deliberately portable so we wouldn't get locked in, and adding a coating spec to their workflow is one more thing to rebuild if we ever switch assembly partners.

CM hasn't quoted coating before either. They did potting on a different product, that came in reasonable. Coating could be fine or 3x what a dedicated house charges, no way to know without asking. And asking opens the question of whether their UV inspection setup is actually a thing or just a line item.

The bit i keep getting stuck on is the lock-in question more than the cost one.

Been studying Mandarin for about a year, mostly self-study. Speaking is by far my weakest skill.Torn between paying for an italki tutor a few times a week vs trying free options like HelloTalk voice rooms. Tutor is structured but expensive. Voice rooms are free but I have no idea if they're actually useful for Chinese specifically.What worked for you?