Fujitsu ducted air conditioning Melbourne, sold today as GENERAL Airstage

If you typed Fujitsu ducted into Google and landed on pages about GENERAL, nothing has gone wrong. Fujitsu General Australia now trades as GENERAL Australia, its ducted air conditioners are sold as General Airstage, and the support line you may know as Fujitsu General Assist is now General Assist. The old fujitsugeneral.com.au address simply sends you to the new site. It is the same maker and the same reverse-cycle ducted units, with support now under the General Assist name.

The part that matters most to a buyer has not changed either. GENERAL states a 5-year parts and labour warranty across the entire domestic range, and the ducted units are covered by it. If you already have a Fujitsu ducted system in the roof, it is still a supported product and we still service it. If you are buying new, the unit we quote is the current General Airstage model, whichever name you used on the phone.

You will keep seeing the Fujitsu name on older indoor units, on stock already in the supply chain and on some of the company’s own web addresses. We mention this because a surprising number of people ring us worried that the brand has left Australia. It has not. It has been renamed.

Mid Static Slimline R32. GENERAL groups this series under apartments and smaller homes up to four bedrooms. The indoor unit is only 240 mm high and has a built-in drain pump, so it goes into tight bulkheads and shallow roof spaces where a standard unit will not. Reverse cycle in 5.0, 7.1, 8.5, 10.0, 12.5 and 13.0 kW, on R32, with a static pressure range of 50 to 150 Pa. For a 1960s brick veneer with a low-pitched tiled roof, or a renovated Edwardian with only a hallway bulkhead to spare, this is the one we look at first.

R32 High Static, single or three phase. High static means the fan can push air through more ducts and longer runs, which a large single-storey home or a two-storey layout needs. The single phase range runs from 7.1 to 15.5 kW, so most homes need no power upgrade.

Large Capacity High Static R32. The new big units for large two-storey homes and small commercial spaces: an 18 kW model in single phase, and 18, 20 and 22.4 kW models in three phase, with touch panel controls and Wi-Fi connectivity and a static pressure range of 60 to 200 Pa for long duct runs. The outdoor units across the range carry a Blue Fin treated heat exchanger, which GENERAL says improves corrosion resistance in coastal areas — worth knowing near the bay.

Size depends on floor area, ceiling height, glazing and insulation, not bedroom count. Our ducted sizing guide explains how we work it out before the office quotes.

A ducted system is only as good as its zoning. GENERAL’s optional anywAiR ducted controller is a wall-mounted touchpad with an app for Android and iOS, and it does the things people actually want. You can set the airflow to each zone anywhere from 0 to 100 per cent in 5 per cent steps, so the study gets a trickle and the living room gets the lot. Add the optional room temperature sensors and each zone holds its own set temperature, with the system adjusting airflow to get there. You can save up to 12 scenes — leaving for work, coming home, bedtime — and run them at the touch of a button or on a schedule.

The newer features are the ones we point out on the call. MainTemp automatically makes the zone furthest from its target the priority zone, then moves on to the next. AutoMode goes further and switches the whole system between heating and cooling on its own. AutoFan matches fan speed to the number of open zones, Sleep Economiser drops cooling to fan mode overnight, and the controller works with Google Home for voice control.

Two honest notes. The anywAiR controller is not a standard inclusion, and GENERAL has it fitted by its own authorised installers, so if you want it, say so on the call and the office arranges it with the quote. And zoning is a design decision, not a gadget: we lay out the zones on your floor plan before anything is ordered. Our zoning guide shows the layouts that work in Melbourne homes.

On the day, the indoor unit is hung from the roof timbers on isolation mounts, the return air grille goes where it can breathe — usually a hallway ceiling — and insulated flexible duct runs to an outlet in every room on the plan. The outdoor unit sits on a pad or wall brackets where it will not annoy you or the neighbours. A licensed electrician runs the dedicated circuit, ARC-licensed technicians make the refrigerant connections and commission the system, and the whole job is photographed before the roof is closed up.

If the system is replacing a gas ducted heater, three more things happen. The old heater comes out of the roof or from under the floor. The gas line is capped by a licensed gasfitter. And the existing ducts are inspected honestly: gas-heater ducts are often too small and too leaky for a refrigerated system, so we photograph them and tell you whether they should be replaced rather than promising a cheap reuse. That changeover is the job that can attract a Victorian Energy Upgrades discount, which we arrange through our accredited installation partners so it comes off your quote up front. Our gas ducted to reverse cycle guide covers the conditions.

After the install, the same crews that clean and service ducted systems across Melbourne look after yours. Our ducted service guide and Fujitsu service guide explain what a yearly service involves.