Universal remote for air conditioners (almost tactical :)))).

I have an old air conditioner at work. It works, but it has no remote, and using an air conditioner without one is rather inconvenient. I tried a few remotes from the market, but none of them worked so far. So when I was choosing another product to review and test on the chinabuye website, I decided to give their universal remote a try.
Read on after the jump.

While some more interesting reviews are slowly taking shape, I’ll write about something more practical: a universal remote control for an air conditioner.
I’ll explain why later—it’s almost tactical. For now, I’ll just tell you what it is and how it works, with the usual introduction and description you’ll find in many reviews.

The little remote arrived in the usual yellow envelope, wrapped in a bubble-wrap bag.


The remote itself came in a box. It got a little squashed in transit, but nothing serious.


The back of the box lists the brands of air conditioners it supports.


Inside the box were the remote itself and an instruction manual in English.


The back of the manual has a list of codes for setting up the remote for specific air conditioner brands.


The remote looks quite neat and sits comfortably in the hand. The keys have a moderate amount of resistance, and feel fine to use.
It has a couple of extra buttons: Maximum Cooling and Maximum Heating. Pressing one sets the temperature to 18 degrees and the fan to maximum speed; the other sets it to 27 degrees and maximum fan speed, all with a single press. There’s also an E-heat button, but its purpose isn’t very clear.
The power button is phosphorescent, but it glows very faintly.


A group photo, compared with some other air conditioner remotes. The Fujitsu and LG ones are mine; the Daikin one came in for repair. As you can see, this remote is small, but the screen is pretty good.
It can’t display the current measured air temperature like the LG remote, but the more expensive Fujitsu can’t do that either.


There are two LEDs on the end.


And now I’ve finally arrived at the original feature.
Just recently, in another review, I joked about a tactical notebook with a knife and flashlight. As it turns out, my joke wasn’t entirely a joke. This remote has a built-in flashlight.
I’ve handled hundreds of remotes for all kinds of equipment. I’ve seen all sorts of things: Bang & Olufsen aluminum cases, the bare-bones remotes that come with TV tuners, and the sophistication of universal remotes. But this is the first time I’ve seen a flashlight.
The flashlight is turned on with the LIGHT button (which makes perfect sense). Press once to turn it on, press again to turn it off. If you forget to switch it off, it shuts down automatically after 15 seconds, so you won’t accidentally drain the batteries completely.


The remote's internals are minimalism at its finest: a transistor, resistor, capacitor, crystal, a couple of LEDs, and a blob of an IC.


Just the other day I was repairing a remote for a Mitsubishi air conditioner. That one had two crystals, not to mention a bunch of other components (I think it even had reverse-polarity protection for the battery). But there's no need to talk about the price of original remotes—they're in a completely different league.


Testing showed that the remote worked perfectly with an LG air conditioner (even the code for a White Snow unit worked), two different Chigo models, Midea (code 040), Daikin (code 963, listed as other brand), Rotex (listed as Whirlpool, code 789), and my very rare AKAI (code 995), which none of the remotes from the market could control.
It didn't work with Fujitsu, though I didn't try every combination. With Rotex, I found the code for the unit it was copied from, but I think it's unlikely I'll find a clone of the Fujitsu.

Summary.
Pros.
The remote works.
The remote is very comfortable (overall feel and ergonomics).
The instructions are in English, not hieroglyphs.
It has a flashlight (though I'm not sure that's a plus, but it could come in handy).
I finally found a remote that works with the old air conditioner at work, which is definitely something to be happy about.

Cons.
My Fujitsu units were beyond this remote's capabilities, despite the manufacturer's claim that they're supported.
You'll have to buy the batteries separately; they aren't included, though the website does say the remote doesn't come with batteries.

The remote for this test and review was provided free of charge by the chinabuye store.