MICRO-AIR EasyStart FLEX 398 - Bluetooth Soft Start Kit for Home Air Conditioner, RV & Commercial Use, Works with Generators, Reduces Power Surge, Efficient Start-Up - Up to 6 Tons w/Installation Kit

EDIT: I installed this item one week ago today. It has worked as advertised. While returning from running errands this morning I received a notification on my phone that the power was out at the house. The first real world opportunity to see if this piece of kit is worthy of the cheddar. I arrived home in about 10 minutes and confirmed much of the neighborhood was out. It's hot, DAMNED HOT, outside today and this will never do! It took about 15 minutes total time to get the gennie up and running and arrive at the moment of truth. I flipped the breaker for the gennie and powered the panel, then energized the furnace circuit (Ecobee thermostat controls), then energized the A/C circuit and waited. It took right at 2 minutes for the Ecobee to come online (wifi is on UPS) and call for cool. The fan on the A/C started first, seconds later the compressor started, the gennie shouldered the load like a CHAMP, and the A/C was running! I energized the rest of the circuits according to my emergency power plan and monitored cycle performance in cool air conditioned comfort. "I love it when a plan comes together!", Colonel John "Hannibal" Smith. Purchase with confidence! OE Review... Meets and exceeds expectations. Simple, straightforward four wire installation. Easy enough for a handy DIYer. They even have a short YouTube instruction video! I purchased this so I could have AC when the power goes out. I have a 4 ton HVAC that drew 106a inrush before installation. Too much for a modest portable generator in a power outage. After 6 learning cycles it only pulls 26.xxa! A bona fide 75% reduction in startup draw! It’s also much quieter now too. I highly recommend!

I purchased this to reduce the starting load from my AC unit so I can run my house on my backup generator. I'm a very technical/handy person and found the installation instructions very easy to understand. I don't think you need to be very technical/handy to install this device. The installation was quick. The product works GREAT. Prior to install, my AC would not start on generator power. Now it all starts and I'm ready for the next storm. Great product!

Update after 8 months .. device workin perfectly fine, total starts in the past 8 months is 4498 ( see attached picute ) I have a 3Ton , 35000BTU Goodman DSZC180361 heat pump with a Two-Stage Copeland UltraTech scroll compressor ( RLA 15.3Amp , LRA 83Amp, FLA 2.8Amp) , installed MICRO-AIR Easy Start FLEX 398 - Bluetooth Soft Start Kit few days ago , followed the instruction from the install guide " Easy Start Home AC Wiring Installing The Micro-Air Easy Start" section 5 , page 11-12, installation took less than 15 min. I have the Emerson comfort alert board " Late Model " . In rush current is reduced from around 80Amps to around 32-33 Amp during start up, after 5 "learned starts and 34 total starts with zero fault. (as of today) The easy start perfectly fit in the condenser housing, so its hidden from elements :) !!! BUT !!! I ran into some issues ... The soft start device killed the Heat Pump start capacitor after the first 2 successful learned starts. Heat Pump wasn't able to start , fan was working fine , of course no cold air , "open start circuit " error on the thermostat screen. First thought is the easy start what causing the issue , so i uninstalled the device , but still no working compressor, no cold air , same error on the thermostat ... same symptoms.. Replaced the start capacitor (Titan Pro 40+5 MFD 440 V), Heat pump up and running ... re installed the easy start device ... heat pump up and running ... In rush current is around 32-33 Amps. Not sure why or what happened , the manufacturing date on the start capacitor was 2014 , so it was to time to replace anyway :) Contacted Micro Air customer service via email 3 times before purchase , to make sure the device is compatible with my unit , never ever received any responds, so decided to give a try :). Contacted Micro Air customer service about the issue i faced after the first installation, i received answer on the same day. Contacted Micro Air customer service , after capacitor replacement , asked if i should re install the easy start device ( worried its going to kill the new capacitor i just installed), did not get any answer yet , so i went ahead and re installed the device ... so far everything working as its should now :) as of now , 5 star for the device 5 Star for the super easy instalation 5 star for the device functionality 5 start for the online instruction , installation manual 3 star for customer service Thats a 4.6 stars :) Going to update my review if " something " happening in the future :) Update : Micro Air Customr service contacted me , next day after i submitted my review , and suggested to re install the easy start device :)

Item works as described. I had to call Manufacture and they were great assisting my DIY install, They even face timed me and followed thru till it was a successful install.

This thing is awesome! Installing it took less than 10 minutes after watching Hutch Mountains install video, and my air conditioner starts up so much smoother now! I am currently running most of my house off of 3 Ecoflow delta pro ultras and about 15kw worth of solar panels. With this unit I was finally able to move my A/C system over to solar power. My air conditioner initially required almost 120a to start up which was overloading all three of those units. I found that the start/run capacitor in the unit had started failing. I replaced that and it dropped the startup down to around 60a. This Soft Start system cut that even further down to about 18a. With this unit you could actually use a generator to power your home AC if needed. It also features a bluetooth diagnostic system to let you know if something is wrong with the unit during startup. I've noticed that my running wattage is about the same (maybe slightly less), but starting surge is about 1/3 of what it was. So I would think this should cut a little bit out of my power bill. It is a little on the expensive side, but for something that is made in the US (and made with high quality components, it has nippon capacitors installed in it!), I was willing to spend a little more. It is also a fairly small unit that is weather sealed. It will mount just about anywhere with the included double sided tape, or you can repurpose the panel screws that covers the relay/capacitors on the unit like I did. The front cover is clear plastic, which allows you to see the internal status LED's for a quick check to see what the unit is doing.

I run two geothermal heat pumps - one 6 tonne and the other is 3 tonne. No more harsh startup sounds or light flickers on startup. On first startup in learn mode saw 66% reduction in startup current.

My issue was the lights would flicker whenever the AC compressor would start. The Micro-Air Flex has solved that for me. I think it does a bunch of extra things that will benefit me down the road, but for now my problem is fixed! Easy to install. Instructions were very good.