Midea’s new foray into the world climate-control products is a breath of fresh air in the PTAC industry as a whole. With a bold new approach from teams of expert designers, Midea is making it clear they’re here to give the likes of GE and Amana a run for their money.
Who exactly is Midea?
Well, if you didn’t know them already, Midea is a Fortune 500 company and the largest producer of major appliances in the world. Beyond that, they’re the worldwide No. 1 brand of kettles, rice cookers, and—perhaps most importantly for you—air-treatment products and air coolers.
Midea is headquartered in Southern China, but there’s no doubt they’re a global company, boasting over 100,000 employees and operations in more than 200 countries. With 21 production facilities and 260 logistics centers worldwide, they’re nothing short of a juggernaut.
But Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was Midea. It’s founder, He Xiangjian, started out with only CN¥5,000, opening a workshop in 1968 for the production of bottle lids. Since then, he’s turned his project into one of the most successful private companies in China.
After an initial period of manufacturing car parts and bottle lids, Midea switched focus to the manufacture of fully finished goods. Beginning in 1980, electric fans became their primary product.
But then, five years later, they produced their first air conditioner, changing their mission forever. Air conditioners have remained the core component of Midea’s business to this day. They’ve gradually expanded into a wide variety of other electrical home appliances, including refrigerators, washing machines, and microwaves—but climate control has never lost its place at the heart of their focus.
Today, after 50 years of continued growth, Midea generates annual global revenue of more than $22 billion USD.
And all of that production hasn’t gone without recognition, either. Every single year, Midea wins more than 40 design awards across a variety of reputable global design shows, such as the Red Dot, iF, and Good Design Awards, among others.
During the last decade, Midea has landed a number of increasingly high-profile projects, peaking with the most recent wins: installing large-scale HVAC solutions in all 12 stadiums of the 2016 Olympic games in Brazil, as well as 9 of the 12 stadiums for the 2014 World Cup, also in Brazil.
Now they’re ready to change the PTAC industry forever.
Until recently, Midea designed and manufactured air conditioners for other companies. Now, however, they’re establishing their own brand of quality climate-control units, using the knowledge they’ve gained through years of collaboration with industry giants to create custom models with the best of all worlds.
Midea has taken note of the successes and failures of brands like Amana and GE and put what they’ve learned to good use.
PTAC Crew’s VP of Business Development had this to say about a visit to their lab:
“Stop #2 was a meeting at Midea offices and lab with Rob Lafleur. Rob showed me their lab and how they’re making improvements to Midea’s units to become comparable in quality and features with Amana and GE. (They had Amana and GE units in their lab for comparative purposes.) We discussed some of the common problems we encounter when installing alternate brand units into competitors’ sleeves. We also talked about t-stats and suggested design improvements for their 42” and 26” units. Midea seems to be making great strides in bringing their units in line with premium brand standards.”
Exciting news for the PTAC community!
So what makes these Midea custom PTACs so special?
Well, just for starters:
- Every unit boasts extra large ventilation doors to keep any environment fresh. These vents cycle in more fresh air, thoroughly circulating it for maximum comfort.
- A choice of 3 fan speeds gives users total control of the airstream while in operation.
- All units are designed for the utmost in easy, user-friendly control. A large LED and digital display offers full, easy-to-read details of all settings in use.
- The units even come with an intuitive, easy-to-use remote control. Anyone can adjust their ideal temperature setting and fan speed from anywhere within range—all at the touch of a button.
- A handy automatic defrosting feature prevents evaporator freezing and maintains the device’s dehumidifying effect even at the lowest temperatures.
And that’s just the beginning of the treats Midea is offering through their fresh line of PTACs and other climate-control solutions.
It’s time to make yourself at home.
Midea recently launched a new motto: “Midea—make yourself at home.”
If the innovative advances of their products so far are anything to go on, they mean to make it easy for anyone to do just that.