MICRO-AIR EasyStart Flex 398 Soft Start Kit for Home & RV Air Conditioner

I this worth the cost of entry? YES, if the claims hold true and this unit lasts, the cost of the unit should most certainly extend the life of the condenser. Is it easy to install? YES, they've done a great job with the installation instructions in both YouTube and pdf formats. The initial start up amps for me were 54 amps and the unit would dim the lights and it was quite loud on startup. I have a 2024 Trane and recently bought this home. I got this easy start kit and WOW! No lights dimming, no loud noise and a start up amperage of 19.3 to 20.1 within the first 5 cycles. That said, for the price it would have been nice to have WiFi instead of Bluetooth BUT, I understand the reasoning behind the choice. Here's hoping this gives me many more years of reliable use.

Product works excellent. My home office has the AC unit directly next to it - the inside wall is shared with the outside wall where the AC unit is located. The startup sound before was loud, and sudden, even causing the lights to dim. Now, the startup is very quiet - the EasyStart allows the compressor to 'ease into' starting. I hear the fan on the AC unit come on first, then hear the compressor much more quietly start up. No sudden lights dimming anymore during startup either. I would recommend watching the videos and look carefully at the website for the directions for your specific AC unit. I have a Lennox and found the video most helpful to watch first, then used the paperwork to confirm I was connecting the right wires. Bluetooth app is cool too because it shows the startup amps and running amps, which helps me determine how big of a generator would be required to get the 3 ton AC working from generator power. I would absolutely buy this again!

We just put 29 kw of solar on our roof, and 40kwh of battery back up. We went with battery backup, in hopes we don’t need any grid energy during peak hours. My plan is to change my utility to time of use, with a super off peak plan. The downside is our peak energy cost is $0.24/ kWh. I believe my solar should be able to keep up with our energy use, but I was concerned with the two SC units start up load. Each draws over 100 amps at startup. After installing these micro-air doft starts, we are drawing 20 amps on startup. My solar and batteries will easily handle full load even if both start up at the same time. These will be worth every penny, if I don’t need any grid power except during the super off peak window. It’ll save me $0.10/ kWh from my current rate, and $0.29 off the peak rate with the new plan. We use a lot of kWh so I could see saving over $100 per month, simply by being able to switch plans. Solar is also saving me over $100/ month. The initial investment in these was high at $800, but have a full home of working AC, while not overloading my solar and battery system, during storm outages is well worth it. That’s a week of running a standby generator at today’s fuel prices.

So far, so good. I was initially hesitant about ordering & installing the Micro-Air EasyStart because I was afraid that it would not be compatible with my Goodman GPGM34208041AB unit, yet it appears to be working wonderfully. This A/C unit was pulling 126A on start and was it was also rather loud (Goodman units can be very loud), but now the EasyStart has it down to under 31A per start and it is much quieter. -That is a massive difference, plus the lights in my home no longer go dim when the A/C kicks in.

The device itself is 5 stars. The app is 2 stars, at best. The device was easy to install DIY, and I’m not handy at all. The instructions were clear and the YouTube video was easy to follow. Based on the info in the app, it’s doing exactly what it’s supposed to do. My two ton Trane XR14 was starting around 55-60a, and now starts around 15-20a, and that’s after more than 3600 starts. For clarity, the pictures I posted are now that I’m re-doing the learning process after a few months of use. My only complaint is the app. It’s top tier garbage. If you’re not within 5 feet of the device, it won’t connect. If you don’t try to connect within 20 seconds or so of the unit kicking on, it won’t connect. Even when you do connect, it’ll drop after less than a minute. And then you can’t reconnect until the device restarts. And even when you’re connected, the app itself is like it’s designed for a person who has never used an app before. It’s like the Jitterbug phone equivalent of an app. Overall, I’d recommend the device because it flawlessly does what matters most. But getting into the app to verify that it’s doing its job is a huge pain. Edited to add some photos of the app. I was able to connect, take a screenshot of the stats, and then you can see the chain of it disconnecting, then failing as I tried to reconnect. This was all in the span of like 45-60 seconds after the unit kicked on.

This easyStart is so simple to install and it worked perfect. From the moment I restored power to our 3 1/2 ton unit. Within five cycles it had reduced the surge amperage to 21 A and I can’t hear it start up anymore from inside the house. Highly recommended. The only negative I can tell is it is Short Bluetooth range meaning you need to be right near the unit to make that work. I would prefer to have long range so I could do it from inside the home and not have to stand out in 110° temperatures to look at readings.

I bought this soft start kit for my sons A/C system. I watched many videos online and looked for the best one. When I found a video of a guy putting this exact one on his A/C it looked to easy and appeared to work great. So, I tried it out. My A/C was a different brand than what he installed it on. However, it was almost identical in the installation procedure and was by far the easiest one I saw. I think the overall installation was about 15 minutes. There were no special tools needed and it mounted behind the cover plate just fine. We started it up and measured the amps after installation and it was drastically reduced. The reason we did a soft start was due to power failures and his generator not starting the A/C compressor. He has a 11,000 watt generator with a 12,000 watt start. It struggled to start the A/C. After installing the soft start, it started the A/C with no problem and continued to run along with 2 refrigerators and fans in the house. A little piece of security now when the hurricanes come and power is out. I would highly recommend spending the money on this particular one. It may be a little more but is well worth the ease of installation and the fact that it works with no problem. Just my opinion.

Works as advertised. Lowered my peak start amperage which should save money and reduce wear and tear. I had 1 issue where this device stopped working as it experienced a peak start overcurrent fault. I'd give more stars but I think the software is mediocre and not completely intuitive. The accompanying video and FAQ are very helpful. Even a layman can install this. I have a 5 ton R-22 unit with a LRA of 169amps. I measured 80 peak amps before. 40 to 60 amp peak amps after install. My unit started quieter with this device.

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.