Sellers of air conditioners scare with a sharp rise in prices for the summer season
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In connection with the beginning of the warm season in Russia, the sellers of air conditioners, including household ones, decided to “warm up” the atmosphere: social networks and the media are already discussing the upcoming significant rise in the price of these devices. The reasons, as the sellers assure, are the same for the second year: sanctions and logistics, as well as the turbulence of the ruble exchange rate. What to expect from prices in reality and what problems threaten the already “acting” owners of climate control equipment – MK found out.
In mid-April, a number of Telegram channels with links to climate equipment sellers reported that new deliveries of household air conditioners had at least doubled in price. In particular, the Japanese Toshiba, according to news in social networks, has risen in price from 90 to about 190 thousand rubles (a model designed for 50-60 square meters of area). Slightly cheaper (but still too expensive) are Russian brands made in China: a model similar in performance will cost 150 thousand rubles.
Chinese brands are even cheaper – but they are not sold for less than 50-70 thousand, they warn in social networks. Add to this the cost of installation – and we get the formula “air conditioning is a luxury.” On one condition: if everything said is true.
“In short, it’s a lie,” Oleg Kladunov, the leading engineer of the company for the service of climate technology, told MK. – The other day I talked with suppliers, discussed the conditions for this year. Now for budget models, the order price is about 15-16 thousand rubles, they are available, adjusted for the margin of the retailer, you can add 10 thousand to this price. Of course, in the warm season, prices rise by about 10%, but this happens every year due to increased demand. There is no information about a possible shortage, none of our suppliers sounded the alarm, everything is in stock.
At the same time, prices on large marketplaces are as follows: models of the indicated performance of Chinese and Russian brands (as a rule, both are made in China) start at 35 thousand rubles. The most inexpensive model of the “familiar” brands (Europe, Japan, Korea) is estimated at 55 thousand rubles. Not cheap – but not 190 thousand, as they scare on the Internet, right? However, the premium Toshiba model (and the talk was originally about this brand) really costs exactly as much as indicated.
“The price is this, because it is a proven brand, and the goods are supplied according to parallel import schemes,” explained the online store that put up the climate equipment at the space price list.
“What is happening now with the market of almost all equipment, from cars to tools, can be called segmentation,” says Victor S., who owned an online home appliances store for several years. – European, Japanese, Korean brands clearly go into the premium category, even closer to luxury. Ask, for example, about the prices of European refrigerators and washing machines. At the same time, China offers simpler equipment, but it will be enough for domestic use, and the prices will be familiar – as much as European equipment used to cost, well, a little more expensive.
The difference between “folk” (Chinese) and “luxury” (Europe, Japan, Korea) brands is durability, maintainability, as well as “the feeling of a quality product,” the MK interlocutor explained. That is why even a thing of familiar brands brought “over the three seas” is likely to find a consumer who is ready to pay more – however, there may be few such consumers.
As for household air conditioners, an unpleasant surprise this year may not be for those Russians who are going to install such a device for the first time, but rather for those who need to repair equipment already installed in the “fat years”. As Fedor Mikhailov, a household appliance repairman working in Moscow and the Moscow region, told MK, the shortage and rise in price will most likely affect spare parts for European brands.
– At one time, they began to transport, for example, Italian spare parts through Turkey, but now, as you can hear, there are interruptions with this, too, – said the MK interlocutor. – In any case, if there is some kind of not quite trifling breakdown, you need to wait for a spare part from two weeks. Well, or improvise – but, unlike refrigerators, the layout in air conditioners is much denser, and it is difficult to install, say, non-native compressors.
The components of Japanese and Korean systems are easier to find, but they are also becoming more expensive, Mikhailov added. Therefore, the owners of the “climate” should check their devices in advance, before the onset of heat: then there will be time, if anything, to wait for spare parts from abroad. If it is necessary to put the equipment into operation “yesterday” (say, if we are talking about a store or other public place), then sometimes it is easier to replace the “complete” system with a Chinese model, the serviceman noted.
By the way, it is this last circumstance that inspires some hope for repairmen: “branded” devices decommissioned from institutions due to a lack of spare parts can be disassembled into components and assemblies to repair those air conditioners that remain in the hands of private owners. One thing is bad: more often than not, about the same thing breaks down, so not all spare parts can be obtained using the “cannibalism” method.
Newspaper headline:
Climate control in the head
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