DIY mini split brands, by price per BTU
10 brands have at least one DIY system with a verified live price. Among the 5 with enough systems for a typical figure, TURBRO is the cheapest brand at $52.08 per 1,000 BTU/h and Zone Air the dearest at $165.87 — a 3.2× spread between brands on the same axis, before any difference in size or efficiency is accounted for.
Prices retrieved: September 7, 2026, 20:37 UTC. A typical figure is a median and is shown only for brands with at least 4 systems live; below that the cheapest is still a real price, but one or two listings are not a brand's pricing.
Every brand on one page
This is one page rather than one page per brand on purpose. A brand page built from three listings and a logo is thin by construction; a table that puts every brand on the same axis, with the same live prices, says more in one screen than ten such pages would. Where a brand has enough systems to deserve its own page — MRCOOL — it has one.
| Brand | Live | Sizes, BTU | Cheapest $/1,000 BTU | Typical | Price range | Median SEER2 | Third-party |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TABU | 1 | 24,000 | $28.75 | too few | $690–$690 | 21 | 1 of 1 |
| Electactic | 1 | 18,000 | $44.44 | too few | $800–$800 | 19 | Amazon |
| Albott | 3 | 12,000 | $45.83 | too few | $550–$570 | 18 | 3 of 3 |
| TURBRO | 4 | 9,000, 12,000, 18,000 | $50.00 | $52.08 | $580–$900 | 23 | 4 of 4 |
| YUMPIE | 1 | 12,000 | $50.00 | too few | $600–$600 | 18 | 1 of 1 |
| HUMSURE | 1 | 18,000 | $61.11 | too few | $1,100–$1,100 | 20 | 1 of 1 |
| Perfect Aire | 4 | 9,000, 12,000, 24,000, 36,000 | $71.43 | $113.86 | $1,668–$2,500 | 17.5 | 4 of 4 |
| Klimaire | 5 | 12,000, 18,000, 24,000, 36,000 | $73.58 | $99.39 | $1,489–$2,649 | 23 | 5 of 5 |
| MRCOOL | 8 | 9,000, 12,000, 18,000, 24,000, 36,000 | $104.14 | $155.81 | $1,569–$3,749 | 19.5 | 6 of 8 |
| Zone Air | 12 | 9,000, 12,000, 18,000, 21,000, 24,000, 27,000, 33,000, 36,000 | $125.00 | $165.87 | $2,100–$4,900 | 24 | 12 of 12 |
Sizes are the nominal capacities with a live system. Seller is where Amazon's offer comes from; “third-party” means a marketplace seller rather than Amazon itself, which bears on returns and on who you talk to if something arrives damaged.
What separates the cheap end from the dear end
The typical TURBRO system costs $52.08 per 1,000 BTU/h; the typical Zone Air system $165.87. Some of that gap is efficiency and some of it is what a price per BTU cannot see: a dealer network, a labour warranty sold with the unit, line sets included rather than extra, and generations of the same line kept in stock. The cost-to-run page prices the efficiency part; the rest is a judgement about what happens when something goes wrong, and this site does not make it for you.
- The cheap end
- The cheapest rows are brands with one to four listings, every one of them from a third-party seller — the table's last column says so per brand. Their prices are real and verified daily; a support record is not something a price can carry, and a brand with one listing has not yet shown one.
- The dear end
- MRCOOL created the pre-charged DIY category; Zone Air, Klimaire and Perfect Aire sell wider size ranges with line sets and labour warranties in the box. Which of them is dearest per BTU today is in the sentence at the top, not here: it moves with the prices, and the page computes it rather than asserting it.
- One brand, two voltages
- Several brands sell the same size at 115 V and 230 V; the gap between the two is small and sometimes negative — measured per line.
Why some brands are not here
Senville, Pioneer, Della, Cooper & Hunter and the other names a search turns up are absent for one reason: their Amazon listings either state that a licensed installer is required, or state nothing about installation at all. This catalogue holds pre-charged DIY systems only, because that is the only way a price per BTU is comparable — a system that needs a technician carries $1,000–$3,500 of labour the number cannot see. A brand joins the moment a listing of its says, in its own words, that no vacuum pump and no technician are needed.
Every system listed here is a heat pump that both cools and heats, and every one is new, not refurbished or open-box. 40 of 43 catalogued systems have a verified live price right now.
Full ranking by $/BTU · What counts as a good price · MRCOOL DIY prices