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

I bought this to reduce the load on my Ecoflow battery/inverters (DPU). My ancient 2T AC was pulling 40-50A when it started up and this was causing a little bit of an overload *sometimes* (I have two inverters so basically 14400W, and my ac was momentarily close to this, so any additional load like a microwave or power saw would put it over). Anyway, long story short this thing works great and dropped statup to 27A (7000W) immediately and within a few cycles it was quite a bit lower than that, meaning I will have no issues in an outage. The herky jerky is also gone so I'm sure that's good for the compressor as well.It is a little pricey and a little bulky compared to other units, but the bluetooth monitoring is quite nice. *super* easy to install, although due to the bulk I had to relocate the capacitor of the AC unit to cram this inside. It looks very watertight so I'm sure you can mount it outside but that seemed worse if you don't have to. The build quality appears excellent. The included cable bushing is crap and I would go with a proper cable connector for a service box or a cable gland if you really want to make it watertight.

So the hookup was pretty straight forward once you spend the time to accurately identify your compressor terminal/wires as well as the contactor and start capacitor terminals. It was a little tight physically mounting the unit inside my control panel but was able to make it work.It’s worth mentioning that the very first startup of my unit made a very audible and loud initial humming/buzzing sound for the first second which kind of startled me. But after that initial start, it’s been “smooth sailing” afterwards. It still blows my mind that my unit is now only pulling about 20 (inrush) amps with only about 8 (running) amps! Wow!Hoping that this product is durable.Looking forward to hopefully saving some money on my utility bill. Most of all looking forward to being prepared for any power outages as I have my portable generator on the ready and already safely tied into my main panel for not only house operation but emergency cooling as well!

It does work great. I installed this device on my AC (4 ton) for a generator. I was pretty surprised when I opened the panel of my AC and saw there were a lot of extra capacitors and hard start devices installed. Still, with all that mess of wires, this was installed with no problem, and I noticed a considerable difference. I no longer hear the compressor starting. The cable was long enough for me to drill a hole through my brick wall and pass it through from the inside and into the AC. I mounted the box on the inside of my garage so I did not have to worry about water or sun. I am in South Florida.

Installation was easy enough. I wanted to install this inside the cabinet of my Goodman 3 ton ac unit. I moved the location of the capacitor inside the cabinet to allow the EZ Start to fit nicely. Before installation, starting amps (inrush current) was 124 amps. After installation it is 21.9 amps. As expected, running amps remained the same (about 6.4 amps.) Unit compressor starting noise is significantly reduced. In fact, the first time the unit was started after EZ Start installation, I did not even hear or notice when the compressor kicked on. Remarkable.One extra benefit that is not often noted in reviews is the surge protection this product offers. Your EZ Start unit may protect your ac unit from sudden power surges. So instead of your ac unit being destroyed, the EZ Start unit, in essence, will "sacrifice" itself and absorb the surge. While this may likely destroy the EZ Start device if the surge is large enough, it should insulate and protect your ac unit from damage or destruction that would easily have cost you thousands of dollars to repair or replace.

This box is designed to reduce the inrush amps as well as start the compressor circuit separately from the normal operation of the fan. The ramp up of the compressor without the jolt is supposed to help extend the life of the compressor. My normal inrush was 144 amps while my dataplate says the max is 152. This box brought my inrush down to and average of 27amps, even dipping into the the 26s. This is better than advertised. Thats a win for me as my unit is 10 years old. I picked up the kit with the installation hardware and I was not disappointed. It came with non-crimp Wago lever wirenuts, sheet metal screws, and an adhesive double sided pad. Presumably if you can't drill. The two wires that can use spade connectors were pre-crimped. All I had to do was mount the box and cut and strip a wire, slip on two wago's and done. You will need wirestripper, and a drill with bits as these don't have self-tapping screws. You may also find a step drill bit for the whip hole is helpful. The APP that works over bluetooth is fairly straight forward but your AC does have to be on for the box to get power thus allowing connectivity via the app. Several options in there but documenting the learning start number and the running and startup amps is awesome. Overall if the unit holds up in the weather this will was a fantastic investment.

Installed unit on a 12-year-old 4-ton Goodman SSX160481BA on 5/21/25. The device does work as advertised, startup noise is greatly reduced, and house lights no longer dim when the AC compressor starts. The installation support from Hutch Mountain was top-notch. While I was confident I understood how to install the unit, it's my default rule to confirm rather than to assume anything, so I texted Hutch Mountain to confirm. In a very reasonable amount of time, I received a text reply and a follow-up phone call from one of the techs. The connectors included in the installation kit are great.