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It certainly is easier to service, offers a lot more redundancy if something goes wrong, and offers more control over your comfort, but the draw back obviously is your house looks like something from Hong Kong and uses a lot of space in the panel box. Ceiling cassettes are recommended in areas where you have adequate access to the entire unit and drain line (i.e. a drop ceiling). I would not recommend stuffing one in a sheetrock ceiling with a short attic above.
Say you have four indoor units connected to one outdoor unit (4x1) and you have a refrigerant leak. You have about 20+ field joints on that system to inspect, not including the components. This can be very expensive from a labor perspective to find a single leak. If you have a 1x1 with a leak, there's about 4 connections and the tech only has to focus on that one system and much easier to manage.
From a comfort perspective, you also have more control with 1x1 systems because contrary to what the customer believes, you cannot fully control the temperature in one room. Outdoor units have a minimum operating capacity, meaning if you have a 48,000 BTU outdoor unit and only an 8,000 BTU air handler is calling for cooling, the system cannot operate at that low of a capacity, so it will force other units on to divert excess cooling/heating. This will cause other rooms to overcool or overheat.
If money is no object and you want cutting-edge efficiency and control, you can go the route of having a VRF system installed. It doesn't solve the problem of having a complex system, if that's a concern for you, but they are more versatile because they can simultaneously heat and cool multiple zones.
Originally Posted by Adlerberts-Protege
