Comment by paranoidrobot

I installed AC in my home in the last year.

I specifically went for units that were IR controlled rather than any proprietary smart B.S.

For the smarts, I used cheap IR blasters from AliExpress and hooked them up to HomeAssistant.

I just mounted cheap Lenovo tablets to the wall to do the room-dashboard thing to allow controlling lights/AC without a phone.

These kind of horror stories only serve to reinforce my decision.