Mini split specifications, compared against the class
A mini split prints a BTU rating and a square footage on the same box, and never says whether the two agree. This site does the division.
Most mini split advice tells you which one is best. This site tells you what the market looks like, so you can see where any particular unit sits in it — and whether its own two headline numbers support each other. The median unit here claims 750 sq ft, which works out at 16.0 BTU per square foot against a rule of thumb of roughly 20.
Start with the finder
Six questions about the space, the circuit and who is installing it, and the mini split finder narrows the catalogue. Every result carries its own sizing check.
Browse by capacity
- 9,000 BTU Mini Splits — The smallest head made, and the one most likely to run from a circuit you already have.
- 12,000 BTU Mini Splits — The one-ton head, and by a wide margin the most-sold size there is.
- 18,000 BTU Mini Splits — A large living room or an open-plan floor.
- 24,000 BTU Mini Splits — Two tons.
- 36,000 BTU Mini Splits — Three tons and up.
Browse by feature, voltage or efficiency
The same catalogue cut the other ways people shop for it — by how it installs, by the supply it needs, or by how efficiently it runs.
- Mini Split Sizing: The Full Table
- DIY Mini Splits
- 115V Mini Splits
- 230V Mini Splits
- Heat Pump Mini Splits
- Multi-Zone Mini Splits
- High SEER2 Mini Splits
- Mini Split Guides
Oversizing is the mistake that does not announce itself
An undersized mini split runs constantly and never quite gets there. That is obvious within a day, and people fix it.
An oversized one cools the room quickly, satisfies its thermostat and shuts off — then does it again, and again. Because it never runs long enough to pull moisture out of the air, the room ends up cold and clammy rather than comfortable, and the compressor wears faster for all the extra starts. Nothing looks broken. That is why buyers size up “to be safe” and live with the result for years without knowing what is wrong.
So every result on this site carries the arithmetic: its own BTU rating divided by the coverage area its own listing claims. Where those two numbers disagree with each other, you can see it.
This is arithmetic, not a load calculation. The sizing check is the unit’s own BTU rating divided by the coverage area it claims, against a rule of thumb of roughly 20 BTU per square foot. It tells you when a listing’s two numbers disagree with each other. It knows nothing about your ceiling height, insulation, window area, climate or which way the room faces — and all of those move the answer. Sizing a system properly is a Manual J calculation and it is a professional’s job.
What a baseline is, and why it is the whole point
A single average across every mini split would be meaningless. This corpus runs from 9,000 BTU bedroom heads to 36,000 BTU multi-zone systems. So baselines are computed per BTU class, per room-size band and per circuit type — each axis on its own, because 5 classes by four bands is twenty cells over 91 products and almost none would clear the floor.
That produces 11 baselines across 11 groups. Where a group holds fewer than 8 listings, no baseline is published at all.
What we do not do
We do not install or test mini splits, and we say so on every page. There is no test chamber here and no instruments. What we have is the whole catalogue read consistently, which is a different kind of useful and an honest one.
Nothing here is installation advice. The sizing figures are arithmetic on published specifications. A Manual J load calculation is what actually sizes a system, and the electrical work and refrigerant handling belong to qualified people — handling refrigerant in the United States requires EPA certification.
We do not publish star ratings or review counts, and we do not print exact prices. Where a listing does not state a specification, we print not stated rather than a plausible default.
How the corpus is cleaned
This scrape came back unusually clean — no accessory-headed listings at all out of 94, because the search terms named the product and nothing else. Line sets, wall brackets and condenser pads were never searched for, so they never had to be filtered out. 3 products were removed as not being mini splits at all. The methodology page documents the process in full, including where it fails.
Start here if you are sizing one
What size mini split do I actually need? — the full table, every class against the coverage it claims.
About this site
Mini Split Data is written by a named editor working from published specifications, and funded by affiliate commission on Amazon purchases. Both facts are documented rather than buried:
- About Mini Split Data — who writes this, and what a pen name does and does not mean.
- How we compile these figures — the full method, including where it fails.
- Affiliate disclosure — how this site earns, and what that does not influence.
- Contact — corrections to published figures are the most useful thing you can send.
- Privacy policy — what is collected, which is very little.