GENERAL AIRSTAGE J-7S Mini-VRF R32 | 36000 BTU - 5 Heads

• Energy Star®: Oui
• WiFi: En Option
• Efficiency: 21.7 SEER
• Warranty (Compressor - Parts - Labor): 12-12-6
• Additional Warranty (10-10-10): Possible
• Voltage: 220V
• Sound Pressure Level (Outdoor): 57.0 dB(A)
• Gas (Freon): R-32

GENERAL AIRSTAGE J-7S Mini-VRF 36,000 BTU and 5 indoor units: one Heat Pump for all three apartments of a triplex

One point first: this GENERAL AIRSTAGE J-7S and the Fujitsu AIRSTAGE twin are one and the same unit, the AOUK036SSAN7 outdoor unit connected to five indoor units. The manufacturer that built it under the name Fujitsu General Limited has been called GENERAL Inc. since January 1, 2026. You get the same manufacturer's brochure and the same warranty, whatever the label.

The case on this page: a triplex owner who wants to heat and cool all three apartments with a single outdoor unit, instead of lining up three heat pumps in the yard or on the back balconies. The idea holds up, as long as you treat it for what it is: shared equipment for the building, just like the electrical service or the roof. Five indoor units, five zones, three households: there are choices to make about the split, about who controls what and about how the refrigeration technician gets into tenants' homes for maintenance.

GENERAL or Fujitsu AIRSTAGE: the same machine

Two names for one machine, and the explanation fits in a few dates. The Paloma Rheem Holdings group, Rheem's owner since 1988, took over Fujitsu General Limited in August 2025; on January 1, 2026, the name GENERAL Inc. replaced the old one. Nothing else moved: head office and R&D centre in Kawasaki, Japan, same factories, same AIRSTAGE products, same model numbers, same warranty program. The Fujitsu name is fading out gradually and, until then, both labels coexist on identical units.

For an owner comparing quotes, this period sows confusion; we clear it up by showing both pages. AirGreen is an AIRSTAGE Elite Plus installer, Rheem Canada has handled Canadian sales since February 2026 and Groupe Master remains our distributor.

The same system under the Fujitsu name is on the Fujitsu AIRSTAGE J-7S page with five indoor units.

The J-7S is a variable refrigerant flow (VRF) system: one outdoor unit that modulates the refrigerant sent to each indoor unit according to the room's demand. The 3-ton AOUK036SSAN7 accepts up to nine. With five, each apartment gets at least one unit and the larger ones get two.

The split is decided at the visit, based on the size and orientation of each apartment. Purely as an illustration, a building where two apartments are clearly larger than the third could get two units in each of them and one in the smallest. The total capacity must always respect the outdoor unit, and we set no combination before we have measured.

In a plex, the wall-mounted unit is often the simplest choice: 4,000 to 14,000 BTU/h, auto swing louvers, 6 fan speeds and 22 dB(A) in quiet mode for bedrooms. The other families have their place depending on the apartment:

• the slim ducted unit, 198 mm (7-13/16 in.) high, 4,000 to 18,000 BTU/h and 0.36 in. WC, when a renovated apartment has bulkheads or a dropped ceiling that can hide it;
• the compact cassette, 4,000 to 18,000 BTU/h, with a built-in condensate drain pump, for a ground-floor commercial space with a suspended ceiling;
• the multi-position air handler, 12,000 to 60,000 BTU/h, in S, M or L chassis, if an apartment already has a duct network that can be reused after inspection.

Access is the first practical question. The indoor units are in the tenants' homes: their maintenance, like any repair, goes through the notice the law requires of the owner. The outdoor unit, for its part, must be reachable without going through an apartment: back yard, flat roof with safe access or shared balcony. At 998 mm (39-5/16 in.) high, it fits under a window or on a balcony below the railing height, and it weighs 15% less than the previous generation, which does not remove the need to check the balcony structure.

Controls per apartment come next. Each indoor unit can have its own local control, wired, wired touch or wireless, all optional, so each household sets its own comfort. Optional Wi-Fi lets a tenant adjust their apartment from a phone. An owner who wants an overall view can add a central remote controller, a system controller or a touch panel controller, at home or in a common area. Better to set the ground rules with your tenants before commissioning.

Electricity and energy are the question people forget. A single outdoor unit connects to a single panel, at 208/230 V, with an MCA of 29 A and an MOP of 30 A. If it is wired to the owner's meter, the owner pays most of the heating and cooling energy for all three apartments, which changes how the leases are written. Settle it with your electrician and whoever advises you on your leases.

For the owner who pays for the energy, the system's figures matter: SEER2 of 21.7, HSPF2 of 10.8, EER2 of 13.6. Don't let the brochure confuse you: its highest values, namely SEER2 up to 22.2, HSPF2 up to 11.3, EER2 up to 15.7 and COP2 up to 4.64, are J-7S series maximums, not this unit's results. The spec sheet also gives 26,200 BTU at −8 °C and, at −15 °C, 36,400 BTU with a COP of 2.14; these test points are not meant to be compared with each other.

For all three apartments at once, the manufacturer states the system heats down to −26 °C with no lockout at low temperature; it is ENERGY STAR cold climate certified under ID 3813050. In summer, on a flat roof in full sun, the margin matters: according to the brochure, cooling stays reliable up to 50 °C outside.

The circuit shared by the three apartments holds R-32, a low global warming potential refrigerant; the brochure sets the system's maximum charge at 6 kg (13.2 lb) and states 12% less refrigerant than in the previous generation. Since the piping crosses several apartments, let's be frank about it: ducted units have a built-in leak detection sensor, wall units and cassettes can take an optional sensor kit, and you can add a gas sensor kit with audible and visual alarm as well as a refrigerant shut-off valve kit with backup power.

For piping, the J-7S allows up to 120 m (393 ft) in total, enough to rise from one apartment to the next through a service shaft, stacked closets or the back wall. The main piping diameters, 3/8 and 5/8 in., stay modest in a shared shaft. The routing, the location of the units and the firestopping of the passages between apartments are set at the visit.

Maintenance of a shared system gets planned: filters cleaned in each apartment, drains checked, outdoor unit kept clear of snow, a visit from a refrigeration technician. The compressor and parts are warranted for 12 years, labour for 6 years, a point worth noting in the building's file.

Hydro-Québec's LogisVert list of October 27, 2026 assigns $3,144 to this outdoor unit, listed under AHRI certificate 216372781. Whether a three-unit building qualifies is up to Hydro-Québec's rules: we tell you the listed amount, Hydro-Québec confirms the rest.

This system suits the owner-occupant who lives in one of the apartments or the owner renovating all three at once.

Official brochures

The manufacturer's brochures are available as PDF files:

• Brochure in French (PDF)
• Brochure in English (PDF)

A triplex in Saint-Pierre, Lachine: let's plan all three apartments together

At the visit, we go through each apartment, look at the electrical service and where the outdoor unit could go, then hand you a free quote with the proposed split of the five indoor units. Call AirGreen at 514 316-2973. As a Montreal HVAC contractor, we work in Saint-Pierre and across Lachine, in Laval, in Longueuil, on the North Shore and on the South Shore.