24 000 BTU GENERAL AIRSTAGE RLB Mini Split in Montreal, Laval, Longueuil, South Shore and North Shore

GENERAL AIRSTAGE RLB 24,000 BTU: the Fujitsu Mini Split Heat Pump under its new name, to cool a whole upper floor in Châteauguay and heat in the shoulder seasons

In Châteauguay as in Beauharnois, the bedrooms are upstairs, and upstairs is the hottest place in the house from June to September. That is the use case of this page, and it starts with a clarification: the GENERAL AIRSTAGE RLB 24,000 BTU is the same machine as the Fujitsu AIRSTAGE RLB 24,000 BTU. Same indoor unit ASU24RLB, same outdoor unit AOU24RLB, same AHRI certificate 7940753, same values published by the manufacturer, same warranty. Fujitsu General Limited became GENERAL Inc. on January 1, 2026; only the name printed on the unit, the carton and the invoice changes.

The RLB is an air conditioning model first. It heats too, with heating guaranteed down to −15 °C, which covers fall, spring and the mild weeks of winter, but we will not present it as a primary heating system for January. This page explains what it does well, what we do not promise, and how we install it on the upper floor of a South Shore house.

GENERAL or Fujitsu AIRSTAGE: the same machine

What changes for you fits in one line: the logo. Fujitsu General was acquired in August 2025 by Paloma Rheem Holdings, owner of Rheem since 1988, and on January 1, 2026, Fujitsu General Limited became GENERAL Inc. The head office and the research and development centre are still in Kawasaki, Japan; the factories, the AIRSTAGE products, the model numbers and the warranty program are unchanged. The name is not a marketing invention: GENERAL has been in use as a trademark since 1946, and the company, founded in 1936, marks the 90th anniversary of its founding in 2026. In Canada, Rheem Canada has handled sales since February 2026; we continue to buy from Groupe Master, our distributor.

While the Fujitsu brand is phased out, the same mini split is sold under both names and may arrive with either logo. We publish both pages so that you can check that it is indeed the same unit, and the table below lines up the two versions, value by value.

The page under the original name remains accessible: Fujitsu AIRSTAGE RLB 24,000 BTU, with the same model numbers.

Cooling a whole upper floor with a single unit. An upper floor is generally three bedrooms, a bathroom and a hallway, and heat builds up there because it rises from the ground floor and the roof pushes it back down. With 24,000 BTU of cooling capacity, the RLB has the size for that entire floor, on one condition we check on site: the wall unit must be placed where the cold air can spread, meaning in the hallway or at the top of the stairs, so that the air settles by itself into the bedrooms whose doors stay open. A unit installed in a closed bedroom cools that bedroom and nothing else. The SEER2 of 18.0 published by the manufacturer measures cooling efficiency over a whole season; the higher it is, the less each hour of coolness costs on the Hydro-Québec bill. While cooling, the unit also pulls humidity out of the air, and that is often what makes a July night upstairs sleepable.

Heating in the shoulder seasons, said plainly. The manufacturer guarantees the RLB's heating down to −15 °C. Concretely, that means that from October to the end of November and from mid-March to May, the wall-mounted heat pump can keep the upper floor warm on its own, and that it takes over during winter thaws. When the thermometer drops below −15 °C, your current system, furnace or baseboards, takes the work back. For this model, we quote only the values published by the manufacturer: a SEER2 of 18.0 and heating guaranteed down to −15 °C. It is not ENERGY STAR certified, it is not rated for cold climates and it is not on the list of equipment eligible for Hydro-Québec's LogisVert program; so we will promise you no grant for it. That is precisely what makes it a sensible choice where coolness comes first and the primary heating already exists.

Discreet on the wall and in the yard. The indoor unit measures 39.25 in wide, 9 in deep and 12.63 in high: it fits above a hallway door or at the top of a staircase without overwhelming the wall. It runs between 31 and 47 dB(A) depending on fan speed; at low speed, in a hallway at night, you do not hear it from the bedrooms. The outdoor unit is about 31 in wide and 24.5 in high, a compact format for the side of a Châteauguay house, and it runs at 54 dB(A), a figure we take into account when choosing its location relative to bedroom windows.

The upstairs installation. A mini split needs no ductwork: the wall unit, the outdoor unit, and between the two a refrigerant line, a cable and a drain that pass through a single hole. Here is what our refrigeration technicians settle for an upstairs installation:

• Placing the unit: hallway, landing or master bedroom depending on what you want to cool first, on an exterior wall when possible to shorten the route.
• The refrigerant line: insulated 1/4 and 1/2 in copper, the format for this model, running down the exterior wall in a line cover to the unit on the ground or on its bracket.
• Drainage: from the upper floor, condensate drains easily by gravity, which in most cases avoids the condensate pump.
• The outdoor unit: on a wall bracket or a ground base, above the snow, with clearance for air and for defrost water.
• Electrical: a dedicated 208/230 V circuit, sized from the nameplate and connected by a licensed electrician.
• Wi-Fi: optional on this model; useful to start the upstairs cooling before coming home on a heat-wave evening.

Maintenance and filters. The indoor filters pull out by hand and rinse under warm water; in cooling season, they hold the upper floor's dust and deserve a regular rinse to keep the airflow. In the fall, a look at the outdoor unit to remove leaves, and in winter, a few shovelfuls after snowfalls. Once a year, a refrigeration technician checks the R-410A refrigerant charge, cleans the coil and the drain pan and checks the flow. The warranty is identical under both names: 12 years on the compressor, 12 years on parts, 6 years on labour, with an extended warranty possible.

Who this model is for. The two-storey house in Châteauguay or Beauharnois whose primary heating is already settled, a furnace in the basement or baseboards in every room, and where what is missing is coolness upstairs in summer. The owner who wants a simple mini split, without functions they will never use, and who understands that the unit will heat in the shoulder seasons rather than in the heart of January. If you are looking instead for a heat pump that replaces the baseboards all winter, we will propose a cold-climate model from the AIRSTAGE range rather than this one, and we will tell you why during the visit.

Free quote in Châteauguay, Beauharnois and across the South Shore

Call us at 514 316-2973 or request your free quote online. Our estimator goes upstairs, looks at the hallway, the bedrooms, the refrigerant line route and the electrical panel, then confirms the capacity and the location to you in writing. We install the GENERAL AIRSTAGE RLB 24,000 BTU on the South Shore, in Longueuil, Montreal, Laval and on the North Shore.

An RBQ-licensed HVAC contractor and AIRSTAGE Elite Plus installer, AirGreen delivers you the same machine under the GENERAL name or the Fujitsu name, installed by the same rules and followed by the same team. A cool upper floor in July is prepared in the spring; call before the first heat wave.