GENERAL AIRSTAGE CENTAURI R32 Ducted Heat Pump | 42000 BTU

GENERAL AIRSTAGE CENTAURI ARUH42KUAS Ducted Heat Pump, 42,000 BTU: the large open-concept home, with the outdoor unit far from the deck

The GENERAL AIRSTAGE CENTAURI 42,000 BTU system pairs the ARUH42KUAS ducted indoor unit with the AOUH42KUAS1 outdoor unit. These are the same two units as the twin Fujitsu AIRSTAGE, identical down to the model number. The manufacturer only changed its name: Fujitsu General Limited has gone by GENERAL Inc. since January 1, 2026, and neither the manufacturer’s spec sheet nor the warranty has moved.

It is aimed at a specific kind of house: a ground floor where kitchen, dining room and living room form one large space, and a backyard organized around the deck. The outdoor unit too often ends up right next to the patio door, simply because that is the shortest run. Here, the refrigerant line can reach 246 ft (75 m): enough to set the outdoor unit along a side wall or behind the garage, where it spoils neither the view nor dinner outside.

The other decision concerns the heating you already have. The CENTAURI offers several backup heating logics and external outputs that can control a backup appliance. An existing appliance, if it can be connected, can therefore stay in reserve for the hardest nights, and the logic chosen at commissioning determines when it takes over.

GENERAL or Fujitsu AIRSTAGE: the same machine

It was in August 2025 that Paloma Rheem Holdings, owner of Rheem since 1988, bought Fujitsu General Limited; the company has carried the name GENERAL Inc. since January 1, 2026. Everything else stayed in place: Kawasaki, Japan, still houses the head office and the research and development centre, the factories are the same, AIRSTAGE products keep their model numbers and the warranty program does not change. The Fujitsu brand is being phased out gradually and, during this transition, the same machine is sold under two names.

Hence our two product pages, both online. A quote from another contractor may say Fujitsu, a recent catalogue may say GENERAL; the table below puts them side by side, and every row gives the same value. Rheem Canada took over Canadian sales in February 2026, Groupe Master is still our distributor, and AirGreen installs the range as an AIRSTAGE Elite Plus installer.

To check for yourself, the Fujitsu AIRSTAGE CENTAURI 42,000 BTU page shows exactly the same units, with the same values.

A ducted heat pump is an indoor unit you never see. The ARUH42KUAS sits in the basement ceiling, in a mechanical room or in a suspended ceiling, and pushes air through ducts to grilles, while a return air path brings the house air back to the unit. In an open-concept space, the challenge is not heating one room: it is spreading air over the whole length of the space. With a maximum airflow of 1,501 CFM, the unit can feed several grilles spread between the kitchen and the living room, without a single outlet doing all the work.

Those grilles are often far from the unit, at the end of a long duct run. That is where static pressure matters. The manufacturer gives an external static pressure of 0.12 to 0.72 in. WC for this model, and the unit detects the static pressure of the duct system on its own to set its airflow. The return air connects on the side or from below, depending on what the ceiling allows. No automatic setting will fix a poorly designed duct system, though: the layout, the duct sizes and the number of grilles are decided at the visit, room by room.

Here is what the manufacturer’s spec sheet allows for the refrigerant line between the two units:

• maximum length of 246 ft (75 m);
• factory precharge for 98 ft (30 m); beyond that, the refrigeration technician tops up the refrigerant charge on site;
• maximum height difference of 98 ft (30 m) between the indoor unit and the outdoor unit;
• minimum length of 16 ft (5 m), even when the two units are close together;
• 3/8 and 5/8 in. piping.

A long line is not free, though: more copper, more refrigerant, more labour hours. We do not propose the maximum on principle. We look for the shortest location that keeps the deck quiet, then show you what each option involves, before you decide.

Which brings us to noise. The AOUH42KUAS1 outdoor unit is rated at 57 dB(A): not a racket, but not what you want to hear next to the table on a July evening. Inside, the ducted unit runs between 29 and 40 dB(A), with a four-speed fan plus auto mode. Hidden in the basement, it drops out of mind: in the living room, what you hear is mostly air at the grilles.

On performance, the system is listed under AHRI certificate 215812202 and certified ENERGY STAR with the cold climate designation (ID 3630315). The values from the data file:

• SEER2 of 17.3, EER2 of 10.3 and HSPF2 of 10.2;
• heating capacity of 32,000 BTU at −8 °C, with a COP of 2.86;
• heating capacity of 37,000 BTU at −15 °C according to NEEP, with a COP of 2.23;
• heating down to −21 °C outdoors and, according to the manufacturer, “no low temperature cut out”.

Two clarifications, in all honesty. The −8 °C and −15 °C values come from different test points: each one is read on its own, never against the other. And “no low temperature cut out” means the system keeps running below its rated range, without its capacity having been tested there. That is exactly where the appliance kept in reserve earns its place.

Connecting that appliance goes through the indoor unit’s external inputs and outputs, which also handle interlocking with other equipment: fire alarm, door switch, humidifier, backup heating. We set the backup logic according to the appliance you keep and how you plan to use it.

No control is supplied: the controller is not included and controls are sold separately. The choice is yours:

• UTY-RNRUZ5 or KAGAMI UTY-RVRU wired touchscreen controller, on the living room wall;
• UTY-LBTUM kit, that is, an IR receiver and a wireless remote;
• UTY-TFSXJ4 Wi-Fi adapter to run the system from the AIRSTAGE Mobile app;
• 24 V thermostat interface, if you would rather keep a classic wall thermostat.

Depending on the control you choose, you get economy, energy saving, powerful and minimum heat modes, the weekly timer, the 24-hour timer and the sleep function; defrost and restart are automatic. Minimum heat mode, for its part, holds a base temperature while the house sits empty during a February trip.

For maintenance, we plan an access hatch in front of the indoor unit, through which the filter comes out and the unit gets inspected. The built-in condensate pump removes the water taken out of the air, up to 5.5 pints per hour in dehumidification. The ProCore copper coils resist corrosion well, a refrigerant leak detection sensor is built in, and the universal, compact outdoor unit combines an Inverter compressor with R-32 refrigerant, which has a low global warming potential.

This system appears on Hydro-Québec’s LogisVert list of October 27, 2026 with a $3,840 grant, subject to the program’s conditions. The warranty is 12 years on the compressor, 12 years on parts and 6 years on labour, exactly the same as the Fujitsu version.

It suits large open-concept homes, owners who want the outdoor unit away from their outdoor living space, and those who want to keep existing heating as backup. In a more modest house, on the other hand, 42,000 BTU would be too big: an oversized heat pump runs in short cycles and dehumidifies poorly in summer. The load calculation done at the visit settles the question, and the CENTAURI series includes other capacities.

Your free quote in Kirkland and across the West Island

Call us at 514 316-2973 for a free quote. We come to see the house, the basement, the path for the ducts and the spot where the outdoor unit will bother you least, then hand you a clear proposal for the GENERAL AIRSTAGE CENTAURI 42,000 BTU.

AirGreen installs in Kirkland as elsewhere on the island of Montreal, in Laval, in Longueuil, on the North Shore and on the South Shore. Whether you spotted this system under the GENERAL name or the Fujitsu name, it is the same installation, done by the same HVAC team.