Artcool

The LG Artcool is the unit you choose when you do not want it to look like an air conditioner at all. It is LG's design-led wall-mounted split, sold in two signature looks that buyers routinely confuse: the Artcool Gallery, whose front is a customisable photo and artwork display set in a wood-effect frame, and the Artcool Mirror, whose front is a reflective mirror-glass panel. Behind either fascia sits LG's proven DUAL Inverter platform, so it runs quietly, controls neatly from the ThinQ app and reverses to heat as well as cool. For a living room or bedroom where a plain white box would jar, it is one of the most convincing hidden units you can put on a wall.

The honest catch is efficiency. The Artcool lands at A++ in cooling and A+ in heating, a step below the A+++ of the best small splits from Daikin, Mitsubishi and Panasonic, so the premium buys the styling rather than the last few points off your bill. The headline 10-year warranty covers the compressor, not the whole unit, and standard parts cover is shorter. Choose it if the statement fascia and quiet running genuinely matter to you and merely-good efficiency is fine. If your priority is the lowest possible running cost, a plainer LG DUALCOOL or an A+++ rival does more for less.

The Artcool is LG's design-led wall-mounted split: one indoor unit paired with an outdoor condenser, or an Artcool indoor unit running on an LG multi-split outdoor unit that serves several rooms. It exists to solve one problem, that a normal white plastic box looks wrong in a nicely finished room. There are two signature fronts, and this is where buyers get confused. The Artcool Gallery has a customisable display set in a wood-effect frame: on the Premium trim you upload your own photos from the ThinQ app, rotate curated artwork, even mirror your phone screen, so it reads as framed wall art. The Artcool Mirror has a reflective mirror-glass fascia that works as an actual mirror when the unit is off.

Underneath either look it is the same well-sorted LG hardware. A DUAL Inverter compressor gives quiet, variable-speed running and the reversible heating; the refrigerant is R32, the lower-impact type now standard on quality splits, which means any work on the sealed circuit must be done by an F-Gas certified engineer, so this is a fitted product rather than a DIY one. Three-way indirect airflow pushes cooled air out of the sides and base of the frame instead of straight at you, and control is through ThinQ Wi-Fi with Google Assistant. Sizes run from about 2.5 kW for a bedroom or small office up to around 7.0 kW for a large open-plan space.

Two naming points worth getting straight. The Gallery comes in Special and Premium: Premium carries the full photo-upload display, while Special is the styled-panel version for less money. The Mirror adds air-hygiene kit, UVnano fan sterilisation and a Plasmaster Ioniser+, and the newer Artcool AI Air Mirror line sits alongside it. Whichever you pick, the Artcool suits the design-conscious homeowner who has settled on LG and wants the indoor unit to look considered. If the appearance of the unit is not a priority, LG's plainer DUALCOOL gives you the same cooling for several hundred pounds less.

Unit-only, an Artcool starts from around £880 for a Mirror system and climbs to roughly £1,250 to £1,715 for the Gallery Special and Gallery Premium, depending on size and trim, all before fitting. Because it is charged with R32 it has to be installed by an F-Gas certified engineer, so add labour from about £385 for a straightforward single-room job. Supplied and fitted, budget roughly £2,000 to £2,800 for a 2.5 kW Gallery in a typical home, with more for larger sizes, longer pipe runs or awkward access. Those installed figures move a lot by region and property, so get two or three quotes rather than trusting one number. Expect to pay several hundred pounds more than an equivalent plain LG DUALCOOL of the same output: the extra goes on the fascia, not on extra cooling.

Running costs are modest for a designer unit. The inverter means it draws far less than its rated output most of the time, so an evening's cooling is a matter of pence. As a rough guide, at the July 2026 Ofgem price cap unit rate of 26.11p per kWh, a 2.5 kW Artcool cooling a room for an evening costs somewhere around 15p to 30p, dropping once the room is at temperature and the compressor eases back. Where it earns its keep is heating: with a SCOP of about 4.3 it returns roughly 4.3 kW of heat for every 1 kW of electricity, cheaper than plug-in electric heating through the shoulder seasons. Just remember the label is A++ in cooling and A+ in heating, good rather than class-leading, so a plain A+++ split will shave a little more off the bill. As a reverse-cycle air-to-air heat pump it may qualify for the £2,500 Boiler Upgrade Scheme grant in England and Wales, but only if it replaces a fossil-fuel heating system and is fitted by an MCS-certified installer; comfort cooling alongside a gas boiler does not qualify, and it is separate from the larger £7,500 air-to-water grant. Prices and rates correct as of July 2026; the energy price cap changes quarterly, so check current rates before budgeting.