GMCC KSF160V01VFTC3 Rotary Compressor: 16.1 cm3, Three Builds, and the Band That Decides the Duty

By the Qishanr technical desk. Reviewed 2 November 2026.

The KSF160V01VFTC3 is a printed row in the GMCC rotary compressor product manual: 16.1 cm3/rev displacement, 4970 W of cooling capacity, which is 16958 Btu/h, for 1155 W of input, a coefficient of performance of 4.30, on R32 at single-phase 50 Hz 220/240 V. Finding the row is not the problem. The problem is that the same manual prints three KSF builds within one tenth of that displacement, and their capacities run from 4970 W to 6075 W. What separates them is the band heading one line above each table: the supply voltage, the supply frequency, and the test condition. Read the row without the band and the number is unassigned.

Key facts at a glance

Every value above comes from one row and the heading printed directly above it. The two derived figures close arithmetically, and both closures are shown in the sections below rather than asserted.

On this site the family sits under the GMCC rotary compressor range, which is itself part of the wider rotary compressor category, and the GMCC scroll line is documented in the same place. That grouping matters for the reading that follows, because the category page lists these models by displacement while the manual lists them by band, and the two orders are not the same.

What does the model string fix, and what does it leave open?

The string has four readable parts and one part the manual does not define.

The supply letter is the one part worth checking against a second model, because it is the only place the string predicts a band. KSF160N1VET carries N in the same position and sits in the 1-phase 60 Hz 208~230 V band, which is what the power legend assigns to N. The prediction holds in both directions on this pair.

What the string does not tell you is anything quantitative. Two models with the same KSF160 prefix differ in printed displacement by 0.1 cm3/rev, in capacity by 1105 W, and in suction connection size by 1.7 mm. The string is an ordering code, not a specification.

Why do three KSF builds share 16.1 cm3 and print three capacities?

Because the discharge side of the compressor is the same and the electrical side is not. The manual prints these three rows in three different bands:

All three close on the same two arithmetic checks, which is why the table can be trusted as a set rather than as three claims: 4970 / 1155 is 4.302, printed as 4.30; 5085 / 1140 is 4.460, printed as 4.46; 6075 / 1380 is 4.402, printed as 4.40. The imperial column closes the same way at 3.412 Btu per watt-hour in all three rows.

Read across the table and two things stand out. The 60 Hz build is 22.2 per cent above the 50 Hz 220/240 V build on essentially the same swept volume, which no amount of build refinement would explain. And the two 50 Hz builds, identical in displacement and identical in test condition, differ by 2.3 per cent in capacity and by 0.16 in COP, which is a real build difference rather than a testing artefact. The next section separates the two effects.

What does swept volume per second actually explain?

A rotary compressor moves its displacement once per revolution, so the volume swept per second scales with displacement multiplied by the supply frequency. Using that product as a proxy gives a clean reading of the three rows:

The proxy is not a speed specification. The manual prints no running speed for these rows, and a rotary compressor does not run at exactly frequency times 60 because of slip. What the proxy does is show that the 60 Hz build's extra capacity is accounted for almost entirely by the extra swept volume per second: its capacity per unit of swept volume, 6.33, sits within 0.2 per cent of the S2 build's 6.32. The 220/240 V build is the outlier at 6.17, roughly 2.4 per cent below the other two, and its COP is the lowest of the three as well.

The same relationship appears twice in the manual as a printed identity. KSF150N1VETB3 is a 15.0 cm3/rev build in the 60 Hz band and KSF180V1VFP is an 18.0 cm3/rev build in the 50 Hz band. Their swept volumes per second are 15.0 x 60 = 900 and 18.0 x 50 = 900, and both rows print 5565 W and 18988 Btu/h. The input differs, 1260 W against 1295 W, so the COP differs, 4.42 against 4.30.

That pair is the clearest statement the manual makes about how to read its own tables. A larger displacement at a lower frequency and a smaller displacement at a higher frequency can be the same compressor in duty terms, and the only way to know which is which is to read both the displacement column and the band heading.

What does the row print, and what does it not?

The band table carries nine columns. In order, they are the typical model, the displacement, the cooling capacity in watts, the cooling capacity in Btu/h, the input power, the coefficient of performance, the run capacitor, the overall height, and the two connection sizes. Everything in the Key facts table above is one of those nine columns or a heading.

What is absent matters as much as what is present, because buyers ask for these fields and the manual does not answer them for this row:

For those fields the datasheet for the specific build is the only source, and it has to be requested against the sales code rather than against the model string. A quotation that lists a mass, an oil charge or a locked rotor current for this model has taken it from somewhere other than this manual.

Every figure in this article comes from the 2024 edition of the rotary compressor product catalogue. It is distributed through GMCC's official product centre and through the downloads page, and the copy checked here is the distributor-hosted copy of the 2024 manual, whose file size and checksum were matched against the edition this site has been citing since September 2026. Where the site has its own write-up of a model in the same programme, that write-up is the quicker read; the R410A example on the blog side is a worked case of the same method applied to a different refrigerant.

Where does it sit in the KSF ladder?

Inside its own band the KSF family behaves like one design scaled up. Six rows share the 1-phase 50 Hz 220/240 V heading, and the subject of this article is the smallest of them:

The capacity per cm3 column is the interesting one. Across a 23.6 per cent spread in displacement, capacity per cm3 stays inside a band from 305.5 to 309.4 W, a spread of 1.3 per cent. That is what a single design family looks like: displacement is the only variable, and the ratings are consistent to within rounding. Five of the six rows also share the same 314 mm overall height, so the ladder is not built by growing the shell.

The same manual also prints rows for five GMCC models this site stocks, and they are worth setting beside the ladder because they show how far a single displacement column can be stretched:

The rows are not a like-for-like comparison and must not be read as one. They come from different bands and different test conditions, two of the six are inverter models rated under SEER60 rather than at a single fixed point, and one of them is an R454B build. What the table does show is that displacement alone carries almost no information about capacity: 17.9 cm3/rev produces 2655 W in one band while 16.1 cm3/rev produces 4970 W in another. Only the row plus its heading is a specification.

The 17.0 cm3/rev row breaks the pattern in one respect. Its COP of 3.88 sits well below its neighbours at 4.30, and the difference is entirely in the input power, 1355 W for a capacity that a 4.30 build would need about 1223 W to produce. A buyer stepping up from 16.1 to 17.0 cm3/rev for 5.8 per cent more capacity takes a 17.3 per cent increase in input. That is a build characteristic printed in the manual, not a measurement error: 5260 / 1355 closes on the printed 3.88.

What duty does this row belong to?

Three printed facts place the model, and one thing the manual does not print limits how far that placement can be pushed.

The first is the duty class. The naming legend in the manual sets out prefix letters for special duties, R for heat pumps, L for freezing and cold storage, E for heating and G for cabinet air conditioning, and states that in the absence of a prefix the compressor is an air-conditioning compressor. KSF160V01VFTC3 carries no such prefix, so the row sits in air-conditioning duty. That is the manual's own classification, not an inference from the capacity.

The second is the refrigerant. R32 is named in the band heading, and it is the reason the family letter is K, since the manual's refrigerant legend assigns K to R32 and R410A together. R32 is a single-component refrigerant rather than a blend, so it does not fractionate and the charge handling rules that apply to blends do not apply here. Its environmental and safety classification is set by the refrigerant designation standard rather than by this manual, and the manual prints no classification letter for the row.

The third is the electrical envelope. Single phase, 50 Hz, 220/240 V covers domestic and light-commercial supplies in China, much of Asia, the Middle East and parts of Europe, and it is the band where this build is rated. The 230 V band and the 208~230 V 60 Hz band are different rows, which is why the model string and not the capacity figure is what a purchase order should carry.

What the manual does not print is an application list for the row. There is no line saying which equipment this model is approved in. Capacity of 4970 W is about 1.41 refrigeration tons at 12,000 Btu per ton, which is the size class of a residential split or a small packaged unit, but that comparison is a conversion rather than a rating, and the actual equipment match belongs to the system designer. The manual's row says air-conditioning duty on R32 at that supply; anything more specific has to come from the equipment maker.

How should a buyer specify this model?

Seven steps decide whether the right build arrives, and each one maps to a field that exists on the row.

Steps 1 to 6 can be settled from the manual alone. Step 7 cannot, and it is the step that most often delays a purchase order, because a distributor quoting from the catalogue will not have those numbers to hand.

The physical package is worth one note. The shell is 314 mm tall at this displacement and 314 mm at 23.0 cm3/rev as well, so the family reuses one envelope across a 43 per cent displacement span. A substitution upward within the band is therefore usually a pipe and electrical change rather than a mounting change.

Which standards and approvals frame the purchase?

Four documents frame it, and they answer four different questions.

The compressor itself is covered by the household and similar electrical appliance safety series, of which IEC 60335-2-34 is the part written for motor-compressors. That is the standard a test house will cite when it certifies the component.

The refrigerant is designated under ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 34, which assigns refrigerant numbers and safety group classifications. The compressor row does not repeat that classification, so the designation standard, not the catalogue, is the reference the equipment designer works from when sizing a charge against a room volume.

The rating is a commercial question rather than a safety one. A capacity figure is only comparable when the test condition and the standard behind it are named in the same sentence, which is why this article quotes GX with every number and why the same displacement can appear as 4970 W, 5085 W or 6075 W without any of the three being wrong.

Placement on the European market adds a regulatory layer that attaches to the equipment and its charge rather than to the compressor. Refrigerant selection for R32 equipment in the European Union is governed by Regulation (EU) 2024/573, which is where the phase-down schedule and the charge thresholds sit. The wider demand picture behind all of this is the subject of the IEA's The Future of Cooling, which is the reference to read if the question is why single-phase air-conditioning compressors in this size class are being pushed toward lower-GWP refrigerants at all.

The manual itself is silent on approvals. The band tables carry no certification column, so a purchase order that needs a mark has to obtain it against the sales code from the build datasheet rather than from the catalogue row.

Frequently asked questions

What is the cooling capacity of the KSF160V01VFTC3?

4970 W, which is 16958 Btu/h, at 1155 W input and a coefficient of performance of 4.30. That figure belongs to the 1-phase 50 Hz 220/240 V band under test condition GX. The same displacement prints 5085 W in the 230 V band and 6075 W in the 60 Hz 208~230 V band.

What refrigerant does it use?

R32. The refrigerant is named in the band heading above the table, and the family letter K in the model string is the manual's R32 and R410A code. The row itself carries no refrigerant column, so the heading is the only place it is stated.

Is the displacement 16.0 or 16.1 cm3/rev?

16.1 cm3/rev for this model. The digits in the string name the nominal class, not the printed value: KSF160N1VET carries the same 160 class and prints 16.0 cm3/rev in the 60 Hz band.

Is it a 50 Hz or a 60 Hz compressor?

50 Hz. The band heading reads single phase 50 Hz 220/240 V. A 60 Hz build of the same class exists as KSF160N1VET in the 208~230 V band, and it is a different row with a different capacity.

Can I substitute KSF160S2VFPC3 for this model?

Not without re-checking two things. It shares the 16.1 cm3/rev displacement and the same 314 mm height, but it is rated in the 230 V band, gives 2.3 per cent more capacity at a COP of 4.46, and its suction connection is 9.8 mm against 8.1 mm here. The pipework and the supply voltage both change, so it is a re-design rather than a drop-in. If the requirement is more capacity rather than a different supply, the 23.0 cm3/rev build at the top of the family is the next real step.

What capacitor does it need?

A 45/400 uF per V run capacitor, as printed on the row. The 17.0 cm3/rev neighbour in the same band uses 35/370, so the value is not shared across the family.

What does the GX test condition mean?

The manual labels this band GX and prints one capacity per row at that condition, but the band table carries no evaporating or condensing temperature row, so the temperature pair is not printed beside the capacity. Quote the label with the figure, and obtain the full condition set from the build datasheet if the application needs it.

What horsepower or tonnage is it?

The manual prints no horsepower field for this row, and the string carries no horsepower code. 16958 Btu/h converts to about 1.41 refrigeration tons at 12,000 Btu per ton, but that is a conversion of the printed capacity, not a rating, and it should not be used as a selection basis. Shorter notes on this family and on others are collected in the news index.

Sources