I have to agree with you Ian, I am a refrigeration engineer, buying cheap means you get what you pay for, usually the finish is not great and no rust protection which will limit the life span of the unit, and not the best components and the electronics that is used is normally a "basic operation" model with no bells and whistles, like no LP / HP cut outs although they usually have a high temp sensor on the condenser, also the inverter transistors are usually substandard and will run for a while then they invariably fail when the unit is stressed out for any reason eg. very hot days or very cold days, and you can bet ya boots that it will fail when you need it most.
My recommendation is spend a few more $ and get a good reliable brand like No.1 = Daikin, then Fujitsu and Mitsubishi are an equal second in my book, then maybe Panasonic and the rest is the rest.
At least when you buy the Daikin, Fujitsu, Mitsubishi units, you also get a reasonable warranty (5 - 6 years) with them.
These units may be a little more expensive, they also are cheaper to run as they have many years of experience in the design of efficient running equipment.
Anyhow, that's my 10cents on the subject.
Gabby
P.S. condensation is the result of a high "dew point" and cold machine,
meaning :- basic physics = Heat always flows to cold, and as warm or hot air is moist and cold air is dry, as the warmer temperature of the air (could be as low as 2 degree difference) passes through to the colder temperature of the machine, it leaves the moisture behind on the surface of the cold machine which = condensation.
So the resulting solution is Warm workshop/ machinery (which is then above the relative dew point, so no condensation.
Simple eh.
Here endith the physics lesson for today. ha ha
