Air Conditioners

[the gypsy]

Hi guys and gals, I am looking for your help. I have an air conditioner, which is making a noise as if a bearing or sleeve were dry and lacking lubrication. It is a comfort airworks 12000 btu. To start is there any way I can fix it or should I buy a new one?
If I buy a new one which one would you, my fellow Garage Journal friends, would you suggest? I am looking at the Danby 12000btu unit from costco or the LG 12000btu unit from Home Depot?

 

[Major Ramifications]

Sounds like the blower motor bearing is bad. You can take it out, spin the fan and listen/feel for any roughness. It out to spin very freely. If the bearing(s) are bad, get the info off the motor and get a new motor from Grainger or maybe an A/C supply house.
Anything can be fixed, but window units are now pretty much disposable. I wouldn't recommend putting a new motor into what you have.

 

[Wakefield]

Depending on whether air conditioner pulls out of its box easily "slide out chassis?" and has fan motor with oil cups>>good quality electric motor oil?
Whirlpool used to have "FSP" replacement parts you could buy with the model number but I think that went away-I don't even know if they sell large Whirlpool units anymore

 

[the gypsy]

Thank you guys, but before I take this apart I want to buy a second air conditioner, any ideas?

 

[LS6 Tommy]

The upper level Friederichs are good, but pricey. The Frigidaires are a little cheaper. Both have model lines with slide out chassis that they guarantee the sleeve will interchange with a replacement unit so you don't need to go nuts to replace it in ten years if it's permanently installed.

Tommy

 

[Falcon67]

>Frigidaires
I had a sample of one - 6500 BTU. It was a POS and died after two years of light use. I replaced it with a 8K LG, so far so good and it blows 10x better and cools better than the Fridge did.

 

[James-W]

How old is the air-conditioner? If it is 10 years or more old, then I wouldn't spend very much money on it. Even if it is just close to 10 years old I wouldn't fix it.

If the problem is something really minor and can be fixed dirt cheap, that's one thing. But if it is going to cost like $100 or more, I wouldn't even consider repairing it. In my opinion, the money for the repairs would be better spent as a down payment on a new air-conditioner. Air-conditioners are not like a fine wine, they don't get better with age.

 

[G_P]

This happened to an old AC unit I had. Owners manual said there were no user serviceable parts inside. I opened it up and there were oil ports on each side of the motor and a huge yellow warning label saying to oil the motor once a year at minimum.

What a bunch of BS. Had I known those oil ports were there The unit would still be working. Instead the manufacturer decided not to mention them resulting in a premature death of the fan motor.

 

[the gypsy]

the air conditioner s 3 years old at most.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

>Frigidaires
I had a sample of one - 6500 BTU. It was a POS and died after two years of light use. I replaced it with a 8K LG, so far so good and it blows 10x better and cools better than the Fridge did.

That's one of most uneven comparisons I've ever heard. 6500 Btu versus 8000?! Gee, my 160 horsepower Nissan isn't as fast as my 220 horsepower Honda, so the Nissan must be junk...

We run over a hundred window units in my school district. All of them are Frigidaires except the special needs classrooms where we use the Friedrichs because they're quieter. All of them have run an average of 10 years of daily use, where they run anywhere from late February to early November...

Tommy

 

[ElectroLight]

That's one of most uneven comparisons I've ever heard. 6500 Btu versus 8000?! Gee, my 160 horsepower Nissan isn't as fast as my 220 horsepower Honda, so the Nissan must be junk...

We run over a hundred window units in my school district. All of them are Frigidaires except the special needs classrooms where we use the Friedrichs because they're quieter. All of them have run an average of 10 years of daily use, where they run anywhere from late February to early November...

Tommy

That's good to know since I'm looking at a 220V 18,000 BTU Frigidaire unit to replace my 20 yr old Ammana. Thanks for sharing.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

That's good to know since I'm looking at a 220V 18,000 BTU Frigidaire unit to replace my 20 yr old Ammana. Thanks for sharing.

Like anything else, there are different model/price ranges. We get ours from Graingers. They're the upper level ones. Do we ever replace units? Sure, but the ones that get replaced are usually ones that have led a reasonably long life or were intentionally damaged. The model in the lower line I use that fits your specs is the Frigidaire FFRE18332. It's not cheap, around $900.00 my price. The Friedrich model line I use doesn't offer an 18k Btu unit, but it does have a 17.5, model SM18N30 and it's over $400.00 more...


Tommy

 

[Bogey won]

5 tons of love $1250 installed 14 inch hole blowing 14 degrees coolness.double wide self contained ac and heat came out of 5k sq ft double wide,you can get smaller to fit your need,this fits my 400 sq ft need,open a door and its 800 sq ft,too much is never enuff.with ac in Texas anyway..