serviceable a/c window unit?

[36tbird]

OK the POS Zenith a/c window unit won't cool my giant 200 sq.ft. man cave anymore. (I can't remember, but I don't think that it has been in service for more than a couple of years.) The thing is small enough to remove and take to someone to service but I guess it is not economically feasible because they have to puncture the lines to put on fittings to service. So, as I go looking for a new unit, does anyone know if they make small units that can be serviced? I'd like to get more than a couple of years out of the next one.

PS, please recommend brands you guys and gals have had good luck with for a small window unit.

 

[Gary S]

I use window AC units in my house and garage. When one dies, I just toss it in the trash. None of them made today are worth spending money on to repair. The newer ones last me 5-7 years and **** out. My garage still has an old one from the 1980s that cools like a champ year after year.

 

[99LeCouch]

The little 5200 BTU Kenmore (really a fancier Frigidaire) I just got seems to be doing a good job cooling/dehumidifying about that size room at night. It's more for the dehumidification than the cooling. Nights are typically 55-65*F and 80% humidity around me.

 

[A_Pmech]

In my experience the loss of cooling is rarely due to needing a recharge or a compressor motor failure. Hermetically sealed compressors and all-metal line sets with silver soldered joints reduce leakage to nearly non-existent levels. Compressors should last 30 years or more if they're halfway decent.

I've found the cause is usually a problem in the control circuit. Last summer one of my 10-year-old window units stopped cooling. It turned out to be a simple connection failure on the compressor. It takes about 5 minutes to troubleshoot one of these things. Why waste the time and money to go to the store over something so simple? $0.25 in parts usually fixes it.

 

[green.bubbly]

There are window units which generally can not be serviced and there are thru-the-Wall air conditioning units which generally have the slide out chassis. These tend to be slightly more expensive than window units.

 

[Fueler]

I found that I have to pull them, remove the shrouding and do a thorough cleaning of the coils and fins. Amazing amount of crud in there reducing air flow. After getting uncomfortable one summer I now do it at the end of every cooling season. I got some unknown cleaner from a HVAC friend for the soaking part of the ritual that works well.

While I clean the filters every week or so I have come to the conclusion they are useless in a shop and am considering making something better to attach to the front. Perhaps then I could go 2 seasons.

 

[cortez]

I bought a Hampton Bay 5000 btu for 87 dollars at Home Depot 4-5 years ago and it cools very well and uses very little electricity in my kitchen.

Even with my gas oven making a pizza it cool the kitchen. I clean it every year with coil foam (I pre-clean it with my shop vac my compressor for the heavier dirt and dust). I find that using window units are much cheaper than the whole house furnace unit. My electric bill is never more than 50-60 bucks a month in the cooling season.

My other 2 units are an old Monkey Wards and an old Kenmore both of which were free from customers upgrading to central units.

 

[36tbird]

Well, it makes running noise and blows just fine except it ain't blowing cold air. I will definitely try the suggestions to give it a good cleaning and check the connection as A Pmech said to do. Will it be obvious that a connection is broken or do I need to do some specialized check. Warning, I know how to weld, do some mechaniking, cut metal and do some house building. Electrical checks are not my strong forte so please advise with that in mind.

 

[A_Pmech]

Well, it makes running noise and blows just fine except it ain't blowing cold air. I will definitely try the suggestions to give it a good cleaning and check the connection as A Pmech said to do. Will it be obvious that a connection is broken or do I need to do some specialized check. Warning, I know how to weld, do some mechaniking, cut metal and do some house building. Electrical checks are not my strong forte so please advise with that in mind.

Depends on the problem. On one window unit I found a wire connector burned off at the compressor due to corrosion on the connector.

On another unit, the room thermostat was inop.

Somewhere inside the case you should find a pouch that contains the control schematic, if they're nice enough to still provide one. (They were up until a few years ago at least)

 

[787B]

Well, it makes running noise and blows just fine except it ain't blowing cold air. I will definitely try the suggestions to give it a good cleaning and check the connection as A Pmech said to do. Will it be obvious that a connection is broken or do I need to do some specialized check. Warning, I know how to weld, do some mechaniking, cut metal and do some house building. Electrical checks are not my strong forte so please advise with that in mind.

With new 5200 BTU mechanical thermostat units under $100 at your local big-box, it's not worth a big effort to fix. Heck, I bought a 10,000 BTU off craigslist a couple of years ago for $20 because it didn't have the accordian seals on either side. Installed it in my garage.

That said, is the compressor running? The fan will run all the time, but the compressor sounds like, well, a compressor. It will sound a bit like your refrigerator.

As others have said, the compressors rarely fail, and the coolant rarely leaks out. The failure modes are usually the control circuitry going kaput. Is it mechanical or electronic thermostat?

I'm sitting in my home office right now with my cheap-o Chinese-made GoldStar aka LG aka Lucky Goldstar cranking away. It's at least 6 years old, maybe more. Uncertain pedigree... It's running off my Harbor Fright $80 800 Watt generator because everybody in the county came home at 5:30 on this 96 degree day, switched on their air-cons and blew up a transformer somewhere... I feel like a genius.

 

[Falcon67]

I would not bother to have it serviced. I've had one of the small units serviced in the past at the insistence of a relative. Money wasted and a good AC tech would tell you it's a **** shoot that any work would make it better.