Window A/C - GE vs Frigidaire

[Perd Hapley]

Lowe's sells one brand, and Home Despot t' other.

Recommendations? Purty please?

[mtnbkr]

Whichever one looks best in the doublewide.

Chris

[Nick1911]

Probably doesn't matter.

The compressor is the prime mover - the actually mechanically and electrically important part; and as far as I know they are almost all made by third parties anyway.  LG, tecumseh, Copeland.

Pick the one that has the features you want, beyond that - shop by price.

[Perd Hapley]

Whichever one looks best in the doublewide.

Chris

I'll have you know I have not lived in a trailer since the age of four! 

Unless you count that little mountain-top resort in Bosnia. 

[never_retreat]

See if you can drag them to the outlet and plug it in. Some of them are really noisy.
I had a small Fedders a few years ago that was really quiet.

[roo_ster]

Back before we got our new hvac system i bought a small ge window unit to run in the mbr with the house unit set at 80deg so ghe kiddos would not get cold. IT IS REALLY STINKING LOUD YOU KNOW.  LOUDER THAN THE COMPRESSOR FOR THE BIG UNIT OITSIDE THE WINDOW.

[Nick1911]

Back before we got our new hvac system i bought a small ge window unit to run in the mbr with the house unit set at 80deg so ghe kiddos would not get cold. IT IS REALLY STINKING LOUD YOU KNOW.  LOUDER THAN THE COMPRESSOR FOR THE BIG UNIT OITSIDE THE WINDOW.

They are called window shakers for a reason.

I've had a number of window units.  They make good loaners for people that want to replace their central A/C but can't really afford to until next year.  I pick up used units at the end of the summer for $25 a pop.

All of them put low vibrations into the walls that you can hear in other rooms.

[Perd Hapley]

Thanks for the reminder. I've been meaning to check Craigslist.

[K Frame]

What size are you looking at?

I've purchased one of each for my Mom's Victorian for individual rooms. They are pretty loud, but they do a decent job. One is 4 years old, now the other maybe 3.

Also got, from a friend, a Westinghouse (I think) from his parent's house when we cleaned it out. It does a decent job, as well.

[Boomhauer]

Back before we got our new hvac system i bought a small ge window unit to run in the mbr with the house unit set at 80deg so ghe kiddos would not get cold. IT IS REALLY STINKING LOUD YOU KNOW.  LOUDER THAN THE COMPRESSOR FOR THE BIG UNIT OITSIDE THE WINDOW.

We needed to install a window AC in one of the rooms in my parent's house in order to give some much needed A/C help to that end of the house in the summertime.

What we ended up doing was cutting a hole and mounting it below the window. Such a permanent installation is harder but damn if it doesn't work much better than window mounting. And it keeps those rooms on that end of the house nice and cold.

The noise level isn't horrific for theirs and honestly when I'm staying there the white noise helps me sleep much better.



 

[Monkeyleg]

Don't make fun of window units. I didn't have central air until I was 43. When the electric bill comes, the window unit looks pretty good.

[Perd Hapley]

What size are you looking at?

This is for a 145 sq ft room, on the northeast corner of the house, with no shade. I'm thinking something about 6,000 BTU.

[Sergeant Bob]

We're fixin' to have a pretty hot-N-humid week here, and I will be putting the "window shaker" in the bedroom tomorrow. Yes, I live in a modular.

[Perd Hapley]

Turns out the Frigidaire has twice the warranty at the same price, so I guess I'll go with that one.

[Nick1911]

This isn't a popular opinion, but I think window units rock.

Don't get me wrong, I own and run a central air system.  And it's expensive to run.  And very expensive to replace.  Expensive enough that I ended up doing it myself, and becoming trained at the community college to run a business doing it as a mechanical contractor for others.

Like 5-10k expensive to replace.  I do it independently on the side and a decent sized house with a 4 ton will still cost at least $4500.  And that's from the guy who isn't paying his mortgage and feeding his family doing it.  That's over $1k/ton from mr. independent contractor.  A ton is 12,000 btu.

A 12,000 btu window unit from Home Depot?  $349 + tax.  Makes you think...

[K Frame]

This is for a 145 sq ft room, on the northeast corner of the house, with no shade. I'm thinking something about 6,000 BTU.

Depending on the insulation levels that should be OK. It will get morning sun, but by the hottest part of the day I'm thinking that the room should be in the shade, or close to it.

[K Frame]

"All of them put low vibrations into the walls that you can hear in other rooms."

A good way of dealing with that is to get a piece of thick neoprene, or even some of those tubes of closed-cell pipe insulation from Frost King. You can do a lot to isolate the units and quiet them that way. The squishy material also does a pretty good job of sealing air infiltration.

[K Frame]

This isn't a popular opinion, but I think window units rock.

Don't get me wrong, I own and run a central air system.  And it's expensive to run.  And very expensive to replace.  Expensive enough that I ended up doing it myself, and becoming trained at the community college to run a business doing it as a mechanical contractor for others.

Like 5-10k expensive to replace.  I do it independently on the side and a decent sized house with a 4 ton will still cost at least $4500.  And that's from the guy who isn't paying his mortgage and feeding his family doing it.  That's over $1k/ton from mr. independent contractor.  A ton is 12,000 btu.

A 12,000 btu window unit from Home Depot?  $349 + tax.  Makes you think...

I'm pretty much right there with you. I dread replacing my heat pump system. That's going to be spendy. I'd use window shakers if I could, but my HOA won't allow them. And, to be honest, I really don't need them since I increased the insulation in my attic a few years ago. I set the AC to 80 when I get up in the morning (72-74 at night), and even on blistering hot days when I get home about 12 hours later will often have risen only to 76 or 77.

I grew up in a Victorian with no central air, and just a couple of window shakers. Uncomfortable at times, but hey, I was a kid.

Mom now lives in another Victorian, again without central air. She can tolerate the heat a lot better, but I still have window shakers in her bedroom, her office, the kitchen, and a BIG 20K BTU unit, I think, in the living room. That one gets used mainly when I'm up there because I simply can't tolerate the heat. The blinds on the porch also help by keeping the sun from beating into the living room in the afternoon.

Speaking of which, I need to buy new blinds for the porch....

[roo_ster]

"All of them put low vibrations into the walls that you can hear in other rooms."

A good way of dealing with that is to get a piece of thick neoprene, or even some of those tubes of closed-cell pipe insulation from Frost King. You can do a lot to isolate the units and quiet them that way. The squishy material also does a pretty good job of sealing air infiltration.

Great idea.

[Ben]

I actually use an LG portable air conditioner. Very quiet. I mostly use it either in my office in the Summer, formerly to counteract the Earth's molten core heat that came out of my old workstation when it was on before I switched to a laptop workstation, now because my downstairs neighbor, Smokey Joe, is outside on his deck every ten minutes blowing cigarette smoke into my place so I can never keep a window open to cool it off in the Summer. Second, I sometimes roll it into my bedroom when we have "Sundowner winds", where it gets up to 90 deg late at night, so that I can sleep comfortably.

[280plus]

I do not have central. I use window shakers. The plus is I have 3 stages of cool rather than 1 that runs at 100% all the time and that can be a cost saving feature. No duct in my house so installing central wouldn't be cheap, even for me.

[Jim147]

Frigidaire from Lowe's does have about the best warranty. Under 18,000 BTU it is a replacement instead of repair. If you have a problem with it send me a pm. You're a handy guy so I can walk you through the checks.

I'm so busy with HVAC/R and commercial that I don't do much for them these days but I'm still a Frigidaire servicer.

jim

[Perd Hapley]

Frigidaire from Lowe's does have about the best warranty. Under 18,000 BTU it is a replacement instead of repair. If you have a problem with it send me a pm. You're a handy guy so I can walk you through the checks.

I'm so busy with HVAC/R and commercial that I don't do much for them these days but I'm still a Frigidaire servicer.

jim

Sweet! Thanks.

[Perd Hapley]

I'm going to look at some Craigslist AC units the next couple of days. What should I look out for on used units? Do they have filters I can pull out, to see if they've been maintained?

[280plus]

They should. Check the coil behind the filters for excessive dirt. Another check is to put a piece of paper over the cold coil and see if it starts to frost up after a few minutes. Biggest problem with older window units is plugged condenser coils. These plug on the inside where it is hard to see. Checking and cleaning the coil requires some dismantling unfortunately but try and get a good look inside the slots on the side of the unit and see if there is a lot of buildup in the bottom. If there is steer away from the unit.