Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => The Roundtable => Topic started by: Perd Hapley on June 16, 2014, 08:52:33 PM
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Lowe's sells one brand, and Home Despot t' other.
Recommendations? Purty please?
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Whichever one looks best in the doublewide.
Chris
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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.
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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! :mad:
Unless you count that little mountain-top resort in Bosnia. =)
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Thanks for the reminder. I've been meaning to check Craigslist.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Turns out the Frigidaire has twice the warranty at the same price, so I guess I'll go with that one.
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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...
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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.
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"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.
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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....
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"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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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?
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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.
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If anyone is looking for a window shaker A/C unit still, this is actually a pretty good deal.
http://slickdeals.net/f/7031392-kenmore-6-000-btu-room-air-conditioner-window-unit-white-energy-star-107-99-tax-kmart-ship-to-store
I THINK this particular unit is made by Frigidaire, but I'm not 100% sure.
But, it's a 6K BTU unit for what the 5K units are going for, and it's an energy star unit.
This is the best price I've seen on a 6K BTU unit in some time.
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I should probably replace the ones I have, which are getting old. They put off a decent amount of cold air, but they're probably inefficient as heck.
I have the vents set up for my oil fired furnace (which I don't use, because it's hideously expensive), but I'm told it'd be "a bit" expensive to run the lines and install a central AC unit. I have two wall units for my house, and it's honestly good enough for all but the hottest days. I could fix even that by adding a third. The units are in the back of my house, so no one can see them.
Honestly, buying and tossing a $350 wall shaker every 5 years seems cheaper and just as efficient at cooling.
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Shade them and clean the coils regularly. If you're not going to do that, then questions of quality, efficiency and warranty become pretty meaningless.
If you were going to hang a 1911 outside your window and never clean it, would it really make sense to spend more on a Kimber?
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Shade them and clean the coils regularly. If you're not going to do that, then questions of quality, efficiency and warranty become pretty meaningless.
If you were going to hang a 1911 outside your window and never clean it, would it really make sense to spend more on a Kimber?
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What's a good resource on finding how to properly clean the coils?
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What's a good resource on finding how to properly clean the coils?
Depends on the unit, but the simplest is pretty much a hose-end sprayer with some Dawn dish soap in it monthly. Deeper cleaning annually depends on how hard it is to get the casing off the "outside" side of it. Probably a good idea to figure that out and buy a coil comb anyway, since I've seen plenty with lots of smooshed spots on the coils.
Apparently there are some purpose-made cleaners, but I doubt that a spray can of random hard-surface cleaner relabeled as AC coil cleaner is going to do any better than several gallons of soapy water at hose pressure. Not sure whether a power washer would be too much force for the coils, but I'm sure someone here can comment on that.
The last one I cleaned up was improved about 80% just by getting the mouse nests out of the coils and rinsing them off with a bucket of soapy water.
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The active ingredient in the Nu-Calgon coil cleaner I buy is sodium hydroxide. There's also a surfactant.
That in mind, I've often thought that foaming oven cleaner would be an excellent, widely available substitute. Never tried it though, coil cleaner is cheap enough.
Keep in mind any alkaline cleaner will need to be rinsed thoroughly off.
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No central air here.
Frigidaire window unit is clomping along after 6 summers of service. It doesn't owe me a thing and still works well.
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Keep in mind any alkaline cleaner will need to be rinsed thoroughly off.
IME, 90% of the stuff comes out with hose pressure and plain water. The rest is mostly tree sap and such, so an aluminum-safe bug-and-tar remover from the automotive department might be ideal. Dawn seems to work pretty well if you soak with it strong, wait 5-10 minutes and then rinse well.
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Oven cleaner will work for the outdoor coil, don't really recommend it for the inside coil because any leftover after rinsing may atomize into the air. for the indoor coil any good detergent will work. For the outdoor coil I usually undo all the screws, separate the shroud from the coil, COVER THE MOTOR WITH A GARBAGE BAG, and pull the outdoor coil CAREFULLY and as far as it will go without forcing it away from the shroud without breaking or kinking the tubes. Makes it easier to clean the whole coil. Gentle pressure with lots of volume is best. Straight stream will bed the fins! Make sure to clear any channels from the indoor coil to the outdoor area on the bottom to ensure proper drainage.
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Have I been doing something wrong putting mine in the dishwasher?
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Have I been doing something wrong putting mine in the dishwasher?
If it fits, you might want to have her checked by a doctor.
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If it fits, you might want to have her checked by a doctor.
:laugh:
He'll be here all week, folks.
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If it fits, you might want to have her checked by a doctor.
No way I'll be able to top that one. :rofl:
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Thanks for all the technical discussion - it helped me pick out my new window A/C.
Went from a 20+ year old GE that was either 6000 or 8000 BTU (old, worn, undeadable stamping) that was supposed to cool a 1950s filled concrete block covered in stucco heat sink of about 920sq ft broken up between kitchen, front room, and two bedrooms. Over the pasts long as it stayed below 80*F I could get something approaching cool but after that it seemed I was just cranking more heat into the place.
Had a "little" bit of a problem getting the old unit unstuck and out. Solved it via the local handyman.
I'm now - 30 min after getting the new unit in and turned on - sitting in 68*F comfort when it is 97*F and 90% RH outside. The back rooms are starting to get cooled. A few small fans are helping direct the air.
It's amazing what 18,500 BTU spread over the place can do.
stay safe.
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If it fits, you might want to have her checked by a doctor.
Not necessary. Just shove a ham up in there and pull the bone out! :rofl:
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What is this 'central air' and 'window shakers' of which you speak? In the Seattle area, we are fortunate in that it gets above 90 degrees maybe only one or two weeks per year. It is relatively uncommon to see homes with central air in this neck of the woods. I can see how useful it is in the Midwest, Southwest and Southeast, though.
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What is this 'central air' and 'window shakers' of which you speak? In the Seattle area, we are fortunate in that it gets above 90 degrees maybe only one or two weeks per year. It is relatively uncommon to see homes with central air in this neck of the woods. I can see how useful it is in the Midwest, Southwest and Southeast, though.
Yes, but we have these neat things called "sun" and "fair weather."
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Yes, but we have these neat things called "sun" and "fair weather."
Damn it, I must give you that!