Portable air conditioner repair advice?

[Daveboone]

Well, somewhat off topic of the outdoors, but when it is too dang hot outdoors we gotta go in!

Anyone have any experience with portable air conditioner repairs? Our 12000 btu Haier was working fine last fall, but does not cool now.  Not much to look at that I can trouble shoot on my own. Any advice/ repair shops close to Syracuse NY anyone can recommend? I am thinking the unit is about 7 years old.

[Jeremy K]

Sounds like it sprang a leak , it would probably cost the same price for whole new unit as it would be to fix the old one .

[Daveboone]

Funny thing is actually we have two a/c, diff. brands both in use last fall that are acting the exact same way. At about 500.oo for an equivalent new one, figure worth looking into it anyway...but cant find anyone.

[Moho81]

One thing you can check on yourself is the evaporator coil. If that’s plugged up with dust, pollen etc it won’t cool. I had to clean ours a few years ago and it worked great after the cleaning.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[hueyjazz]

MoHo is spot on.  I would say more than half the non-working AC units I find are due to condenser coil from being plugged solid with dirt and dust.  Take off cover.  Blow out with air compressor blow gun if you have one.  Then wash out with garden garden hose being careful to not flatten any fins.  No compressor, just wash but doing both is better.  This is true of all AC units but residential units should be cleaned by shutting down power, take off top grill and blow dirt for inside to out of coil.

And oh, you'll be amazed what comes out if you having been doing it.  So that's where the cat went.

Even if unit was still working it's a good idea to clean out condenser annually.  The condenser reject heat from hot gas and makes refrigerant turn to liquid.  If it can't do this efficiently then you use more power and get less cooling.  Evaporator generally has a foam filter over it and that behind the grill that snaps off.  That too needs to be clean.

Cleaning pan where condensate drops  is also a good idea.  Last thing you want is pan overflowing un-noticed.

If this doesn't work then you are likely just better off buying a new one.  The refrigerant just doesn't leak out without a hole or seal letting go.  These are built so cheap now they aren't that repairable.  

[Daveboone]

Thanks guys, will give it a try. 

[sbuff]

X2, clean the dust from the back of it ,it should have a panel that comes right off to expose coils .