1980 Sears mobile home packaged green air-conditioner

[andy]

Our old 1980 packaged air-conditioner from Sears. It was still running in 2007 when it was replaced. A very good unit!!

It seems like these were so popular back in the late 1970's and throughout the 1980's when Sears was selling these units. I remember going into Sears and seeing these sitting on the showroom floor, all green with black condensers.

I've looked for other photos of these online and it's like these never existed now!

If anybody else had one of these and you have photos of it, please share!

 

[a440]

I remember these

Sounds like it had a long life.

Do you know who manufactured these for Sears?

I can't remember if they offered gas versions.

Brent

 

[mayguy]

Heil make these units for Sears. Very popular unit for trailers homes.

I had a neighbor had a split unit from Sears who I help put in back in the days that DIY could do A/C.

 

[combo52]

1970s WHIRLPOOL CENTRAL ACs

These Sears ACs were made by Heil Quaker a holy owned division of Whirlpool corporation and sold under the Sears, Whirlpool and Heil names. These ACs were very well built reliable machines. When I bought my current home in 1975 the first thing I did was add central AC. I went to the WP distributer where we got our other WP appliances and saw the WP units and they had the most energy efficient unit in the industry at that time. The one I bought is 30,000 BTUs and only draws 11 AMPs @ 240 volts which makes it about a SEER 13 unit by todays standards. This AC unit is still working great and is the primary AC in my house and I like my air conditioning I seldom ever open a window when it gets warm the AC goes on. It has never had anything replaced except the capacitor on the outdoor condenser fan motor and the water pan under the A-coil rusted out and had to be replaced otherwise it just hums along. If you are just 10-20 feet away from the outdoor unit you can't even hear it running, It always pays to get an ultra efficient AC as it will last far longer than lower efficient units because the condenser coil is so much larger and the compressor runs much cooler and under much less stress.

 

[andy]

Brent,
I don't think they offered gas versions on those, however I could be wrong. Yes, this lasted a very long time. If the compressor had an hour meter on it, it would probably have registered 50,000 or more hours. LOL

A well-built machine, and I hated to see it go, but it had done it's time after 27 years. The cabinet was rotting, and the squirrel-cage blower inside was shaking, like a bearing going out or something.

 

[andy]

The new Heil

This is the new one. A Heil 3.5 ton packaged air-conditioner. Installed in May of 2007. Very similar to the old green one. It's taller and shorter in length than the old one was.

The pieces of plywood behind the unit was used as a temporary covering, until they could return to build a sheet metal protective sheild over and around the flex-ducts behind the unit, so the plywood is no longer there.

 

[andy]

Another view of the new unit.....

One more view of the new unit.

 

[combo52]

GAS CENTRAL ACs

I don't believe Sears ever sold Gas CAC units, however WP did in the late 1960s -the early 1970s they came from thier Alarka Servel division. They were terrible the repair man had to move in when the weather got hot if you wanted to stay cool. WP dropped selling them under thier name in just a few years because they were making such a bad name for WP that it was becoming harder for us to even sell WP washers etc. After that time they went back to selling them under the AS name only and they may still be availably today though not very popular. Gas central air never really made much sense unless you had a free supply of natural gas, other wise they cost much more to run than a hi efficiency electric system to say nothing of all the repair issues they cause.

 

[3beltwesty]

Arkla Servel gas-fired absorption A/C

The Arkla Servel gas-fired absorption A/C that was in my current house was installed in 1971 and replaced in 1992. In ran for 21 years with only a fan replaced. The R22 unit that replaced its was a 5 ton Train with a EER type rating of 10. The gas unit was about 2/3'rds of this.

The Arkla Servel gas-fired absorption A/C was replaced because the newer AC would recover its install cost after about 5 years.

Another reason the Arkla Servel gas-fired absorption A/C was replaced is the knowledge base on repairing them has waned and few knew anymore how to change the brine, or check the ammonia. ie the units went obsolete as the older repair guys died off, and newbies would be lost confused souls that believed that gas units were bad.

The Arkla Servel gas-fired absorption A/C units made a hell of alot of sense. They ran often with no issues and the cost of operating them was not that high as Freon AC salesmen preach. I can look at our own actual gas bills of the 70's 80's to 1992 and the highest bills were in the last years. One has a 97 buck gas bill for August of 1992, and about 1/5 of that is the gas water heater since a spring (no heat or ac) bill was about 15. Thus in August of 1992 that 5 tons of AC cost about 82 dollars, the area of the USA that has about the highest AC demand. Today that 82 bucks of 1992 would be like double; ie about 164 bucks to maybe 200 bucks.

Thus today with my summer AC electric bills, they are about the same or more than back in 1992 using a Gas ac unit. The electric companies increases ate up the 1/3 betterment already going to a R22 unit.

The summer gas bills in the 1970's really look oddball; ie 25 bucks in August of 1974 when the Arkla Servel gas-fired absorption A/C was used.

 

[a440]

Sorry Guys!

<span style="font-family: georgia,palatino;">I should have explained when I said "offered in gas".  </span>

<span style="font-family: georgia,palatino;">When I read "Package Unit" I was thinking Heat and Cool Package.</span>

<span style="font-family: georgia,palatino;">When I asked if it was offered in gas I was referring to the heating.</span>

<span style="font-family: georgia,palatino;">Although while we are talking about Gas A/C.  I grew up in a home in New Orleans that has a Bryant Gas A/C unit.  I don't know if it was actually made by Bryant.  It was HUGE.  Giant Green Being!  I would say it was about 6' tall.  You could not really stand very close to it during the hottest part of summer. It was on a huge concrete slab and was about 10' away from the house.  It would get so hot!  Seems the heat discharge was through the top of the unit.  We lived in this house for about 14 years and never had any issues with it.  I am sure it would cost a fortune to run a unit like this today.  Natural Gas was so cheap back then during the 70's.</span>

<span style="font-family: georgia,palatino;">Brent</span>

 

[jamiel]

Got a friend with a house on a slab--he has one of these in gas. It has a small flue with a "Danger-Hot" sticker on it on the side. He has a small house and this works well without taking space on the main floor