Window Air Conditioners Good and Bad

[whirlykenmore78]

Kenmore:

We had a massive Kenmore 25,000 BTU machine (240/60/1)power rating in the mobile home. This was a metal box painted dark brown with NO shade. We had it for 5 years and even on the hottest days (90-104)F, the house stayed cool @ 72-74F. It never missed a beat. The only maintenance needed was to cover it in the winter and clean the filter monthly. I believe this machine was made by LG, but whoever made it did a great job.
WK78

 

[tomturbomatic]

In 2003 or 4, I bought two American-made Friedrich window units because I had a big Friedrich in my townhouse and liked it very much. First of all, the new ones, which were 8.5 EER had terrible filters which let a lot of crap into the coils so there was a lot of cleaning until I bought better filters. When installing them, the gap between the cabinet and the slide out chassis was huge. We had to stuff that with foam. I had to seal the dampers for air exchange because they did not seal tightly. They had plastic base pans. One arrived cracked so a transplant was needed. The drainage from the inside coils to the outside was just a shallow indentation in the pan. It regularly clogged, even with suing the anti-fungal tablets so I kept a straightened coat hanger inserted through the rear grill to move back and forth to keep it unclogged. For the last years, the water did not reach the outside fan so it just sat there instead of being sprayed over the hot coils, causing a great loss of efficiency. All of the air ducting was made of Styrafoam so when the fan motor went, we would have had to used a saw to take it apart enough to replace the motor which we did not. The aluminum fins around the copper coils were as soft as what used to be used to wrap chewing gum and just as durable. I replaced the bedroom Friedrich with Sharp from Costco for about $170. This is its third season. This spring, the kitchen unit would not cool even though the compressor kicked right in. I looked at new 8K Friedrichs, but the same size unit would be $600 and I just could not see it for something hecho en Mexico so I went to Costco and bought an 11.3 EER Danby for $200 with tax. It works great and I have no illusions about it being anything but a Timex throw away. I immediately put better filters in both units to prevent the problems I had with the coils in the Friedrichs. The filters are sold at HD and are foam and something else.

The reason I have them is that with the insulation I put in the attic and the sunscreens I have on the windows and the French Doors, which stop something like 90% of the heat gain, two 8K window units with a Vornado fan or two to distribute cool air can keep the house at 72F in all but the hottest weather without using the central system. After a couple of days over 90F, I will run the central system for a couple of hours in the evening to help the window units, but otherwise they keep the house cool and dry. I am able to have the maximum save setting on the power saver switch from the power company on my central system which pays handsomely in the summer and I don't notice any difference in the house temperature because I don't use the central system.

 

[toploader55]

I Love the Split Units.

They're very quiet.

 

But I rent. And I've put enough of my own money into the place.

 

Just found these two on CL.  They are older but for $65.00 each, I might Gamble rather than spend $200 on something I might hate.

 

Why don't they have them plugged in the stores so you can hear them ?

 

Answer:  Because if customers hear how loud they are. the won't buy them.

http://southcoast.craigslist.org/app/4993330973.html

 

[gusherb]

That looks like a good quality Friedrich to me, love that wire coil guard on it. I'm leery of the ones that look like LG's and I'm not sure if other versions they sell (or used to sell) are crap or not. Ironically I've had good luck with LG. The last ones I bought had plastic for the fan/evaporator instead of the styrofoam that everyone was already using 8 years ago.

 

[toploader55]

That looks like good quality Friedrich...

I thought so too.  Yes the Condenser Guard is heavy stuff unlike the one I have looks like LG or other cheap brands just with the Friedrich Badge on them.

 

I guess not even Friedrich takes pride in every unit they sell. Just a shame.

 

[mieleforever]

We have bought a portable/mobile airconditioner, as the house that we once rented did not have any A/C. That was our second portable, the first one was something out of the Orient, was terrible, noisy, not very efficient. And I bought a new one Olympia Splendid PIU, they are an Italian Heating and Cooling company. They really have very nice a/c's. The machine was still more noisy than a regular split unit but given the fact that it was someone else's house I figured I could not install an ac for the owner.

We are really pleased with the machine, the condensate is dispersed via the exhaust ducting, which I might add is a bit cumbersome.

One negative thing however they are really expensive, even more than a split unit here. I wish we had more window units at the prices that you guys are talking about, but with crime ever escalating in South Africa, every house here has burglar bars in front of every window, so I guess that's why we don't see them around too much.

Cheers hope ypu find your A/C

 

[tomturbomatic]

Here, in high crime areas, it is not unusual to see window bars fashioned in such a way as to form a box around the ac unit.

 

[abcomatic]

I have a 2 year old Fridgedaire and it seems to work well so far. It's in the bedroom; the central air doesn't cool so well upstairs.
Gary

 

[foraloysius]

I wish we had window airconditioners and windows that take them. Although I have a good portable airconditioner, a window airconditioner works way and way better.

 

[blackstone]

I like Friedrich

I now have 4 Friedrich window ac units. Over the past couple of years, I bought 2 new Friedrich 8K units, and 2 used off Craigslist. All 4 work fine. They are much quieter than the units they replaced. The used Friedrich is in the living room. Now I can hear the TV without the constant background noise of air movement.

Two other positive features on the Friedrichs--slide-out chassis, and low amperage use. The slide-out chassis is a must, in my opinion. It makes yearly installation and removal safe for a one-person job (me). Also that much easier for me to carry them up to the attic. I can run all the units at the same time, without blowing any fuses. Yes, fuses--the house is approx. 125 years old, so electricity is a major consideration.

I also bought a Friedrich dehumidifier for the cellar, which uses only 2 amps.

While I'm on the subject, when will air conditioners have a significant increase in efficiency? The best available window unit is about 11.3 EER. When we sold Carriers about 30 years ago, their big selling point was their high efficiency--about 10. Is there some law of physics here that just prevents increased efficiency? Or is it cost of manufacturing and/or retail price?

 

[blackstone]

Friedrich people can't do math

When I was buying my Friedrich dehumidifier, I wanted the model with the lowest electricity use. The specs on this model are wrong. Volts x amps = watts. I tried to explain that to Friedrich customer service, and to the local retailer (P.C. Richard), but they were clueless. I see that Friedrich still has not updated their website. This model uses 2.2 amps, as labeled on the back of the unit. Oh well.

 

[philr]

Speaking about efficiency, I recently posted this link in another thread.

 

AN EER of 12 in 1972?!

 

 

[tomturbomatic]

At one time, Friedrich was known as the Cadillac of air conditioners. Of course, that was when the Cadillac name meant something also. Georgia Power sold Friedrich as their premium brand. There was also Randall Brothers, an old, carriage trade company that sold lumber & construction supplies in Atlanta that used to run ads in the paper for Friedrich heat pumps and central ac units. My 8th grade homeroom teacher and her husband got their Friedrich heat pump through them when they went total electric in 1964. In addition to using efficient fan motors and compressors, I think super efficient air conditioners had to have larger evaporators and condensers which meant using more copper.

 

[fan-of-fans]

I would go with a split system if possible. I find the window units way too noisy when I try to sleep in motels with them. Even the hotel style units are loud to my ears, but I am used to central air.

The house next to me is being fixed up and they put some LG units in the bedrooms. I have never seen such small units other than the low profile type.

As far as units plugged in in the stores, I do recall for a short time recently Sears had a display of A/C units blowing ribbons. I'm not sure if they were on cool or just the fan blowing.

 

[whirlcool]

Growing up in the Chicago area I used to notice what brand A/C units people had in their windows. Esp when I had my paper route. I'd see Westinghouse, lots and lots of Fedders, some Norge's and various Coldspots, Frigidaires and GE's. But I never saw any Friedrich units.

When I went to school in Lousiana in 1972, Friedrich was the brand most often seen!
It seemed that everyone had them. I often wondered why I never saw the brand in Chicago. This would have been in the 60's. (61-69)

 

[yogitunes]

I found Kenmore's of the 80's to be very quiet, I bought two units, the other was a Whirlpool of the same design, yet it was loud, could not figure that one out...

I prefer the AUTO setting units, where it shuts down the entire unit when not cooling, some object to this style, but its what I want, and wont use anything else....

what I find funny is people who get Central Air installed, and sell their window units off on CL as no longer needed....noting that they should keep one or two small units.....not all homes have two central units, and if that unit goes down, what do you do for cooling until it gets fixed?....at least a small unit for the bedroom will suffice...better than nothing....I have central, and spares, just in case.....

I can't always agree on having central......cooling an entire house if not needed.....window units can be noisy for some cases, actually some people like it to sleep to drown outside noises......and sometimes I find window units efficient as I only have to cool certain rooms.......

with central, its not advised to shut off vents or close rooms off, as it can throw the unit into havoc!....

 

[philr]

I can't agree more about having the "auto" setting. I have two outlets with line thermostats to run my older air conditioners that don't have an auto setting that switches the blower to off. So I just leave the thermostat of the air conditioner to the coldest setting and set the temperature on the line thermostat so everything shuts off when there's no need for it. 

 

My 1966 Frigidaire air conditioner also has an "automatic cooling" setting but all it does is switch the fan to low speed when the room temperature gets close to the set temperature on the thermostat. When the temperature drops a bit more, the compressor stops but the blower remains on low speed. That requires a thermostat with two sets of contacts that open and close at different temperatures but it still doesn't shut the blower off when the compressor stops.

 

[petek]

Back in the day 60's early 70's most people around here either bought them from Sears or Woolco where I worked a short stint. Woolco carried Emerson Quiet Kools and on those insufferable summer nights people would be coming into the store right up to 10pm when the store closed and carting them out, fans too. Couldn't keep enough in stock. The folks bought ours from Wilsons TV & Appliance downtown, an Admiral, being they were an Admiral dealer.  Pauls TV at Northgate across from Sears sold RCA iirc. Sears and Woolco no doubt sold the most being as people could use their store card to pay for them cause they weren't cheap relatively speaking like they are today. 

 

[gusherb]

I disagree that window units are cheaper to run then central air. There's many factors to it but the only way I see that actually being the case is if your central A/C is an ancient 10 SEER or less system matched to poor ductwork and most likely way oversized. And also if the single room your cooling is small and sealed off from other rooms with a door.

Outside of that there's almost no way that central air is less efficient then a window unit, which those units are generally quite inefficient compared to even lower efficiency central units. And when using a window unit it's extremely crucial to seal all gaps around the window and even doing it meticulously can still leave it quite a bit more leaky with a window unit in it vs just having it closed.

5 years ago when our downstairs central unit took a dump (for the last time) I took a GE (Electrolux) 12,000 BTU window A/C I had and put it in one of the sliding doors and then fashioned up a board to seal the massive gap above it and sealed everything meticulously and then added a register boot and adjustable 6" elbow to the front of the outlet to direct airflow more precisely (this worked beautifully). All because we have no double hung windows. This worked perfectly to cool half of the lower level, but in the end the utility bill actually came in 200 Kwh's higher then the month prior (was the same temp both summer months) when the at the time 20 yr old 2.5 ton 9 SEER condensing unit for the main level still worked.

Also in the summer of 2012 during the heat wave I picked up a new/used Friedrich Zoneaire 12,000 BTU portable A/C which had the double hoses so you don't suck out cooled air, to cool the 14x25 family room and again the utility bill was the same as when we ran central air for the whole main level.

 

[cuffs054]

Check this out!

Robot or human?