Air Conditioner Problem

[techforce]

I know this is Technicly a non-Electronic type appliance, but perhaps
someone can provide insight on this Problem with a Window AC unit..


This is an older Sears Coldspot, probably 5000 BTU. When 1st put on, it will
blow cool Air ok, but after a While you can hear the cooling grille
Disconnect Electrically, probably from the Sensor mounted to it , which goes
to the Thermostat Dial on the Front panel.

Then, Depending on I think how much Water has accumulated inside the Unit,
it may or may not re-engage the Cooling Grille. It seems on hotter days it
tries to turn on the Cooling grille but you can tell its drawing ALOT of
Wall Current (the lights dim) and you can hear a breaker in the AC
Pop....the Fan Continues to blow whatever cool air is remaining ok....but
after a short time it will try to re-engage the Cooling grille. Sometimes it
will kick in ok , sometimes you just hear the breaker pop out again and
again after repeated attempts.

Last night I re-positioned the wire type Sensor mounted on the cooling
grille, and It blew cool Air Ok, with no problems. I just moved the wire
away from being embedded in the grille so that just the Tip on the Block is
touching the Grille.

This morning, it seems we have alot of Condensation & Water dripping inside,
and the problem came back. I tilted the Unit to better drain the water, and
it seemed to help. Am I on the Right path as far as the Water Build up goes?

 

[Jerry G.]

It is very normal to have water build-up. The machine is extracting
moisture from the air passing through the evaporator. The machine must
be mounted at an angle to allow the water to spill back to the outside
section where the condenser is. There should be some drain holes for
the water.

Many machines also use this water as part of the system for cooling the
condenser section. There are supposed to be overflow drain holes, or
some way for the excess water to drain off.

You should consult the technical manual for your machine, or enquire to
their service department about where the thermostat sensor should be
positioned on your model. This should be correct in order for the
machine to perform properly.

At least once a year, or every two years, a window unit should be
properly checked and properly cleaned with high pressure steam
equipment. Then it should be tested for performance and reliability,
and any worn parts changed. This will keep the machine in top running
condition, and work efficiently so there is no wasted use of power for
its operation.

I realize that air conditioners are not very expensive these days, but
proper maintenance will effectively make it more efficient.

--

Greetings,

Jerry Greenberg GLG Technologies GLG
==============================================
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==============================================
"techforce" <techforce@!~NOSPAM!~.juno.com> wrote in message
news:5SuYa.10666$jg.3139978@news1.news.adelphia.net...
I know this is Technicly a non-Electronic type appliance, but perhaps
someone can provide insight on this Problem with a Window AC unit..


This is an older Sears Coldspot, probably 5000 BTU. When 1st put on, it
will
blow cool Air ok, but after a While you can hear the cooling grille
Disconnect Electrically, probably from the Sensor mounted to it , which
goes
to the Thermostat Dial on the Front panel.

Then, Depending on I think how much Water has accumulated inside the
Unit,
it may or may not re-engage the Cooling Grille. It seems on hotter days
it
tries to turn on the Cooling grille but you can tell its drawing ALOT of
Wall Current (the lights dim) and you can hear a breaker in the AC
Pop....the Fan Continues to blow whatever cool air is remaining
ok....but
after a short time it will try to re-engage the Cooling grille.
Sometimes it
will kick in ok , sometimes you just hear the breaker pop out again and
again after repeated attempts.

Last night I re-positioned the wire type Sensor mounted on the cooling
grille, and It blew cool Air Ok, with no problems. I just moved the wire
away from being embedded in the grille so that just the Tip on the Block
is
touching the Grille.

This morning, it seems we have alot of Condensation & Water dripping
inside,
and the problem came back. I tilted the Unit to better drain the water,
and
it seemed to help. Am I on the Right path as far as the Water Build up
goes?

 

[Sam Goldwasser]

"Jerry G." <jerryg@total.net> writes:

You should consult the technical manual for your machine, or enquire to
their service department about where the thermostat sensor should be
positioned on your model. This should be correct in order for the
machine to perform properly.

Come on Jerry, this is a window A/C. At most it has a manual to tell the
user how to turn it on and off. The model is probably 20 years old and
the chance of finding exact service info is nill.

The location of the sensor is important, but the problem he is describing
sounds like the compressor is hard-start once it shuts off.

If the compressor shuts off and then immediately tries to restart, it will
fail and pop the overload protector as described. This is normal behavior
but shouldn't happen unless someone moves the thermostat to a colder setting
just after the compressor shuts off. After a couple of minutes once the
pressure equalizes, it should restart fine though.

At least once a year, or every two years, a window unit should be
properly checked and properly cleaned with high pressure steam
equipment. Then it should be tested for performance and reliability,
and any worn parts changed. This will keep the machine in top running
condition, and work efficiently so there is no wasted use of power for
its operation.

Wishful thinking and while this does affect the efficiency, the basic
mechanical operation should be reliable without frequency maintenance.
We all make recommendations that are unrealistic.

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[Andy Cuffe]

I've seen window A/Cs that wouldn't keep the compressor running for more
than a few min at a time because the back of the condenser clogged. A
shop vac was good enough to remove the coating of dirt that was clogging
it. The only hard part is getting to the back of the condenser.
--
Andy Cuffe
baltimora@psu.edu