Any window air conditioner experts out there?

"Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing." (granfury)
04/28/2017 at 15:50 • Filed to: None

I’ve got a cheap air conditioner that keeps filling up with water. The manual says that this is normal and that it will evaporate over time. Until it does the fan makes more noise than normal, which I’m assuming is the fan splashing in the water, and it’s quite annoying.

The manual says not to drill any drain holes, but it is so tempting to do so. Whenever the noise gets to be too much I do pull the unit out of the window, and this tilting does cause it to drain, albeit inside the house, not outside.

Any suggestions as to how to keep this thing dry and quiet?

DISCUSSION (21)

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
04/28/2017 at 15:57

The manual is a fool. Drain holes properly positioned can and do work.

facw > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
04/28/2017 at 15:59

All the ones I’ve had have a drain, and you need to be careful not to pitch it forward so things flow towards the drain properly. It seems weird not to have one.

WilliamsSW > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
04/28/2017 at 15:59

It’s either that, or move to Arizona.

uofime-2 > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
04/28/2017 at 16:10

They might be trying to purposely have the fan hit the water to throw it on the condenser and try to get a little more heat exchange out of it by evaporating the water, that would explain why they don’t want you drilling holes.

Excessive build up is also often a sign that the duty cycle on the unit is to high aka you really need to have a bigger unit.

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
04/28/2017 at 16:16

Try mounting it so that the outside is ever so slightly lower, that way the condensation will drain away from the house and hopefully away from the fan.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > uofime-2
04/28/2017 at 16:18

Or it could be a sign that it’s a piece of crap...

uofime-2 > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly
04/28/2017 at 16:32

If you try to cut steak with a butter knife, it is not likely to work well. Does that mean there is something wrong with the butter knife or that you’re using the wrong tool for the job?

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > uofime-2
04/28/2017 at 16:33

To be honest, right now it’s just being used as a fan, so the water is actually coming from rain.

crowmolly > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
04/28/2017 at 16:37

Kinja'd!!!

If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent > uofime-2
04/28/2017 at 16:37

That would be very irresponsible design to make the unit need additional cooling like that

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > uofime-2
04/28/2017 at 16:49

If that butter knife isn’t cutting, it’s time for REVENGE

itschrome > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
04/28/2017 at 16:56

I always arranged mine to tilt back a hair to encourage drainage.. then i gave up and got central air.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > itschrome
04/28/2017 at 17:11

TBH, I do have central air, but I don’t like spending the extra money to cool rooms that I’m not using. A few minutes in a warm kitchen or running the fan at night in the bedroom doesn’t bother me as much as the outrageous electric bills that come from cooling the whole place. I spend most of my time in the home office downstairs, so that’s the room in which I installed the window A/C.

itschrome > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
04/28/2017 at 17:19

man that’s why you gotta put valves on your piping. I can shut off rooms I don’t use. plus I found keeping my house at an average temp actually dropped my over all bill than running a/c in just few rooms. but my house is like stupid isolated. in the winter it costs me the same to have a 64 degree house or a 72 degree house. it’s insane how well it holds heat or cool.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > itschrome
04/28/2017 at 17:29

If I owned the place I would certainly re-work the HVAC system, but I’m currently renting, with plans to buy early next year. The place is about 120 years old and has a heater that was designed for a mobile home. I’ve been chasing air leaks trying to keep the heat in during winter and the heat out during summer. Trying to heat the place to anything over 63 degrees nearly bankrupted me, so I keep it around 57-60 in the winter, heating just the room I use most of the time.

I really need to rent an IR camera for a day to see what’s really going on.

itschrome > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
04/28/2017 at 18:01

omg.. I beat you have fuck all for insinuation. are you planning on buying that house? you’ll go broke just re-outfitting the insolation cause i don’t need a gun to tell you that thing probably leaks every where. old holms like that suck. but tell ya what you buy it, get insurance and I know a guy. you can rebuild in it’s image! hahaha

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > itschrome
04/28/2017 at 18:28

No, I don’t plan on buying this place. It’s a larger home, which probably started life as a single family, that was subdivided into three separate units. If I’m going to have a mortgage I don’t want to share any walls or floors/ceilings with anybody and I want a basement to myself. Idiot upstairs neighbors forgot to close the basement door last year which resulted in the pipes freezing; thankfully I caught it in time and nothing burst. If I was my own place I’d have nobody else to blame.

When it was redone it was done as cheaply as possible, with contractor-grade components and fixtures, keeping none of the original turn-of-the-century charm. Optimally I’d like to find something mid-century modern. A friend has a great place in that style, but I would need a basement and a garage, things his place is lacking.

Poking around the basement I have seen a fair amount of insulation in the floor area, but I suspect that there isn’t a whole lot in the walls. The windows are double-glazed, but I’ve been sealing up air leaks around them for ages. Same thing goes for air leaks around plumbing under the sinks - basic shit. I’m almost tempted to find a fixer-upper so that I can see the work get done right when the place is stripped down to the studs.

uofime-2 > If only EssExTee could be so grossly incandescent
04/28/2017 at 20:11

It doesn’t need it just gets a boost from it. When ever you’re cooling you get condensation on the evaporator, you’re going to have water. Using that to boost your sysetem efficiency when it’s needed most

brianbrannon > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
04/28/2017 at 20:35

I had the same problem. I drilled a hole to drain it. It’s less efficient but also way less noisy

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > brianbrannon
04/28/2017 at 21:40

How is it less efficient?

brianbrannon > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
04/29/2017 at 00:30

The splashing water helps cool the condenser