> > Here's the situation... Sam and I have an AC which we bought the summer we got married (2 years ago), so it's probably only been used a total of 60 days in all. Hey, we live in New England, so we don't have much of a hot season, but when it is hot, it is HOT (and HUMID, icky). I ran the AC for 2 days straight about a week ago, and it didn't seem to really work. I mean, I'm used to standing in front of it and being freezing. It just seems to blow out air that is like a fan, not air conditioning. So, what we would like to know is if anybody has one of these window type AC's (not central air) and knows if we are supposed to get freon for it? If so, where do you go for such a thing? Someone out there must know! :-)
>
>
> Nothing but bad news.
> A two-year-old air conditioner probably doesn't have freon. It has the modern environmentally friendly, ineffecient stuff. You can't service an air conditioner without proper certification any more. Call a qualified serviceman and expect to pay and pay. Check the price of a new unit first. It could be cheaper to buy a new one than to have the old one fixed. I assume you have checked the warrenty.
>
> We just replaced our central cooling unit last summer and (are you sitting down?) it cost us $4000. [snip]
> Howard

If your air conditioner was manufactured only two year ago, it definitely doesn't contain any R-12 freon. (As an aside, I could say that The Montreal Protocol, a combined effort to protect the stratospheric ozone layer, was signed way back in 1987 by many countries to help limit production and use of CFCs like R-12. What's eeenteresting about this is that, so far, none of the approved "replacements" for freon are environmentally friendly, either; they're all hydrocarbonfluorocarbons (HCFCs). They're just "less damaging" than the original one and will also need to be phased out by 2020.)

Nevertheless, to answer Leen's other question as to what's wrong with the air conditioner, it's easy enough to check whether there's a coolant leak somewhere. Leaks show up as oily spots around connections or on the condenser coil area (or so the Heat Pump repair guy told me). Actually, there are several possibilities for failure that you could check out before calling the service technician. I do find it a little odd that the appliance has konked out after only ~2 months of use, so you might want to check off this list first: your temperature control dial might be out of calibration, so find an electrical engineering friend to fix it; the inside coolant condensor coils could have been blocked with dirt, dust, or grass, so brush them off to clean them; or you have a coolant leak, which you can readily detect by those oily spots. Or, your compressor has somehow given up the ghost prematurely.

If the lack of cooling stems from the latter two problems, then -- as Howard says -- you need to call a certified service technician who has the specialized tools to do that kind of repair. I mean, solving a leak or faulty compression may be as simple as replacing some o-ring gaskets. Unfortunately, the cost of a repair or replacement compressor may be so high that you might be better off just buying a new A/C unit. For example, when the compressor goes on our 14-year-old Heat Pump, we're probably going to look into getting Central Air Conditioning instead.

And just to back up a bit, remember that whenever you *move* an appliance or newly install one that contains a compressor (likes A/C's, fridges, and freezers), you need to leave the unit *OFF* to let the coolant settle for at least 5 minutes to 2 hours. This will prevent excess refrigerant pressure from overloading the compressor -- and basically toasting it. That would be a rather expensive "oops".

Leen, I hope all this helps you in your decision, somewhat.

Heh. Anyway there's nothing like a good hands-on, mechanistic problem to cool one's coconut on a hot day like this. On my side of the border it was raining yesterday, and outdoors became a sauna... You know, between Leen's A/C question and Issachar's dynamic return to the forum (Way to go Issy!), I've just remembered a neat way to break several Laws of Thermodynamics. What if it were possible to use nanotechnology to effectively create "Maxwell's Demon" -- in this case, a semi-permeable, one-way nanomolecular membrane that freely allows rapidly-moving air molecules (i.e. hot air) to pass through it, BUT causes slower-moving particles (cold air) to rebound back from the membrane, and thus retain coolness inside a closed room. Wouldn't it be wild to have this... Niven's totally passive energy-free A/C system that does zero damage to the stratosphere. Cool.

Wolf "ramblin'" spirit