I am renting a place where the only air conditioner is a window unit mounted in the wall in the main living area. The space in that main room is about 325 sq ft, and it has a 9 ft ceiling on average. The unit is a Frigidaire FAS182H2A1. It looks like it was manufactured in 1999, but I can't recognize any other useful specs on the partially worn labels. So, I don't know what its BTU rating is, and I couldn't seem to find the manual online. Earlier in the spring, I felt it wasn't cooling well, and I took off the front panel to see that it was caked with about 1/8" of dust and pet hair from previous tenants. The landlord removed this, but the aluminum fins were still clogged with gunk. I tried the only thing that our local Home Depot had for this which was an aerosol can of foaming cleaner, so I sprayed and scrubbed for a couple days. It looks a lot better, but I am not certain the fins are really cleaned out. The air conditioner is still occasionally spitting out what looks like chunks of dried black gunk that has been displaced from between the fins.

Last week it was about 95 degrees F outside, and after several hours of this thing being turned on to its max level, the room cooled down to about 81 degrees (with all doors to other rooms closed). I used a thermometer I had to measure the temperature of the air coming out of the unit, which was between 67 and 68 degrees. It's only getting hotter outside (ugh), so I'd like to try to do something about this. So, here are my actual questions: How much cooling should I expect from this unit?best rated window ac units Is it properly sized for the space?how long do window ac units last Is there anything I can do to improve its performance?how much is a residential ac unit According to this, the Frigidaire FAS182H2A1 is an 18000 BTU device.

That's pretty powerful if working properly. The government suggests 8000 BTU for 325 SF. Check your outside coils too and clean if needed. If that is not a problem it could be something internal. partial clog in your expansion valve. If cleaning the outside coils doesn't work, I do not expect repair to be practical. You can buy a new 10,000 BTU unit from Home Depot for $300. It would be reasonable to ask the owner to pay for it. Just for clarification, there are two sets of fins. The inside ones and the outside ones. The outside ones will get caked with pollen, dust, dirt, bugs, etc and form a matte blocking air flow around the fins. Depending on where you live and how much the AC runs, you may need to clean this yearly. The best way is to open up the entire case and then get in there with water degreaser and a toothbrush to get all the gunk out. Also, as Philip points out, that's a LOT Of BTUs for a very small space. If a unit is oversized, what will happen is that it will cool the space before it can dehumidify the space.

So you end up with cold and damp...likely not something you want. I'd second Philip and just go spend a few hundred bucks on a small 8000 btu unit. 43,218 posts, read 43,024,441 times I will add that appliances and things which can be repaired have "Service Manuals" available from the manufacturer of the product. They will give the purchaser of a product (consumer) an "Instruction Manual" and sometimes a separate "Installation Manual", but NOT the "Service Manual". Factory Service Manuals will go into great detail with step by step troubleshooting, provide diagrams of systems, electrical schematics, programming information for electronic devices, etc. Many times parts listings with part numbers.These have Factory Service Manuals available which can be 4 phone book size books and a total of 2000 pages! Not available at auto parts stores, get from dealer.) Here is an example of an A/C service manual. Notice how detailed it is... the partially clogged evap behaves pretty much like a partially clogged metering device.

one correction , at the metering valve you want very little of the liquid to turn into gas. you want the liquid to make it through the evaporator as it is the change of state of going from liquid to a gas that removes most of the heat in the evaporator. huge amounts of heat are absorbed in order to go from a liquid to a gas. there will always be a certain amount of freon converted to a gas as it goes through the metering device but the bulk should be a low pressure liquid. the higher the difference in pressure between the high side and the low side the more refrigerant will be wasted going through the metering device. that is why we have many types of freon for different applications. Originally Posted by Billy_J real men don't need no stinkin service manuals ha ha ha Originally Posted by mathjak107 Yes I had such a "real man" working at an auto parts store tell me I did not need to evacuate my car's A/C system, which had been open to the air, with a vacuum pump prior to filling with refrigerant!

He also said I did not need to replace the accumulator/dryer! (Contrary to the repair instructions in the Factory Service Manual, which I choose to follow instead.)LPT: If your air conditioner isn't cooling as well as it used to, spray off the outside AC unit (the condenser) with a garden hose. LifeProTips)submitted by It's a simple way to keep your AC performing at top condition. The outside "box" of your air conditioning system is called the "condenser." That's what acts as the heat exchanger between your home and the outside--those cooling vanes in the condenser act like your car's radiator by taking heat to the outdoors. Dust and debris can clog the cooling vanes, making them much less efficient. Dirty cooling vanes can diminish system efficiency as much as a dirty filter can. Use a garden hose (not a brush, or a high-pressure washer, which can damage the fragile cooling vanes) to thoroughly rinse off the vanes. It's good practice to clean them (and weed/trim grass) around the condenser once a year, early in the season.