When we were in MO, we were thinking about closing in a downstairs garage and making a basement kitchen. We really liked our a/c guy there and he couldn’t say enough good stuff about the mini-split a/c units. We never got around to making that garage a kitchen because we moved to Texas.
Mini Split
We got here, needed an a/c for my sewing room and the a/c guy here recommended a mini-split. We did it. At first, I thought it was the best a/c ever but after about three years, we’ve had to have it worked on almost every summer. No one wants to work on it. They’re hard to fix. We’ve spent enough money fixing the darned thing that, combined with what it cost to purchase initially, we could have put in a top of the line Carrier central unit with ductwork and been much, much happier.
You can see from the picture that it’s been off the wall so many times, the wall needs to be repainted but I’m saying . . why? I’m sure by this time next summer, it will have been yanked down and repaired again.
You already know that before we went to MO, it went out. The a/c guy we like from Brady came over and said for about $500, he’d have his guys come back, take it apart, fix everything and it would be as good as it could get . . not great but it was that or $8,000 for a ducted central system. He showed Vince the part that was all gunked up and blocking the air flow.
Vince decided he would order the parts and get his friend who can fix anything to come help him fix it.
Yesterday, said friend came over and I stayed out of the sewing room but apparently . . said friend will never work on a mini split again. Vince said several times, the guy said “I can’t fix this!” Vince said there were a few bad words! The guy kept saying “They could have done this or that and it would be so much easier.”
This is the part that was all gunked up and blocking the air flow and causing the unit to freeze up.
A/C Parts
We’ve had that unit probably 5 years. The first one they put in was too small and the replaced it with a larger unit. No one ever told us to spray Clorox/water up on these things every six months. The owner’s manual doesn’t even mention these parts. There are filters that we take out regularly and clean but you have to pretty much get way up in the unit to see these things. Vince kinda whacked them on the ground and a lot of the gunk fell out but the air flow was almost completely blocked. There’s some cat hair but not a lot. It’s just gunk. Vince said “bacteria”. Great! That’s what I wanted to hear. This blows right down on me when I’m sitting at the computer in the sewing room.
Vince will now spray up in there with Clorox/water on a regular schedule and hopefully it will last a few more years. I asked Vince if he was going to clean these things out and put them back in when the current ones get gunked up. He said “No . . that unit will be gone by then!”
carolyn says
Wow! We’re looking at houses too and most of them are from the 1920s and have no a/c. My husband swears that mini-splits are the way to go since he’s in the industry. I think I need to show him this post! Not that we’ll ever move, we can’t decide where we want to be either…although we’re just trying to decide on which towns closer to our two kids who live in NJ, a much easier decision than yours!