Existential Angst wrote:
"Tony" wrote in message
...
Existential Angst wrote:
Awl --

A'ight, so I got one of those portable ditties, for le shop, around
10,000 btu, single hose, as opposed to the more efficient dual hose. A
few years ago. Now the unit is flooding condensate.

Upon tearing this unit apart, it is clear that these units are *destined*
to fail in a shop, from dust.
Altho there is a ****ty filter on the cold air coil, there is no filter
on the condenser coil, which uses shop air to exhaust the heat, and thus
can get VERY dirty.
And indeed it was was.

It is VERY difficult to clean either of these coils properly, and even
doing the 60-75% job I did was no joke.
To properly clean the condenser coil would require *complete* disassembly
of the unit..... COMPLETE.
Which proly would not be so bad the second time around, but the FIRST
time around appears to be one helluva learning curve.

I seemed to be able to do a so-so job by blowing the fins *tangentially*,
so as not to jam the dirt/dust further into the fin structure.
And blew out the clog in the top drip pan.

All in all, a well-made unit, but with numerous fundamental design flaws,
such as this cleaning business, and clogging condensate holes, resulting
in flooding -- which is what in fact initiated this effort.
They really need to be used in clean, dust-free environments.

Two-hose units would present less of the dirty hot coil/condenser
problem.
But, ultimately, all hot condensers coils seem to be difficult to clean,
it's just that it seems they take longer to get dirty -- except, of
course, for these single-hose units.

But here's the neat thermodynamic part:

A/C efficiency is ultimately limited by the outside air temperature, for
a traditional condenser coil that uses outside air to remove its heat.

However, with these portable units (single hose), it's the INSIDE air
that cools the condenser coils, which is in part why their EERs are so
miserable.
BUT, it would appear that this miserable EER cannot be made any MORE
miserable by very high outside temps, since those temps no longer come
into contact with any coil of the unit. !!!

I wonder if there are some circumstances where this arrangement could
actually be an *advantage*??
Mebbe in 195 F climates??

That's different. Never saw one that uses indoor air to cool the
condenser.

It was my impression that this was the norm for portable A/Cs, until the
two-hose jobbies started being produced.

Picture a window A/C, that has vents along the sides (on the portion outside
the window), and the exhaust in the back.

Now imagine moving that A/C further into the room, so that those vents are
on the room side, and only the exhaust is outside. You would then have
effectively duplicated a portable A/C, losing inside air (cooled) going to
the outside through those vents, for the purpose of cooling the condenser
coil.

So you are essentially throwing out already-cooled air.

But, in the context of very high outside ambient temps, mebbe this has some
advantages.

Note, tho, that a portable unit like this Amana proly has an EER of 6, while
high-end mini-splits have EERs in the upper 20s, with others typically in
the high teens.
Min spec for EERs now is, iirc, 13.

OK, I didn't notice the "portable" in the subject line. That also
explains what you meant about the one or two hoses. I was picturing a
window unit with one or two hoses and ready to ask you WTF? Now I
understand the whole post.