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Bob F

HeyBub wrote:
wrote:
Hi,

We have a Friederich 18200 BTU through the wall air conditioner on
the main floor of our house. It cools the entire first floor and
has been a great AC for us for over 12 years. It runs on a 240 volt
line which was properly installed when we had our kitchen remodeled.

Recently it started making this loud vibrating noise like the fan
couldn't get started or was somehow out of balance. I would compare
it to the sound of a washing machine when the load is unbalanced.
Sometimes it wouldn't even run the fan at level 1 so I would put it
up to level four (the fan has 4 speeds) and then the fan would kick
in but it would be really loud and vibrate a lot. The cooling part
works fine, it is just the fan that is having problems.

Then it just started working again and today it is working fine
again. It was broken like this for the last 5 days. All of those
days were quite hot.

I remember this happening once last summer and it fixed itself and we
made it through.

I would appreciate if anyone has any idea what might cause this kind
of vibration in the fan and why it could just get better on its own
without any service.

Reasonable guess is that the bearings in the fan need
oiling/greasing/replacing.

I agree completely. If you take apart the fan and remove the bearings, A bearing
shop can sell you the replacements. It cost me less than $20 to do this on a
window A/C. If there are oil holes, oiling is the first thing to try.