"David W.E. Roberts" wrote in message ...
"Frank Watson " wrote in message
...

Seven years ago, I bought an air conditioner from Wickes (Model KC-94)
It is the type that is designed to be mounted in a window frame. (Like
what most private houses have in Florida!) For the past four years, I
haven't used it, but this year, needless to say, I neeeded to use it.
It still works fine, but I am pretty sure it is not blowing as cold as
it used to. Do air conditioners such as these need any maintenance,
such as fluid top-up, etc? The label says it uses R22 coolant.

If the systems are similar in concept to car air conditioning then I think
your problem may that you haven't run it for four years.

I was once told that the air conditioning needed to be run regularly so that
the lubricants were circulated and these prevented the seals (and even some
of the rubber pipes) leaking.

I was told (again can't swear to the truth) that the major problems with car
air conditioning were due to people not running them in the winter then
fnding the gas had leaked away by next summer.

HTH
Dave R

Also, (I was told) the refrigerants that are used nowadays (to replace
CFCs) are corrosive so the systems are guaranteed to fail! I've so far
spent £1200 on the air-con on a VW Sharan (mostly labour). The place I
first went to was doing a roaring trade in replacing corroded
evaporators from this and similar vehicles. The latest fault was
corroded pipework.

Andrew