Wondering if it’s really worth to clean and disinfect. 8000 btu, around $200 or less to replace. Amazing how filthy it is after two seasons. 
Saw a few YouTube videos and they came out pretty clean but do they really 
buy a product called Desolv. Enviro friendly and works so good. I take out the rotor fan out of my split unit and clean it with this stuff and it comes out like new.
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Clean it.
After hitting it with some compressed air the condenser frame is pretty much rotted out. Weird, I couldn’t find any drain holes in the rear of the unit where the gunk and rust is. I’ll have to pick up some of this Desolv for the next unit.
If the unit has a “slinger” fan blade in it there won’t be any drainholes at the bottom. This is to “improve” the efficieny of the unit by splashing the condensate on the condenser to cool it a little more via evaporation. The bottoms of the condenser coils always rot out on these units.
Nothing like “improving efficiency” to turn a product into a POS
Learned something today. Is the, “slinger” style pretty common? How do I determine if my next purchase has this feature?
Most, if not all window units I’ve seen in quite a while has this “feature”. They do it so they can list a slightly higher EER rating on the box in the store. Unlike years ago, most of these units are throw away items that are usually cheaper to replace then to repair and have a pretty short life expectancy.
Look for a drain hole. You can drill a couple holes to help it last longer. Try to drill from the top down to ensure you don’t hit a line!
Exactly what I did. Bought a window unit last year, and couldn’t figure out why the fan blade kept splashing the water, until I saw no drain holes. Drilled a few holes, and good as new, and the base doesn’t hold any water now, and get gunked up.
I’m not a tree hugger but, you wonder why our land fills are mountainous ranges.
Great idea.
Hopefully get a little more longevity out of it.
I tried drilling holes in the lowest part of the pan and it does work to reduce rusting and other nasties in the bottom of the A/C…BUT: then something else fails like the compressor or one of the seals starts leaking or the electronics goes bad. It’s all designed to just get the unit out of the warranty period. Then you have to deal with the bigger problem: properly disposing of the unit. At least by me, recycling or trash pickup won’t touch it unless is has a sticker on it indicating that the refrigerant has been evacuated by a licensed technician (which you have to pay for!).
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one of my window units didn’t have any drain holes. i made my own drain hole.
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it’s funny that you say that. the fridge in my kitchen has been there since i was a kid. i think it’s a whirlpool. there’s a philco in my basement. i’m guessing early 60’s vintage. i unplugged it a few years ago to sayve electric. it was still keeping things cold till that point. got an old meat freezer in the basement too. 70’s vintage. works great. they just don’t want stuff to last anymore.
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That right there !. They could. But what happens when everyone has an appliance that never wears out? The price of new units goes up and factories close or reduce staff. I’ve been in the business more then 60 years. The AC units use to be made to repair. The panels were made of thick steel. Took two guys to install a window unit on anything over 5000 BTUs. I installed one that was 10000 BTUs by my self last year. Now If they could find a way to make just the paint stay there they would. Water heaters could have stainless steel tanks. Stainless is relatively cheap and plentiful now a days. Why not make use that? Cause they’d go outta business prettys fast.. Even TVs. Totally solid state. They could be made to last. But same thing. I was told the new cheap smaller flat screens are lucky to make 2-3 years. I’ve had 3 in the last 10 years. No one around to fix them anymore. Anyway there is a reason to all this. Some would call it greed. But it also keeps alotta folks working. I hate it but thats the way the world is going. Make it cheap, sell it cheap. Mostly anyway.
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Unfortunately, not in the US!