Air Conditioners, Constant Temperature, Humidity

My studio flat’s wall-mounted AC appears to be showing signs of breaking down, becoming less and less capable of maintaining a consistent temperature setting while the humidity in the flat is also on the rise. Lower air temps hold less water, I’m aware, however, do these AC units here in Taiwan also have a discreet dehumidifying function built in? I’ve heard that some do, depending on the type of inverter used perhaps, but are the more expensive ones.

I know this may seem silly, but do you regularly clean the filters?

Yes, we do. Not silly at all.

A dehumidifier is pretty much an AC with both coils indoor, so that it removes humidity without reducing the room temperature. An AC running pretty much dries the air too.

Is the hair coming out of your AC unit less and less cold than before? You might want to check the coolant charge… if its lower than required you must fill them… the AC compressor motor depends on the coolant flowing through the motor coils to keep it cool, insufficient coolant will cause the motor to burn out.

I had an AC die and right before it died, it was putting out very cold air… the real issue is coil burning out or the coil insulation wearing through causing a short against the compressor casing… if there’s continuity between the heating/cooling coils and the compressor lead, then it’s shot.

The air seems less cool sometimes, warmer on other occasions. It’s really the inconsistency that’'s most noticeable, and regardless how long the unit has been running, the temperature never seems to stabilize, normally varying by a degree or two, but that makes a huge difference when we’re on the edge of dehumidifying the air to a comfortable level.

After a quick search on how to check/refill these long horizontal units common here in TW, nothing that I can decipher was found. How is this normally done?

[quote=“silas”]The air seems less cool sometimes, warmer on other occasions. It’s really the inconsistency that’'s most noticeable, and regardless how long the unit has been running, the temperature never seems to stabilize, normally varying by a degree or two, but that makes a huge difference when we’re on the edge of dehumidifying the air to a comfortable level.

After a quick search on how to check/refill these long horizontal units common here in TW, nothing that I can decipher was found. How is this normally done?[/quote]

You need to have an AC technician to come over to do the check. Basically there’s some valves on the outside unit, the technician attaches a gauge to it to check the pressure. He’ll be able to tell you if its within the proper range… which I think is around 100psi.

If not he’ll have to purge the entire system (vacuum out the whole system) then refill it with more freon to the proper level. But first he’ll need to check for leaks, as leaks in the system is very bad for the AC. The way to do it (at least how the tech did it for me) is vacuum purge the system and check the gauge if the vacuum level is constant, if not then there’s a leak and soapy water is used to find the leak.

You do need to look around for AC techs, cheap ones are probably no good and won’t do the proper steps… expensive ones may seem expensive but they most likely know what they’re doing. If you’re not sure ask the hard questions like how to install the system.

You can try doing it yourself but you’d have to buy or make a bunch of expensive equipments. Vacuum pumps, fittings, a soldering torch to solder the connections, gauges, etc. Not to mention no one might sell you any refrigerants unless you are a licensed technician, as most of them can destroy the ozone layer (which is why leak checking is so important!). You also have to know which types of refrigerants to use, you cannot mix and match (but the AC unit will usually have a label that tells you which one to use). If yours are old then chances are it uses R-22. Newer ones will use R-123a or something like that… you can’t mix them because the newer refrigerants require higher pressure and will damage old systems that uses R-22. The tech I used made the pump himself out of an old fridge compressor…

Like I said call a tech and get him to figure out whats wrong, chances are they won’t charge you for this. If it is a bad compressor then you only need to replace the outside unit (if it is compatible) and therefore won’t be nearly as difficult as replacing the entire system. If its just insufficient refrigerant then get him to recharge it… it usually runs around 2000 for this service.

Many thanks for the very thorough post above! :slight_smile: