John,
I am on a BOD with a bunch of outstanding HVAC contractors here in town. PM me if you need a connection.
Larry

thx - I'll do that if I ever decide to put in a/c

Thanks!

My contacts end about Salem. Not sure if they go as far as "Nimrod."

I just finished installing the 2 ton Mitsubishi Mr Slim unit. It's really really quiet. Even the outdoor compressor is quieter than the old 2 ton window unit. It's only been on for about 30 minutes and since the garage was about 90° when I started it, it's still really hot but cooling off better than the old unit. I'll let you guys know how it works in a day or so.

Did you do the install? If yes, did you do it completely or did you need to bring someone in for final evacuation and charge?

I did the entire install.

There was already 220 power for the window unit so that made the wiring a little easier. The wiring included 220 through a disconnect switch outside to the compressor. Then 220 from the compressor to an inside wall disconnect switch up to the wall mounted evaporator/fan.

The copper lines have flair fittings at both ends so they're easy for a DIY'r.

There's only one service port on the Mitsubishi system. You hook up your pressure gauge's low pressure line to the service port and a vacuum pump to the gauges. Pull vacuum on the system, close the gauge valve, check that vacuum is holding, remove the gauge line, and open both liquid and gas stop valves on the compressor to release the stored R410A refrigerant.

The evacuation and charge was really easy except that I originally couldn't get full vacuum or hold it because I loosened one of the flair fittings behind the wall unit when man-handling it into place. So with a friend's help we pulled it back off the wall and found the loose fitting. The lesson of this was to use a big enough wall penetration hole for the two copper lines and drain line so you're not fighting to get everything through the hole while holding the evaporator over your head. I used 2.5" conduit and I should have used 3".

The place where I just bought 2 RHEEM condensors had LG units for as low as $999, but they are only 9000 btu/hr. I think for $100 more you can get a 12000 btu/hr (1 ton) unit.

I got home tonight at about 5:30 and the garage indoor thermometer was reading 84.7° with AC set at 84° with an outdoor reading of 103° (really probably only 99°.) It was already comfortable since the humidity was low. I lowered the AC to 75° and by 8:00 the thermometer was reading 79.5° but I was cold. The digital thermometer (not the AC thermometer) is certainly reading high since it felt like 74°. My conclusion is the new AC rocks!!!

I'll report again this weekend when I'm in the garage during the heat of the day.


BTW, it's like my garage stereo, which is already pretty decent, was taken up a notch by not having all that distracting white noise :D

I like that these split systems come pre charged...makes DIY installs so much easier...

In Asia they call these things wall warts or something...(the exterior part when it outside the appt on the 8th floor)

I watched a video of a DIY install and the guy didn't need to use a vacuum pump,

Sounds awesome. I would love to do the same. What has been holding me back is how much would be lost, and how long would it take to recover, if you had to open the garage door?

Thanks for the write-up.

JA

I opened the garage door to clean out the packing material for the AC tonight without a care in the world about the lost cold air because it's so cool. The true test will be when I open if for extended time during the heat of the day like to wash a car. Unfortunately we're not supposed to wash cars in our driveway with the drought so that will have to wait.