Motel AC/heater

[mm]

Follow-up on the motel-style AC/heater (in the building that was sold but now we're renting).

The main problem has changed and now it is that the aquirrel-cage fan motor doesn't start spinning. It won't start at all on slow, and on high only if I spin it a screw-driver first. It's not very practical to keep going over and spinning it with a screwdriver, especially when no one is there.

The open end of the squirrel cage faces into the building, and is behind a sheet of steel that shows no easy method of removal. I thought I could take off the cover on the outside of the building, but I see no screws, etc.

1) Do I have to remove the entire unit from the wall? It's about 3 feet wide by almost 2 feet high, by about a foot deep, and probably heavy. (I didn't see screws even on the inside to remove the whole thing. I should have written the brand and model, but didn't, and the building was locked today.)

2) The fan cage spins pretty easily in both directions when the power is off, and sometimes the fan starts up when I spin it with a tool, but other times it seems to be held in place magnetically and it doesn't even want to spin when I try to spin it. Am I delusional?

Backrgound: It was making scraping noises from the fan, after running

10 hours or more. We turned it off and it was cool out anyhow. When I restarted it so I could fix it, the scraping had stopped except once for a couple seconds, but if it recurs, I'll worry about that then.

[Telstra]

[David Martel]

mm,

I'm not sure what this follows up but repairs to the heat and AC should be done by the landlord or his agents not by a renter.

Dave M.

[mm]

Thanks, but he's going to tear down the building and build houses.

So he won't fix it and we wouldn't ask him. We're only there because he's being nice to us (and the rent we pay, and I really wish I knew how much that is. It might be only 1000 a month, or 3000, or something else altogether. We were told how much was the sale price was and how much the check was, and I'm guessing the difference was 3 months rent, but frankly I've forgotten how much the check was for. It's gotten to where I can forget an number within 5 seconds. :( )

We were going to be out by the end of October, but we've asked for two more months, and he'll probably give it, unless he's ready to start building. (The real estate slump may delay that, but I don't know how much slump there is here.)

If I can't fix this, I'll suggest a pro but it is probably not worth the money for as long as we are going to be there. I don't know all the details of that. And it depends on how cold it gets, and on how much the other heater in the room can do, and on if we can have any effect with portable electric heater(s). And how soon we find another location.

[hvacrmedic]

The bearings are worn. It will recur.

[mm]

OK. I'll have to get help to lower it to the floor.

Thanks. You've also given me 2 pretty good excuses if I don't fix it. :)

No, but we will. We're paying the utilities. I'm pretty sure he assumed no landlord responsibilitiies, especially if we are only paying 1000 a month (I'm not sure how much we're paying). Even if the law imposes them, we would not take advantage of that. It's not like it's a residence and someone is going to get sick if it's too cold. If people are cold, they can leave. :) If too many are cold, we'll borrow or rent space somewhere else until we can buy something else. They've already started working on that because afaik, we don't know when the new owner will be ready to demolish.

Plus there is another identical unit in this room and we use something else for the rest of the building. I know one AC unit is not enough for the room on really hot days, but I don't know yet that one heater would not be.

Hmmm. It can easily get to 28 degrees in the winter, which is 40 degrees below say a target of 68, (or even 18 which is 50 degrees lower) but it's never been more than 102 out, which is only 30 degrees more than a target of 72. But since I don't know, I'll still think one heater might be enough.

Thanks. I'll remind them. They're generally smarter than I am, but I'm the only one left who knows how to fix things. :)

[mm]

Thanks.

My plan for that situation was to note what part of the shroud or other sheet metal it is rubbing on, and to bend it away. That will last us for 4 to 6 months of winter, probably, right?

[The Freon Cowboy]

unles youve got a burnt winding in the motor ,

why does everyone always thinks its the cap ?

mm wrote:

[The Freon Cowboy]

can gauarantee you that a ptac evap motor is not worth rebuilding would be curious to know how old this thing is ?

"Don Young" wrote:

[The Freon Cowboy]

" My plan for that situation was to note what part of the shroud or other sheet metal it is rubbing on, and to bend it away. That will last us for 4 to 6 months of winter, probably, right?"

your asking the people of this newsgroup to whip out the crystal ball and predict how long this motor will last ???????

seriously , if it were me , id run down to the supply house and pick up a new motor and install it myself , if the unit were less than fifteen years old i get the impression its much older and not worth it ,

heres a suggestion ;-) find the little switch on the front of the unit that makes the fan run constantly , then turn it on , get it running and forget it till it finally locks up for good , then pitch the piece of shit and MOVE !!!!!!!!!!

mm wrote:

[Edwin Pawlowski]

Could be the bearings sticking too.

[mm]

It is 40 years old and never been repaired. The other one it turns out was repaired about 10 or 15 years ago, but I think they've done pretty well.

I saw your post about maybe it being a motor winding. I wonder if this might account for it sometimes not wanting to spin even when I prod it with a screwdriver. Sometimes it spins fine and sometimes it seems magnetized in the place where it is. ??

I guess the winding might have burnt out the day it first started scraping on the housing. Sometimes it would scrape for 2 to 3 seconds, but sometimes it would stop dead. That's when it would have overheated, right?

While I was in the room the stop-dead periods never lasted more than

15 seconds, and then we turned it off, but the thing was running all day and maybe they were longer earlier

I just want to get through this winter. We should have a new place by summer, if not earlier.

[The Freon Cowboy]

do you know what a death rattle sounds like ?

40 years old , and you're still flogging it for more ?

buy a couple of electric heaters , yur gonna need em ;-)

mm wrote:

[mm]

Well I do have a couple electric heaters with thermostats, and I think I mentioned we could use those, sooner than spend a lot of money on this thing.

Of course the heaters I have are all over 40 years old too.

One is 60 years old and looks almost like new.

[hallerb]

quoted text -

steal parts from other units rooms that are likely vacant and no one will care since building is scheduled for demo.

parts are parts pieces are pieces, you have a on site hotel room scrap yard, time to put it to work.

[mm]

Good idea. Thanks.

[hallerb]

start by disassembling a unit destined as parts so you will be better at it and kinda know how it goes together.

you have a building full of training tools:)