window mount cool/heat air conditioners?

[sam]

We've been looking for decent heat/cool units for small rentals for poor people.

After listening to people on this newsgroup and talking with air conditioning repairmen, I guess we will stay away from mini-splits. Guess we will continue with window heat/cool units if we can find something decent.

Some years ago, I bought a half-dozen Amana, window-mount, heat pumps. They had mechanical controls and they were something like 18000 to 24000 BTU. These units are still in service and mostly worry free.

Unfortunately, it appears that I can't get the simple mechanical controls anymore. Even Amana has gone to those $%&*%^^ electronic controls. I just picked up a 12000 BTU Amana window-mount, heat pump to check it out. I'm really disappointed with the design and construction. This digital control panel will not survive poor people. Not even close. Been there, tried that.

Does anyone make a commercial-grade, window mount heat-pump with mechanical controls? Or perhaps you have some experience with other decent systems? Any advice would be really appreciated.

Generally speaking, I don't have the room required for PTAC's in these units .....

[DerbyDad03]

...snip...

The controls won't survive poor people or they won't survive destructive people?

How does a person's net worth impact how they press buttons?

Could it be the *type* of poor people you rent to as opposed to the fact that they are poor? ...snip...

I could tell you stories about how my grandparents/aunts/uncles/etc. were "poor" but I don't recall them being destructive.

[gfretwell]

I doubt there is much better than the normal consumer grade window shakers. These tend to be commodity items and they seem to last pretty long for what you are paying. I understand your frustration with the electronic controls but I believe it is pure economics. Those cards in the units cost less than mechanical controls so that is what they use. I would pay extra for a few knobs but the world has gone electronic and that is just the way it is.

[sam]

Poor wording on my part. This digital control panel will not survive destructive, poor people.

My parents bought my grandparents their first indoor toilet. I understand poor. My grandparents were hard working farmers. Decent, caring, non-destructive people.

In my rentals, I advertise, use a professional screening service and rent to people who pass screening. Very poor people in this area appear to be fairly destructive and improperly socialized (a fairly recent phenomena .... maybe the last 15 years). Thank God the worst of them never make it thru screening.

[DerbyDad03]

Probably wouldn't survive destructive rich people either.

...snip...

[sam]

I can only guess you have no experience with the posturing, endless drama, entitled poor. Twelve months of these people will leave a digital control panel looking like something out of a trash heap .... if it even still works .... it would be amazing.

[Mark Lloyd]

[snip]

I used to know one of those.

I remember a tape deck he used to have. It had the usual buttons to control the tape (play, stop, rewind, etc...). Some of the buttons had second functions, accessed by pressing lightly. When that tape deck failed it was because of broken buttons, and he never used the second functions (maybe he thought it was defective).

I don't press buttons harder than what works.

[Terry Coombs]

Don't tell me , let me guess ... inner city , black tenants ? I know that sounds racist , but after living in Memfrica Tn for 30 years I've seen it too many times .

[trader_4]

Which people do you think are most likely to destroy appliances and damage the place? The family renting a $10,000 a month place, or the section 8 people renting a $500 a month place? And if there is any damage, which do you think you could more likely recover your costs from?

[Ed Pawlowski]

Friend of my has a vacation rental. (Beachfront, OC, NJ)They get $4000 a week, 2 week minimum. Based on her experience, the first is more likely to break things. They are though, the most likelyh to recover from.

[DerbyDad03]

Are you asking these questions simply out of curiosity?

My initial objection was to the OP's original comment (which he later said was "poor wording) that the control panel wouldn't stand up to "poor" people.

He then reworded it to "will not survive destructive, poor people".

I did not argue. I simply added that "Probably wouldn't survive destructive rich people either."

"Either" is the key word in my response. The main point is that it is

*destructive* people that destroy things, not whether they are rich or poor.

[trader_4]

Which properties get destroyed more? Those that rent for $10,000 a month or those that rent for $500? This is just more of that PC nonsense. No one is saying that ALL poor people destroy things. But it's a fact that low income housing gets destroyed, banged up, abused more than properties rented to higher income people. The concern the poster had is perfectly valid.

[DerbyDad03]

It's all good. Enjoy the rest of your day.

[gfretwell]

Joe Walsh said (in a song) "I live in hotels, tear out the walls I have accountants pay for it all".

If this is not a rich guy, the owner pays for it all.

[Terry Coombs]

I Can't Drive fifty-fiiiiiiive ...

[DerbyDad03]

No more speed, I'm almost there Gotta keep cool now, gotta take care Last car to pass, here I go And the line of cars drove down real slow

[gfretwell]

Sammy Hagar

[Terry Coombs]

Yeah , I know . Just givin' Unc something else to run thru his musically-inclined brain .

[Terry Coombs]

Are you sayin' Don't beeee croooooll ?

[gfretwell]

Elvis is everywhere - Mojo Nixon.