Spraying water on an A/C condensor?

[mm]

My good friend likes that and drinks it, but most people don't like the lack of minerals that give spring water, and reservoir water, its good taste. You don't miss that?

I tend not to believe this. "Metals"? The only metals it comes in contact with is the aluminum in the evaporator fins and the steel in the pan that forms the bottom of the AC. It spends little time on the fins before it drops off** and little time in the steel pan as it runs to the far end. 5 or 10 seconds? People drink out of aluminum cups all the time, and they cook in steel pots, with hot water. The evaporator fins are cold and the metal pan is not hot either with all that water running through it, so that also lessens any dissolving.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

The slope is usually to assure that water does not drip back into the house. There is a drain pan under the evaporator coil to send the water to the slinger ring. The pan may have some slope built into it.

Maybe. It depends on the amount of humidity in your region. In a dry climate it would make no difference.

I would hope so, you asked about getting rid of water :)

[lee houston]

Well, it was an *installation manual*, right? Not a theory of operation. And the 'word' they said was have "a 3/8" inch slope". I agree that the manual should say that this slope is needed for optimum efficiency and energy conservation.

lee h

[CJT]

I sure as h*ll wouldn't want to drink anything that had been in the drip pan under my AC coils. That sucker is groaty.

[mm]

I'm not there very often. It's actually my friend's workplace.

One day I was there, after the AC was tipped 2 inches, the water was coming out of the AC in a continuous stream, and falling on the ground. Heavy enough that it didn't break in to separate globs of water for the first 3 or 4 feet (the amount I could see.)

If having a slinger ring is a good idea, I think she was losing out on

90 or 95% of the effectiveness of it.

I should have said it was Baltimore. I'm sure there are exceptional days but dry here is 40%, maybe a little less, and it's often over 70% iirc.

Good one. :)

[mm]

Neither the installation nor the operation manual mentions it. I think both should say that it is important to have it at the right angle.

I've read owners manuals that explain things. They don't have to give patent secrets, but if they had said why, when it sagged, my friend would have gotten it fixed.

OK, good enough.

[mm]

I don't really want to drink distilled water, but the original suggestion was just for watering plants.

[mm]

I mean the original suggestion by toller, here, was for watering plants. The other original suggestion (that preceded this :) ) was to drink it. :(? :-)

[nicksanspam]

Trickling rainwater over my window AC works fine, raising the COP 20%.

Nick

[Stormin Mormon]

While it is water that is condensed out of the air, the cooling coils can have all kinds of strange bacteria on them. I'd not want to drink that.

Distilled water is boiled -- thus killing the parasites.

[ds549]

my freind did that at his grocery store on the freezer condensers. it cut his electric about half. he just cleaned the coils with something like lime away every year. he basically put misters in the condenser room.

[Robert Gammon]

Plus the condensate from the coils traps all sorts of flying debris, dust, and pollen just ot name the two biggies.

Metals risk is low. The fins are aluminum and aluminum is ok, so long as you do not put acidic foods in the pot (tomatoes most notably).

Heat of evaporation is SO much higher than heat of radiation and heat of convection. Evaporating water off an AC removes LOTS more heat than just blowing air across them. The problem is dissolved minerals in the water. Over time, the waves of successive evaporation will cause insulating minerals to plate out on the coild. Even if you use RO water, you get the mineral plating. Only ultra pure distilled water such as chemical labs use would work and it is NOT cheap water. To be effective at misting this water, you need about 2 gallons per hour of compressor operation.

[Robert Gammon]

The fan has a ring on it that extends its reach into the drip pan. It then lifts a small amount of the drip pan water up and flings it onto the condenser coil. Central units cannot do that as they are separated from the condenser by many feet of wood, insulation and brick/stucco/siding, Now a resourceful chap might figure out a way to re-route the central AC drain water (cleaner as pollen and most dust are trapped by the furnace filter) outside to the top of the condenser and drip the water between the edge of the fan blade and its shroud. The fan would then throw the water outwards to the coil when the fan is running.

[Robert Gammon]

The 3/8 inch downslope is to ensure POSITIVE extraction of the condensed water. They don't want you complaining that the floor is always wet under the AC and thereby have to pay for repairs to the floor and adjacent wall.

With a 2 inch downslope, it is then a bit doubtful that the slinger ring is in contact with the water. At 3/8 inch, the mfg is also saying that condensate is forming an air seal under the unit to keep the hot air outside. At 2 inch slope it is likely that the water seal is not in place and you are leaking hot air to the office.

Get the AC people back out to re-level the unit.

[mm]

Thanks a lot, Robert. The first point you make I thought might be the case and I appreciate your saying so. The second point, I hadn't even thought of.

They had hired an independent guy to install it, and he's disappeared, but they can hire someone else now. I think if he had been around, they would have this fixed already, but it's easy to let things slide when they know of no particular reason to re-level it. That's what annoyed me about the manual.

I didn't snip anything above because I'm sending my friend a copy of this. (It's my friend's job, not mine.)

[Tom The Great]

The principle works. Some AC units have a water bath for the coils to sit in while the water is airated.

Some are even residental sized.

As far as using a garden hose, I don't think he wants you to stand there all day, but maybe clean your coils.

Just guessing...

tom @