Opening the Air Conditioner

While we were in the Smokies we had something weird happen.   The air conditioner started to make some whistling noise and I reached up to the vent and pulled out a piece of metallic tape.   It was not making any difference with the operation of the air conditioner, so looking at it in detail could wait.  I had no idea where it came from, but I knew I had to figure it out when I got home.

So where to start.   I decided to take the filters off and see if I could see anything there.  Nope, but that was step one in gaining access to the inside of the air conditioner.   I needed to take the grill off and the screws holding it on were under the filters.

Step 1: Take the filters off of the grill.  Not a hard problem.  I had done this several times to clean the filters.

Step 2:  Take the knobs off.  Not a hard task either. They just pull off.  So I grabbed each one and pulled and they slid off.

Step 3:  Unscrew the 4 screws holding the grill to the roof.   Two on each side.  Not hard either.  A medium size Phillips head screwdriver and I made quick work of it.  They are inset at the ends of where the filters go.  Once the screws were gone, the grill came down.  I made sure to have a hold of it before the last screw came all of the way out so it would not wind up on the floor.

Now I had access to the air conditioner.  Best part, I found my problem.  The tape came from the air ducting.  Well let me say that the tape makes up a big chunk of the cool air path.  A piece of that tape was missing.  I inspected the tape and several other pieces were loose.

The first thing I did was to make sure the tape that was remaining was stuck up there good.  I went around and made sure it was making good contact and none of the edges were pulling up.  Then I replaced the piece that was missing.  I used real metal duct tape since that was what was being used.  Not the cloth stuff since metal is what came out of it, metal went back in.   I also added a couple more pieces to make sure nothing else would come loose.

I did take time to look around and you could see the construction of the roof.   It was fiberglass with a 2 inch layer of styrofoam sandwiched between.  I am not sure what the inside layer was since it was covered.  Two  inches of styrofoam is equivalent of R-8 to 10 insulation from my research.

So I put it back together and it was very easy.  I just reversed the steps.  No big deal.

There is now a new option for a grill.  Coleman has made a Deluxe ChillGrille option you can buy.   This has vents in the center of the grill so you can push air down as opposed to just along the roof.      The part number is 9430D7153.  You can get it the entire kit on Amazon here but the grill itself which is all you need is available from other places and Ebay for less.