I am renting a place where the only air conditioner is a window unit mounted in the wall in the main living area. The space in that main room is about 325 sq ft, and it has a 9 ft ceiling on average. The unit is a Frigidaire FAS182H2A1. It looks like it was manufactured in 1999, but I can't recognize any other useful specs on the partially worn labels. So, I don't know what its BTU rating is, and I couldn't seem to find the manual online.
Earlier in the spring, I felt it wasn't cooling well, and I took off the front panel to see that it was caked with about 1/8" of dust and pet hair from previous tenants. The landlord removed this, but the aluminum fins were still clogged with gunk. I tried the only thing that our local Home Depot had for this which was an aerosol can of foaming cleaner, so I sprayed and scrubbed for a couple days. It looks a lot better, but I am not certain the fins are really cleaned out. The air conditioner is still occasionally spitting out what looks like chunks of dried black gunk that has been displaced from between the fins.
Last week it was about 95 degrees F outside, and after several hours of this thing being turned on to its max level, the room cooled down to about 81 degrees (with all doors to other rooms closed). I used a thermometer I had to measure the temperature of the air coming out of the unit, which was between 67 and 68 degrees.
It's only getting hotter outside (ugh), so I'd like to try to do something about this. So, here are my actual questions:
- How much cooling should I expect from this unit?
- Is it properly sized for the space?
- Is there anything I can do to improve its performance?
Best Answer
According to this, the Frigidaire FAS182H2A1 is an 18000 BTU device.
http://www.appliancepartsnationwide.com/FAS182H2A1/53279.htm
That's pretty powerful if working properly. The government suggests 8000 BTU for 325 SF.
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?c=roomac.pr_properly_sized
Check your outside coils too and clean if needed. If that is not a problem it could be something internal. Some examples:
If cleaning the outside coils doesn't work, I do not expect repair to be practical. You can buy a new 10,000 BTU unit from Home Depot for $300. It would be reasonable to ask the owner to pay for it.