AC

Ever installed a Wall-unit air conditioner/heater? Me neither... until today.

The heater in my old one stopped working so I had a new one delivered a couple of weeks ago. It came in a box about 2'x3' and about 18" high, and since then has been sitting in my tool shed and blocking everything. It's been there for two weeks because I've yet to find anyone that installs them. So today around 11:30 I figured I'd just open the box and look through the manual to see just how hard it actually is to do. I opened the box, and learned that the manual is on the bottom. Now, this thing weighs 120 lbs., so if I was going to take it out of the box, it was going to be inside the house, as close as possible to where it would be installed. To get it into the house I had to roll it end over end up the steps through the door, then onto a towel, which I dragged through the house to the living room.

Even though I decided it was something I might be able to do, I still had to remove the old one. For those not in the know, a wall unit is in two pieces. The main guts with the compressor and fan is all one unit, like components on a mother board inside a computer. The other part is the outer shell - the big metal box with vents that you see sticking out of the wall from outside the house. The outer shell is the part that's actually attached to the house. The inside part is mounted on a tray and slides into the shell.

First I slid the old one out of the shell. I also weighs over 100 lbs., so to keep it from crashing to the floor I put a recycle bin (on a towel) upside down in front of it and eased the unit onto that. After dragging the towel/old unit away I took a look at the shell. All the vents were in the same places. In fact it looked like the old and new ones were from the same factory (they probably were). So I measured the shell. I couldn't believe it: 18" x 26" - exactly the width and height of the new one. SWEET! I won't even have to install the new shell. All I had to do was slide the new unit into the existing shell and it would be done.

No. Of course it wasn't that simple. After a closer look I got the tape measure back out. Yes, I measured it right the first time. I measured the width and height, but not the depth. The new one is about 6" longer than the old one. No way it would fit. The old one has to come out.

After removing about a dozen screws from the perimeter it still wouldn't budge. There was still a healthy dose of decades-old caulking around the seal. I used a razor to cut through it all, and it was still stuck. I had to break away the wooden mitered frame from around the shell. When I stuck a screwdriver under the edge of the frame a small army of carpenter ants came streaming out in all directions, so I spent the next few minutes battling them. Eventually I got the old shell out of the wall. The new one was still around the new unit, but how to get it out? I couldn't just pull it out - it was too heavy. Heavy is the key. I put some pillows on the floor in front of it and tipped it onto its front. Then I just slid the shell off and tipped the innards part back down.

The new shell slid into the old space almost perfectly (close enough, anyway. Before going further I went to Home Depot and bought some angle braces to mount outside to support the shell.

Back at home everything was going smoothly. I After putting the braces in place I began drilling screws through the shell's perimeter to secure it when suddenly the power went out. I checked the fuse and it was blown I replaced it and the second one immediately blew also. I must have drilled through a wire inside the wall so I removed all the screws, changed the fuse, but still no power. In fact, the whole house had no power. I changed the 60-amp main fuses, and still nothing. This was about an hour before dark, So I needed to solve this quick. I jumped in the car and went to Wal-Mart for more fuses. Once there I got out of the car and realized I had left my wallet at home. Nothing to do but go back and get it. I bought about 18 small fuses and 3 sets of the 60-amp main fuses. I raced the setting sun home (it beat me) and wandered around the house with a flashlight. I changed ALL the fuses and still no power. I called the power company (because no one else would have answered at 6:00 on a Sunday night) and they said they'd send someone out by 10:00. After much thought I went outside just to look at the power meter for any clues. Then I noticed the metal box underneath it. I opened it, saw a circuit breaker, and flipped it. Viola! Lights came on, back in business.

OK. Everything is done except putting the new unit into the new shell. But how to get it up there from the floor? I tipped it onto another inverted recycling bin and dragged it over to where it would go. I was able lift the end closest to the wall and set that on the edge of the shell. I lifted the other end and slid the whole thing into place. Boom. Done! And it only took 8 hours. I still have to put a new wooden frame on the wall around it and pack all the gaps full of caulk, but that will be child's play compared to today.