Made in ***USA*** Air Conditioner Wanted

I bought a Frigidaire model CRA074AT7 (made my Electrolux) 6500 BTU from Lowes (in Canada, US model number is a bit different). It has a 5 year warranty, and warranty repairs are handled by local repair depots, my local one is less then 10 miles away, i had specifically checked into it before buying. Some companies require shipping a defective unit back to the company or china, which would cost more then the thing is worth.

It is made in china, but 5 years of warranty (6 since i bought it with a credit card that gives an extra year free).

Condensation production is normal, all units will do it, its the nature of cooling, your fridge, dehumidifier and A/C are the same device, just used for different purposes. Your fridge produces condensation, there is a tray on the back that allows it to evaporate into the room. A dehumidifier collects water by definition because it is meant to remove water from the air. When you cool air the moisture condenses on a cold surface, just like a bottle of pop taken from the fridge or freezer collects condensation on its surface until it warms to room temperature.

Your central air will have a condensate tube, it pumps condensed water into your sewer drain, you should be able to find it rather easily if you go looking for it, and most that i have seen are translucent. So you need to make sure your window A/C has a clear water drain path and/or tube.

I would suggest looking into breaking some drywall and adding some tubing so you can pipe central air into the room, i know you spent a lot of money on repairs but it would be simpler and cheaper in the long run

The window units I have used were properly installed, tilted down, drain holes open, and cleaned when needed. The problems with some was condensation collecting on the outside of AC and running down onto window/wall, not running over. The last one would drain a lot out water out of the drainage tube but the fan would still hit the water and sling it all over the side of the house. A couple of other problems is the coils are cheaply made and rot away and the cases are cheap metal and rust within the first year. Overall just crappy construction.

I have 2 AC’s from the 1960’s that still work great and will freeze you, one was bought in 66’ when I was born and the other around 68’. Both were used heavily for at least 20 years, never a problem, never serviced, no rust, nothing. The only problem with using them is the size, one is 8000 btu’s and the other is 6500 btu’s, this room requires about 15000 btu’s.

Part of it was that the old super reliable units were also super low efficiency, like half of a modern unit. Commercial stuff is still very low efficiency in many buildings as it is so old.

Planned obsolescence is quickly becoming the bane of modern existence, things are more efficient but are designed to fail as soon as the warranty runs out. I wish there was a way to deal with it, the promise of more business is not enough incentive to produce a quality product so we get hosed with cheaply made poor quality garbage

Its enough to make you think that efficient must mean low quality but its just bad coincidence that higher efficiency demanded today has correlated with the decline in durability that brings in more profit

The cheaper AC units rely on the condensed water to help cool the coils outside the house. They catch the water in a tray and let it splash up onto the hot “radiator” The evaporating water on the coils has a tremendous cooling effect of the compressed refrigerant before it is sent to the evaporator coil. Make sure the unit is pitched outwards so that the excess water drips out the back of the unit, or drill a hole in the proper place to drain the water from the tray. If you drill the hole though, the efficiency of the unit will be reduced.

EDIT: We do not have central air and enjoy the small AC units that can be bought for around $100. They are all cheaply made units and work great. The only 2 units that have not worked out well for us are branded “Fedders” (an old, respected, American name brand) they are just too noisy, and have tremendous vibrations to them. I do not install those 2 each year, they continue to sit on the basement floor.

Good place, if VERY fussy and anti DIY is http://hvac-talk.com/vbb/

acdirect.com

My comment was dumb. Just noticed you cant go central! So I deleted it. lol
Good luck.

You people must be spying on me, this thread was started by me 8 months ago. Finished the siding repairs I was talking about and took out the old AC window unit that was slinging water 3 or 4 months back. Just starting to get pretty hot around here and up until now the room is only being cooled by the other unit in the room which is a 6000 BTU Frigidaire, 2 units were in the room, the 6000 in the front window and an 11500 the rear window. With the rising temps, I decided to go ahead and buy another unit to replace the bad one. While looking around on the net noticed this Frigidaire 12000 BTU unit on Amazon, has good reviews and the Amazon site it is made in the USA (sure that is a misprint). It is the larger size of the 6000 BTU unit in the front window and it has been doing great so far, purchased about 20 months ago. The weird thing is I ordered the new unit yesterday, the same day this thread was resurrected. I had been looking for a few hours before Jamesmartin’s post and actually purchased it an hour or so after his post, all without ever going on BLF and seeing the post until after the purchase. I guess we were communicating subliminally.

+1 for a split unit if your place can handle one.

I have a Mitsubishi split unit that was made in Japan and I’m happy with it.

I have a Ramsond mini-split. I wish I could have afforded the Mitsubishi, but I just didn’t have the money for it. The Ramsond works pretty well, with most of any issues stemming from a less than perfect install. That said, it does drain water out the front on the inside sometimes. Since it’s in my garage it’s not a catastrophic event, but it’s one I’d like to fix if I can figure out what’s going on with it.

This is a common thing people say, but it’s just not true. Trust me. The only issue is when manufacturers have learned that while shoppers ‘say’ they want quality or MadeInUSA, when it comes time to decide, everyone buys the cheapest they can. Therefore, the reward goes to the company that can make something ‘just good enough’. That’s all there is to it.

‘Just good enough’ runs the consumer products world.

I was recently getting some repair parts for a washing machine and struck up a conversation with the counter guy at the desk. He told me to keep my (circa 1996) machine going as long as I could since the new ones just don’t have the life expectancy. He said almost all the manufacturers collect those survey response cards that come with new appliances. Most of which include a question along the lines of: “How long do you expect this appliance to last?”

Unfortunately, when the survey responses indicate that consumers expect new appliances to last 3-5 years, there is no incentive for companies to make them last longer.

Think about the market demographics - the ‘most desirable’ demographic is the twenty and thirty somethings. All of whom have been trained that if their cell phone lasts TWO years, it is both ancient and out of date.

I found http://www.coldair.net/ (Mobile AC units, they claim they’re Made in USA of US components but before shelling out that kind of cash it’d be a good idea to verify where the bits are from)

I’m so sick and tired of the chintzy window units that reek of cheap plastic and end up dying a month out of the warranty that my next air conditioner purchase will be a floor model, way easier to install too.

Sad right?
I bought an American made Polytron commercial grade toaster that cost me $270 because I know that it will be the last toaster that I will ever buy so in the end I’ll save money, all stainless steel construction and it makes perfect evenly browned toast unlike most of the other ones I have owned…
They even sell parts for them.

There’s still a decent selection of high end usa-made products, but the medium and low end have bottomed out and a lot of companies have went out of business because they tried to compete on price instead of quality (and you’re never going to be able to do that when other countries have literal slaves making their exports)

In about six months the made in USA items may turn around, but until we have leadership willing to fight for US jobs on a practical level, fair trade without currency manipulations etc, I’m not going to beat my head against the wall. I buy what I need, sometimes the best, sometimes the cheapest.

Carrier air-cons used to be well-known world-class Made in USA products. But I doubt that they are now made entirely of American components.

In Singapore, Thailand, and many other countries in East Asia, Mitsubishi air-cons are popular. They tend to cost more, but they last longer and quite efficient (4 –5 energy efficiency rating marks). All three wall units in my apartment are Mitsubishi brand.

a decade ago or so, pc Richards used to have its own brand of ac made in usa , iirc either “tradititions”, or “generations” name of the brand, they were build in long island, i got one for my parents, back then, it still works, but i no longer see that brand, i guess the store’s endeavor to build ac in usa did not last,

Most Carrier units are now made in Mexico but I don't know if all lines have shifted there or if it's (most likely) a blend of global sourcing. The larger units in Mexico don't even go to Carrier for anything necessarily, just drop shipped directly to the installers straight from the factory. Lots of things about them are not as good as when they were made here but there have also been some appreciable improvements. Man, this is a really old thread to drag up!!

i recently bought a Friedrich AC. they are supposed to be the best, but despite of it being mounted correctly, it has water standing and starts smelling a bit like urine, from bacteria that grows in that water, when i turn it on, it fills the room with that nasty smell, i had several different ac’s in the same window before, none had that issue, actually no ac i ever had had this issue, i was gonna throw 1 year ac out because of that, but decided to try something, i removed the filter, (which is made pretty crappy, it lets tons of air pass around it, and evaporator coil gets all dirty), so i took a spray bottle with hydrogen peroxide and sprayed the coil sprayed a lot, let it sit for half an hour , while the h2o2 was hissing, then i turned the ac on, and sprayed as much again, it seems to fix it, but i have to do it every few months. and i had to modify the filter so all air goes thru it, and nothing around it.
so an ac that supposed to be the top of the line, turned out to be junk,

Endep up trashing the ac today, i opened it to clean a bit better and found lots of mold, not worth messing with it, will buy another one.