DIY split air con install?

[amoeba]

One side of my house is bare wall, no windows, so an easy run down from bedroom to the outside unit.

I've been looking at this;
http://www.appliancesdirect.co.uk/p/bun%2feiq-12wm...

"Quick connector system" = DIY-able? Assume I'd just need to get an electrician in to connect power?

[Magic919]

You are meant to be F Gas qualified. Apart from that, I'm sure that's exactly how many of them get fitted.

[MrAndyW]

Yes it is DIY able, There is just a quick connector and you connect the live,neutral and earth to the external unit,if you can wire a plug then it's the same thing. Pre-gassed and ready to go.
Its a quick release connector,similar sort of thing as the back of a cooker.

I've had one fitted for about 5 years, need it because of working shifts, It's worth it's weight in gold to me.

[Dr Doofenshmirtz]

Wow - I never knew they were so easy to fit and quite cheap!

[Magic919]

In Europe you can buy them from the supermarket.

[Howard-]

They are amazingly easy to install. I don't know why more people don't have at least one in their house. I'm not sure why there's such a negativity towards air conditioning in this country. When we eventually buy somewhere, I will definitely be fitting one in the master bedroom at least. It's more than "3 days of summer" which is what most people say when they can't justify it - we use a fan in our bedroom for several months of the year since we like it cool when sleeping. And £500-odd is hardly expensive compared to what people spend on more pointless things for their homes.

[BlueShackNeedle]

We've had both & would suggest coughing up the extra for a basic professionally installed/gassed one.

We had a DIY unit for about 8 years. Easy to install but they all eventually lose all the refrigerant as the quick connectors rely on silicone rubber O-rings for the seal which perish over time as we found out.

They all do it by all accounts & we noticed the reduced performance over the latter couple of years. Also the DIY ones don't generally use the normally used/carried refrigerant so it's often a special order (more costly)

When we looked at getting ours re-gassed & get the quick connect replaced with brazed joints (as it was the only way anyone would re gas it) it made more sense to scrap the unit and put a professionally installed Fujitsu unit in.

If you compare prices online of the decent DIY ones & the basic professional installed/pressured ones, its purely the labour charge difference (which will hit you in 5-10 yrs anyway)

So depends really how long you are staying in the property.

Just my 2p, HTH.

[Magic919]

That unit says R410a gas, which is pretty standard for aircon.

[skahigh]

Does the electricity supply only need to go to the outside condenser unit or also to the fan unit?

[Dr Doofenshmirtz]

To be fair, I think any AC system will need re-gassing after 8 years.

[BlueShackNeedle]

Dr Doofenshmirtz said:

To be fair, I think any AC system will need re-gassing after 8 years.

I concur with you on that (we did rather well with ours by all accounts), but unless you remove the already knackered quick connect coupling from the equation (putting in new O-rings is only a stop gap measure as they never work well) most pros suggest there's no point re gassing it. We got 3 supliers opinions, all of which were the same.

Maybe newer DIY units have Std refrigerant, ours didn't, we checked.

[BlueShackNeedle]

This Panasonic one is cheaper, removes the crappy 'quick connect' from the equation & is pre gassed
http://www.appliancesdirect.co.uk/p/eiq-12wminv/el...

[skahigh]

Is there any reason why I couldn't mount one of these on an interior hallway wall (upstairs) and route the pipes up through the loft to an exterior wall and then down to ground level?

[Magic919]

A lot of the pre-filled ones just have a 4 or 5 metre pipe set. For longer than that a vacuum pump and fill method is normal.

[Bristol spark]

skahigh said:

Does the electricity supply only need to go to the outside condenser unit or also to the fan unit?

Usually main power to condenser, then a separate cable from condenser to wall unit.

Some are the opposite.

[skahigh]

Thanks, powering the condenser would be quite easy to spur off a mains socket I think, powering the fan directly would probably mean chasing out the wall so a lot more effort.

The Panasonic one looked above suggests there is an optional 10m pipe.

[Magic919]

The 'Panasonic' one has the indoor and outdoor unit charged and an empty pipe. They recommend a vacuum pump for up to 5 metres, but beyond that you'd need to add gas to fill the pipe.

[K50 DEL]

I bought a DIY one for my conservatory but when it arrived and I saw the (appalling) quality of the supplied pipes and fittings I ended up paying to have it fitted professionally with the fitter using his own pipe etc...

6 years later it blows as cold as it did the day it was installed and has proved invaluable over the last few days!

[Piersman2]

I bought a split wall 'kit' this week with a view to fitting it this weekend.

First off the kit arrived with no pipes... oh hum, st happens, they are due to be delivered today.

Then I started reading the instructions in detail and the final commissioning of the gas pipes requires a vacuum pump to clear the head wall unit pipes before opening the valves. Pumps seem to be anything from £60 to £500 and trying to work out which pump would generate a sufficient vacuum is pretty much beyond me at the moment as each pump seems to use a completely different method of specifying it's 'vacummness' .

So, thinks me, I'll just do the donkey work and then call in an air con company to do a call out and check the charge. Nah... none of the local ones I phoned yesterday are interested , they'll only work on units they've supplied and installed themselves. To be fair I can understand that to a certain extent, but then it's not like I'm asking them to warrant the system, just gas it up and check it over. But it's their choice.

So now I'm stuck looking for a local Fgas engineer that will help me out and gone back to the online retailer for advice, I await their installation team's response, I'm not holding my breath.

In the meantime I have the option of buying a vacuum pump I'm only going to use once, finding a local Fgas guy, or just sending the unit back.

So beware, if your looking at 'easy-fit' air con kits, the definition of 'easy-fit' means they supply the pipes pre-formed so the Fgas installer can do a quick job, not that a competent DIY'er can.

Also note, that the units referenced earlier in this thread don't seem to be available in stock anymore, I wonder if they've been withdrawn from market?

P.S. - anyone know an Fgas engineer in Reading?
P.P.S - or got a decent vacuum pump I can rent?

OH, TLDR: 'Easy-Fit' air con , my arse are they!

Edited by Piersman2 on Saturday 13th July 09:10

[biggiles]

I'm about to fit three of them.

My plan (if it needs pro vacuuming) is to call in a car air-con re-gasser... they should have the right kit and be used to all sorts of a/c on cars.