How to remove the air conditioner yourself without losing freon: a detailed guide to dismantling the system

Dismantling the indoor unit of the wall-mounted air conditioner

They begin to disassemble the air conditioner by removing the front plastic panel, which can be attached using clip elements (LG) or bolts (Toshiba), depending on the manufacturer. In the first case, you need to use a straight screwdriver and pry off the clips located above and below, and in the second, use the appropriate tool. The next step is to remove the mesh filter (coarse) and the plastic shutters from the indoor unit, which are simply removed from their respective slots.

Strainer that needs to be cleaned

Next, you should carefully dismantle the drainage system of the indoor unit of the air conditioner, which is usually made in the form of a tray. In some models, it can be made integral with the body and removed only with it. Before removing it, prepare a container or container in advance to remove condensation formation. To detach the tray in LG models, you need to unscrew one bolt and snap off the clips located at the bottom.

Drain tray (on the right side detaches from the louver motor)

Fan/impeller removal options

Next, you need to remove the fan of the indoor unit of the SPLIT system, made in the form of a shaft

This will require very careful and responsible work, since it is important not to damage the internal components and components of the air conditioner

Removing the strainer

There are two ways to pull out the shaft:

1. A simplified version, in which it is not necessary to perform operations with the electric motor and control unit (the shaft is pulled out from below). Usually it is he who is chosen when doing the work with his own hands, which requires less time and effort. Here the sequence of operations is as follows:

We unscrew the bolts / screws and release the radiator on the left side of the main main body of the SPLIT system
Gently loosen the fastener on the right, where you need to carefully unscrew the screw on the shaft itself (as a rule, it is tightened very tightly, so you need to act carefully and slowly so as not to twist the fastener head)

Carefully remove the shaft component from the housing, and from under the bottom, making sure not to damage the blades (holding the screw with a screwdriver)

1. A more complicated option, when the shaft is dismantled on the right side, for which the control unit and electric motor are removed. To perform the operation, proceed as follows:

We disconnect the wiring and electronic type sensors from the control unit, snap off the fastening clips (in some models we unscrew the fastening screws) and carefully remove the unit
We unscrew the fastening elements of the electric motor, disconnect the shaft from the casing
Very carefully and carefully, with slow movements, disconnect the shaft from the motor, and also bend the radiator tubes

When performing work, it is important to remember all the manipulations in order to assemble everything correctly after performing service maintenance of the SPLIT installation

What needs cleaning?

After performing these manipulations, you can start cleaning the internal components, and here it is imperative to remove dirt deposits from the rotor and evaporator, using antibacterial compounds (active foam), clean water and steam (steam generator tool) for this. The condensate receiving bath is also cleaned of dirt, after which all parts are thoroughly dried. In addition, it will not be superfluous to lubricate all moving parts with silicone grease, which will extend their service life.

To disassemble the indoor unit of the air conditioner, you need to be patient, act carefully and slowly

It is always important to remember that the SPLIT system has a complex structure, where all the internal components are very close to each other. This instruction gives a sequence of actions that are performed regardless of the design features of wall-mounted climate control equipment

how to open the air conditioner to get to the fan, the bottom 2 screws found what needs to be done to open

Vadim
Unscrew two or three screws under the horizontal blinds.

Nikita
with all the dope with a swing on the floor

Victoria
Download the instructions for it - there is a disassembly in pictures. At least on my HITACHI so.

Yuri
He is taken out of the case. very tight.

Tags: How to remove the cover of the indoor unit of the Samsung air conditioner

Dismantling split systems

Before you independently remove the split system, it is important to understand that the most important goal during dismantling is to ensure the safety of freon in the device. It is advisable to carry out the work in such a way that in the future it will not be necessary to refuel the device or carry out its full refrigerant recharging when the system is installed at a new location.

So, the sequence of actions when dismantling the split system will be as follows.

1. Copper hoses have special protective nuts. They must be unscrewed using a well-known hexagon of the appropriate size.
2. Next, you need to use a key, the diameter of which will correspond to the size of the valve to block the copper pipes.
3. The next step is to turn on the device and wait until cool air comes out.
4. Now you can close the valve responsible for supplying freon. This hose has a smaller diameter.
5. Next, you will have to wait again, only the already warm air that will come out of the indoor unit. It won't take more than 3 minutes.
6. When the coolness has been replaced by warmth, you can block the second, larger tube in diameter.
7. The split system must be turned off.
8. In order to dismantle the copper pipeline, ordinary wire cutters are ideal.They cut copper tubes in the right place. With such dismantling, they are ideally sealed and such dangerous water and dust do not get inside the copper track.
9. Now it remains only to disconnect the electrician on the device. Be sure to turn off the device from the network before these works, and also completely turn off the apartment or house completely.
10. Don't forget the drain.
11. Now you can safely remove the split system and move or transport it to a new place or put it in the pantry until better times.

As you can see, it is not difficult to remove the split system yourself, the most important thing is the correct order of work and no haste.

outdoor unit

Without touching on the dangers of industrial mountaineering, let's start right away with technology. The first rule is do not spare the pipes. If longer ones are needed in a new place, new ones will have to be laid: building up pipelines in any way means surely killing the air conditioner. If the new ones are needed shorter, then the slightly cut off old ones (see below) will do; in extreme cases, you will have to move the indoor unit a little.

To dismantle the condensing unit, in addition to simple mechanics (brackets, fasteners) and electricity (wires - from the terminals, mark, and in a new place - to the same terminals), the do-it-yourselfer needs to know the location of the freon fittings on the outdoor unit, see fig. Explanations for positions:

Refrigerant fittings of the outdoor unit of the domestic air conditioner

1. The fitting of the steam (supply) pipeline, it is thicker;
2. Liquid (outlet) pipe fitting, thinner;
3. Liquid connection cover;
4. Steam connection cover;
5. Nipple.

The caps of the fittings can be removed during the operation of the air conditioner; under them, internal nuts with hex slots for a socket wrench are found. The nipple is also closed with a cap in working order; in the figure it is removed, and the nipple stem is slightly visible, by pressing on which the refrigerant is bled from the system.

Dismantling of the outdoor unit is carried out in the following order:

• A manometer is attached to the nipple;
• The air conditioner is switched on from the remote control for constant cold;
• After 10 minutes, having removed the cover of the liquid fitting, tightly tighten its inner nut - the pipeline is closed, the pump pumps freon into the condensation chamber;
• The pressure gauge readings are controlled - when it shows minus 1 MPa (minus one atmosphere, technical vacuum), the steam fitting nut is also tightly tightened;
• The air conditioner is immediately completely disconnected from the network;
• Pipes 15-20 cm from the fittings are cut off with a pipe cutter, and all four ends are IMMEDIATELY minted, as shown in the figure;
• In the same way, very quickly, they cut and caulk the pipes at the indoor unit;
• All fitting and nipple covers are screwed into place;
• The electrical part is dismantled, the outdoor unit is removed, packed in a shipping container.

Risk Factor #1: In addition to the obvious ones (the ingress of dust into open pipelines and air with moisture vapor into the evaporation chamber), there is another, most serious danger - the transportation of air conditioners filled with refrigerant is strictly prohibited. After the described operations, the outdoor unit will be pumped with freon under pressure of several atmospheres, and from any push during transportation it can simply “bang”. At best, you will hear a loud hiss, the meaning of which is simple: a new air conditioner.

Is it possible without a manometer? Expensive after all, even for rent! There is a way, but the probability that after it the air conditioner will work in a new place is no more than 50%: let the pump pump for at least 5 minutes, and then press the nipple stem. It didn’t hiss - all the freon is already in the condenser.

Risk Factor #2: the pump is not designed even for short-term operation "excitedly". The backpressure at its outlet literally in a few seconds will exceed the maximum allowable (there is no refrigerant outflow, it is blocked), and the air conditioner can break down forever right before our eyes.

Note: caulking pipes with pliers is absolutely unreliable. It is necessary to compress the end of the pipe with a small bench vise that there is strength, or not to mint, but to roll. Rolling presses are included in the kit for cutting copper pipes, but such a kit costs several times more than a separate pipe cutter, and for rent too.

Warnings:

Never remove the union nuts of the unions with rolled pipes. The figure shows this as an example only.

Neglecting this is usually costly in a new air conditioner.
When transporting, be extremely careful with protruding "tails" of pipes. The consequences of a break or a sharp bend - see

previous warning.

Features of work in winter

In cold weather, it is almost impossible to pump refrigerant into the condenser: the oil thickens very much, and if you try to turn on the air conditioner in this situation, a supercharger malfunction can easily occur. This situation is not terrible for models of air conditioners that are equipped with a special winter kit. The kit includes compressor crankcase and drain heaters, as well as a fan speed retarder.

If you have a model installed without this configuration, then freon can be pumped through a manometric station for collecting gas.

The connection of this station is made to the shredder valve, like a manometric manifold.

How to hang the air conditioner correctly

Often there are situations in which the transfer of the air conditioner is more relevant than its complete dismantling. In this case, one of the blocks is left in its place, and for the second, the tubes are simply lengthened. The process of removing both the internal and external blocks is no different from those described above, the only difference is the need to build up copper or ordinary pipes.

When dismantling one of the blocks, you should also monitor the safety of freon and pump it into the outdoor unit before carrying out all operations. It is necessary to outweigh the split system after its undocking as carefully as possible, without damaging the air conditioner case. For greater cost savings, you can not deal with soldering pipes on your own, but entrust this matter to specialists. The split system maintenance masters have a corresponding column in the price list, which is called as an extension of the interblock route.

Having prepared the necessary tool, read the instructions and watched the relevant videos on the Internet, you should also learn a few important subtleties:

Both with the complete dismantling of the split system, and with the partial transfer of the device, one should not worry too much about the safety of the copper pipes

Replacing them will not cost too much money and installing new ones is always better than repairing old ones.
If it is difficult to understand which pipeline is liquid and which is gas, then you need to pay attention to the diameter of the nozzles. The liquid pipeline, which is also the outlet, is always thinner than the gas supply.

Examples of tubes on an air conditioner

During transportation, the system should be surrounded by any sealant, since any blow to the body can lead to loss of freon or failure of the device.

And the most important advice is never to rush, since these systems require precise and accurate movements, strength will not always help here.

When moving to a new apartment or house or changing the location of the office, it becomes necessary to dismantle the air conditioner or several devices at once. The nuances of this type of work largely depend on the type of device.

To dismantle the air conditioner quickly and very efficiently, sometimes only professionals, wise with experience in this area, are capable of. However, their services are quite expensive, so often many people prefer to dismantle the device themselves. This raises a fair question: how to dismantle the air conditioner with your own hands? Such a solution will allow you to save a lot, but only if you do everything right.

Dismantling a split system with a non-working compressor

This operation is carried out in two cases. The first is that the air conditioner has broken down and requires serious repairs that cannot be done at the installation site, for example, replacing the compressor itself. The second is the removal of the system in order to dispose of equipment that has exhausted its resource, in other words, into scrap metal.

The process is different in that it is impossible to overtake freon with an idle compressor. Therefore, we start by turning off the power from the network.Next, with a hexagon, we twist two valves at once until they stop. So we seal and disconnect the outdoor unit from the main, thereby we will save all the freon located in the outdoor unit of the split system.

Slowly unscrew the nut fixing the pipeline of a larger diameter, remember that the system is under high pressure. One has only to loosen the nut, as the refrigerant in the pipeline will begin to evaporate. After the circuit is empty, you can dismantle the system according to the above sequence.

As you can see, dismantling the air conditioner is not a difficult process, in comparison with its installation. However, you need to know some of its nuances. You can do this work yourself or entrust this work to professionals. Prices for the dismantling of air conditioners and split systems in St. Petersburg can be found here.

4shop Copyright 17.08.2018 "Technique for Comfort"

Preparatory stage

It is necessary to prepare a number of tools, without which it is impossible to cope with the task, before answering the question of how to remove the air conditioner from the wall during do-it-yourself repairs.

Required tools:

• Pipe cutter.
• Manometric manifold.
• Socket hex keys.
• Open-end wrenches.
• Side cutters.
• Wrenches.
• Drill.
• Phillips screwdriver.
• Construction knife.

There are times when you need to get and safety equipment.

Freon descent

There are three options for dismantling the air conditioner with your own hands:

• Dismantling with the release of freon.
• Preservation of gas inside the device.
• Using a special technique, with the help of professional equipment, save freon completely.

All methods are used, but the third gives the best effect without any loss.

To remove the air conditioner from the wall with your own hands correctly, you need to study the design of the split system, which consists of a closed loop filled with freon. It consists of such components - a compressor, a system of copper pipes and an evaporator with a condenser, which connects the entire system and ensures the selection and supply of refrigerant.

To turn off the air conditioner without losing freon on your own, it must be pumped into the condenser, for this:

1. Close the valve between the device and the fine diameter pipe while the equipment is in cooling mode.
2. After a minute, when all the refrigerant is pumped into the condenser, close the valve on the thick tube. With this action, you turn off the supply of freon and “close” it in a trap.

10 important nuances when dismantling the air conditioner

A competent master during dismantling can do the following:

• check the performance of the split system;
• remove air conditioning units without losing freon;
• check the tightness of the taps;
• “seal” the tubes (the ends of the tubes are wrapped with adhesive tape or electrical tape to prevent dust from entering them);
• collect all the details (they often forget the plate, brackets and remote control);
• decide whether to disconnect the "route" from the indoor unit or not. In the future, it may come in handy (probably, the cost of installation will decrease). “Twist” and try not to damage the existing materials (tubes, cable, drainage, etc.);
• check the condition of the air conditioner (requires cleaning or not);
• give recommendations on transportation (transport the outdoor unit vertically, it is advisable to pack the indoor unit, do not lose the remote control);
• give guarantees for work;
• subsequently install the removed air conditioner (possibly at a discount due to the preservation of the "route").

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How to remove the air conditioner from the wall yourself: instructions

Before starting to remove the split system, you need to prepare not only ordinary household tools, but also professional ones.

The necessary tools for dismantling the split system include:

• pipe cutter;
• side cutter;
• construction knife;
• Phillips and integral screwdrivers;
• socket wrenches;
• manometric manifold;
• open-end and adjustable wrenches;
• drill;
• screwdriver.

In some cases, safety equipment may be required.

Preparatory stage

After preparing the tool, study the recommendations of experts on the correct dismantling of the air conditioning system. Most neglect the recommendations of professionals, after which the air conditioner is dismantled with many errors.

Interesting:

Dismantling without pumping freon into the device leads to its leakage. Restoring freon is then quite difficult and expensive. The minimum amount of financial expenses is four thousand rubles.

Freon descent

There are three main methods for dismantling the air conditioner yourself:

• analysis with the release of freon;
• preservation of freon in the device;
• full refrigerant savings due to the use of a special technique and specialized equipment.

The last method allows you to get the maximum effect without loss, but other methods are also widely used.

Before carrying out work, carefully consider the design features of the air conditioning system.It is a closed refrigerant circuit and includes a compressor, an evaporator with a condenser and a system of copper pipes to connect all the constituent elements and ensure the supply and withdrawal of refrigerant.

To turn off the air conditioning system without losing refrigerant, you need to pump it into the condenser. This is possible when operating in cooling mode by closing the valve from the product to the tube. It will take no more than one minute to pump freon in full. After pumping, it is necessary to close the valve on the tube. With this operation you will be able to stop the full gas supply.

Dismantling

Work begins with the removal of the external unit. To do this, you must first disconnect the copper pipes. The tubes are cut at a distance of about twenty centimeters from the fitting, and then the cuts are minted for complete sealing.

When the device is stored for a long time in a disassembled state, the copper tubes are filled with nitrogen, provide tightness to prevent oxidation.

Work begins with the removal of the external unit

outdoor unit

After disconnecting the copper pipes, remove the thermal insulation. It is desirable that the operation be carried out by two people: one will work outside the building, and the other inside the building. This will greatly simplify and speed up the process.

So, one person will make a power outage, and the other will disconnect the wires.

The tubes must be straightened so that they can pass through the holes in the wall. Further, the end of the cable dragged into the room is screwed to them. After that, the nuts that support the outdoor unit on the brackets are unscrewed.

At the end of the operation, the block is removed and dragged into the building.It can only be stored vertically.

Disconnecting the compressor

The compressor is very important to dismantle in the right way. To do this, you must perform the following operations:

1. Remove the cover from the outdoor unit.
2. Disconnect the suction and discharge pipes.
3. Unplug electrical wiring.
4. Unscrew the fasteners of the condenser and fan.
5. Pull out the capacitor.
6. Remove fasteners and dismantle the compressor.

With this sequence of measures, the possibility of a pipe defect is eliminated and it becomes possible to repair other components.

indoor unit

There are cases when the owners are limited to dismantling only the external unit. For example, when repairing a compressor

When it is required to remove the entire split system, it is important to take into account the existing nuances of dismantling the indoor unit

To dismantle the indoor module of the air conditioner, you must perform the following steps:

Remove the housing cover, focusing on the indicators located at the bottom of the product.
Disconnect the electrical cable by unscrewing it from the terminals, and then carefully remove it from the split system.
Unhook the pipe by installing a reservoir in advance, liquid may leak out from there.
Remove the heat insulator and disconnect the refrigerant piping.
Carefully unscrew the tubes as when removing the outdoor unit, and wrap them with insulating tape, or tighten them with caps.

1. Carefully dismantle the indoor unit and remove the installation plate.

Stage one: freon descent

At the first stage of work, it is necessary to determine the method of dismantling. There are several options:

1. With the descent of freon;
2. Complete preservation of the refrigerant, thanks to the use of special equipment.

The best solution would be to follow point 2.Therefore, you need to know how to remove the split system on your own without losing freon? To do this, it is necessary to pump the refrigerant into the condenser, having previously closed the valve (for a tube with a thin diameter). After the gas is in the condenser (the process takes about 1 minute), you should close another valve - on a tube with a large diameter.

Possible troubles with incorrect dismantling

Whether it is a qualified specialist or an amateur who wants to dismantle the air conditioner on his own, a person must know how this device works in order to avoid unpleasant consequences. It would seem that disconnecting the tubes and unscrewing a few hardware is a trifle, but practice shows that everything is somewhat more complicated.

Then the condenser is blown with relatively cold air, due to which the refrigerant cools down and passes into a liquid state of aggregation, which is accompanied by an exothermic reaction. Due to this, the air passing through the condenser is heated. The heated refrigerant from the condenser moves to the expansion valve, where it partially changes to a gaseous state under reduced pressure. Then the liquid and gaseous refrigerant enters the evaporator, which receives air from the room. There, the substance finally passes into a gaseous state, due to which it absorbs heat from the room, after which it is sent to the compressor for a second cycle.

That is, it becomes clear that air conditioning requires a rather complex organization from the device, especially from the pump. It must be absolutely tight, and the use of additional seals is not allowed due to regular temperature and pressure fluctuations.Therefore, tightness is due only through the accuracy of all details. This is where the problem usually arises for those who decide to dismantle the air conditioner with their own hands. If you make a mistake when removing the system, you can damage the pump, which will lead to a decrease in the efficiency of the device, and then to a complete breakdown. It usually breaks if dust and other aerosols that damage the wall, or oxygen enter the pump.

Therefore, the dismantling of the air conditioner requires extreme caution.

If the air conditioner is damaged during removal, it will no longer work correctly.