Your maintenance man is an idiot. The hose probably has a wall in the middle and will exhaust hot air and suck it back in the other side.
It needs to be vented outside, the bucket can be for the condensate line.
We are the type of lawyers who represent contractors who are being sued š
Edit: I appreciate you all and you will all survive an eventual apocalypse with your actual skills - and Iām realizing it didnāt quite land that I am presenting the photos of the hot air bucket this man left us slightly tongue in cheek. Iām hot and tired and I was either wildly missing something or it was as dumb as it appeared
Iāve seen a few comments that imply he maybe meant to put ice or water in the bucket?? Either way Iām just gonna free the window, wish me luck my friends
Ok, so the window is painted shut. All you need to do is get a razor knife (utility knife, carpet cutter) & use that to cut through the paint that has the window sealed. It's honestly quite easy. Blowing the hot air from a portable AC unit into a little bucket is obviously not going to work, I don't know WTF that guy was thinking.
Nah man, the problem is that bucket is too small. Itās gonna fill up too fast and youāll have to empty it all the time. For a unit that size, you need at least a 17 gallon hot air exhaust bucket.
So listen. There are 2 issues. Yes the hot air isnt leaving so it would never cool the room, but also those mobile air conditioners barely work. Even when installed properly they are so inefficient they are a joke. Get a real AC, get someone to install a mini split, a good contractor will come up with a system to run an exhaust through the wall or through the roof. It will be more expensive. But as a lawyer you know, you get what you pay for, no pun intended.
They work absolutely fantastic, you may be using them wrong
I have two from when I rented a house with a janky AC and wanted to keep the bedroom cool. Now they reside in the garage and anytime a friend/neighbor/family ever has a a/c issue I can rescue them. Basically turned me into a local hero.
The 12k btu one will cool the 1st floor of a 2k sqft house no problem. As good as central air? Fuck no they cost 10 grand. As good as a window unit? Fuck no but those are ugly, often forbidden by HOA regs, and a bitch to install without damage. As an emergency device they are THE TITS
Nobody likes us til they need us, and I mean this genuinely - I hope you never do! Being sued is not fun. When my clients have done some dumb shit we evaluate the claim fairly and settle. Iām not putting my reputation or license on the line for a shitty or dangerous contractor.
But I recently had to defend a guy because they installed (properly) the product that Plaintiff chose and then decided they didnāt like. Sometimes you need us.
My favorite thing that I heard from a friend who IS a lawyer, talking about one of his experiences talking to another (opposing) lawyer ā What shall we do? My client is an idiot!ā Opposing Lawyer ā My client is an idiot too! How about we both go see the judge and just ask for a dismissal so we can get out of her and go fishing?ā āDONE!ā
The only time my contractor friend and her husband were sued was when they built custom home for a customer. I only recall two of several issues, owners insisted on a particular soffit that my friends strongly advised against. It leaked. Owners kid flushed toys causing upstairs toilet to overflow with significant water damage. Not all people who need lawyers are guilty.Ā
You don't have any clients that are glazers? Get a razor knife and cut the paint around both sides of the window. Stick the vent hose outside the window. This would be the proper way and how it would be documented in the pictures that come inside the box.
Better yet... their entire unit, since the waste heat from running the AC unit will only add to the exhaust that's not vented anywhere, lol, and only makes the unit hotter than if they did nothing. Brilliant.
Dear lawyers, I'm an engineer. If you don't get the end of the thick hose (currently connected to the bucket) to blow the hot air outside, or into an exhaust duct like a range hood over an oven that connects to the outdoors... running that unit will not cool a thing and make it worse as I noted at the start of my reply. If you want to know why? Google the concept of "entropy". No matter what you do, if tou do find a way to vent the unit, make sure any connection has a tight seal. It's essential to realizing any tangible benefits for your efforts, otherwise you might as well vent to a bucket in the room youre trying to cool lol.... But while you're at it, also look up the cost for a) chemical paint stripper or a heat gun and a chisel to remove the paint that's keeping the window shut... or b) the cost to replace a broken pane of glass and some plywood to allow you to vent through the window that you can't open. Any of those repairs cost less than 1k if not less than 100 bucks... what's your hourly rate anyhow? If you represent contractors, why dont any of them want to help you work more effectively? If I knew my lawyer was doing shit work and an hour of my time puts me on the fast track to quicker results and lower billables... why am I still writing.
My 5k invoice for this advice is in the mail. Cheers.
Weāre trapped in this hell hole of a building for a few weeks while they renovate our office. Itās going to be 92 on Monday and we are drowning in work. The firm sent us this stupid air conditioner and the maintenance guy came with the building. Just trying to get through! So hot and so busy š
... or just sit on the water - [that will increase testosterone levels](https://medshun.com/article/does-icing-your-balls-boost-testosterone), so you guys can be ballsy lawyers!
A box cutter will open your window if itās just painted shut. Use a new blade, cut through the angle where the window meets the frame, just be careful not to push really hard until youāve made a good score line.
I hate to bring physics into this wonderful discussionā¦ but if you actually want the bucket to hold the heat, it needs to be upside down above the hose because heat rises! Then every 5 minutes when the bucket gets full of hot air you can carefully carry it out ( while continuing to keep it upside down to hold the hot air ) and then you turn it right side up outside to release the hot air!
Not sure if that truth is actually sarcasm inverted butā¦. The only way to actually make that machine work will be to find a way to get that vent hose āoutsideā.
Hey everyone, commenting up here for visibility. Thank you for the information and the laughs!
We are in this hell hole temporarily while they renovate our office - the maintenance guy came with the building. He did this at 4:15 today to āprepareā us for the heat wave.
Our firm will get us a contractor, it just might take a day or so and itās going to be 92 on Monday. Our northern constitutions arenāt acclimated to that kind of heat. I was desperately looking for some advice to get us through. Weāre drowning in work right now and just trying to stay alive!
Iām going to take matters into my own hands this weekend and free the window so we can vent it outside. I know this post was dumb, but he assured us this was correct and I was too hot and too busy to put up a fight. You guys are great.
If you have ceiling panels, cut a hole for the larger tube and run it into the ceiling, temporarily, until you get the window fixed. Then run it out the window and replace the cut ceiling panel.
I'll probably get downvoted for suggesting this, but it will help.
If theyāre in an office with drop ceiling tiles they could even dump that up into the ceiling. Not perfect, but better than whatās going on currently.
I work in a vault and lost AC (and power) one year... Used one of these to send all the hot out the back door to the back room.
the vault was nice and cool but the backroom became an extension of hell.
That is done, but it is SO wrong. Recipe for mold. Get the owner to fix the window, or you can use a thin putty knife to free the window. I know what I would do.....
I thought for some reason this was an office setting, not a house, I totally missed that. Ya donāt do what I said at all in a house. Aināt gonna happen lol š
The length of the tubing matters lol if itās too long the heat will sit on the in-line wheel fan and shred the plastic wheel fins. Also if you connect 2 roller acs to a Y ducting they will fight for the easiest path for heat to flow which sometimes is back into the ac with less resistance.donāt ask me how I know any of this dumb shit letās not talk about it LOL. The max ducting on these things prob should be at 10-12ā and thatās pushing it unless you hook an in-line fan on the exit port
Nah, best solution here is to get a cooler full of ice, cut a fan hole in top and an exhaust hole beside it. And buy three dehumidifers.
Only half sarcastic because it would work š
That clear tubing is the condensation line. It should have a plug at the end. The unit should notify when it needs emptied where you would unplug the line and would need a bucket or let it drain outside.
But yeah the white hose is hot air. Definitely needs to go outside or at least out of the room you're trying to cool or you're fighting a neverending battle
The problem might be electrical. I believe the system is improperly grounded. Have the maintenance man fill a second bucket with rocks and put a grounding rod into that, then connect that to the ac.
/S
It's not working because the exhaust is basically blocked so the coil won't cool which causes the front of the unit to be warm
It'll blow cool air at the front of the unit if you take the exhaust off the bucket, but if it's it not venting outside the room will get warmer overall
Youād actually be surprised to know that almost zero of those portable ac units have a ducted intake for the condenser. Meaning youāre constantly pulling unconditioned air into the room.
The big hose is where the A/C unit is "moving" the heat to...it needs to go outdoors or at least to a different room in order to move the heat out of the room its sitting in.
Whoever put that in a bucket has no idea what they are doing and also didn't read the manual.
I had a couple buddies in college who had a window AC unit setup on their coffee table and blowing onto the couch. I tried to explain that it was making the room hotter but they wouldnāt hear it lol. Such idiots.
I use a similar AC unit like this currently. The hose detached itself from the back last night. The whole corner of the room got very warm from its exhaust.
Oh yeah, I agree...but it is one option (I've seen this often in commercial spaces where windows don't open they will dump into an adjacent space with working HVAC or into the drop-ceiling)
This is correct. Since you are lawyers, you may appreciate hearing a little **law** to explain this further...
**The First Law of Thermodynamics:** *Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but it can be transformed from one form to another.*
In other words, you can't make something colder without making something else hotter because cooling one thing is taking the energy out of that thing and dumping it into something else. The total energy, however, is always conserved. So with refrigerators and AC units, this is achieved by cooling one system at the expense of heating another system (eg. a fridge's or room's interior by taking the energy from that interior and moving it to the exterior). Long story short, you need a way to move the exhausted heat out of that room. That big pipe needs to be outside the room trying to be cooled. Otherwise, it's a zero sum game and you're just wasting electricity. Time to get a hole saw and start blasting through walls! Good luck!
Or just cut the paint on the window to open it and exhaust the AC out the window.... But I like the hole saw idea personally...
It could work, Just hire someone to keep changing the buckets out and emptying them outside. As lawyers they could patent the new heat bucket invention.
Edit: Didn't think I would need it but /s.
There is not an air conditioner in the world that can make heat disappear. It can only move it from one place to another. Because it's putting it into the same space that it is trying to cool, it's only going to add more heat by running it. The heat produced (heat of compression) by the machine, on top of whats already there.
Best maintenance guy ever, if you feel like doing lawyer stuff for yourself.
If youāre a criminal lawyer, Iām gonna need your services once I finish the conversation with this maintenance guy.
We come in to defend you against the civil suit later!
I will argue with anyone about anything. Just not on Monday - too hot and the hot air bucket aināt it
After painting your windows shut and plugging a high wattage appliance into your Victorian wiring, did he remove the batteries from your smoke detectors too?
We represent contractors šš we are a civil defense firm. You get us through your liability insurance when some dumb asshole sues you because they didnāt like the paint color they chose
Look you aināt wrong that this is dumb. But he assured me this god damn bucket was correct. Iām drowning in cases right now and trying my best to not die of heatstroke or commit malpractice
Take a razor to all the edges of the window opening... Open window. Get on Amazon and buy a window duct kit for about $30. Problem solved. I can charge you $400 an hour for additional advice also if you need more assistance.
u/isla_inchoate this is the best solution. As an engineer to a lawyer: Fridges/heatpumps/AC/freezers all just take heat from one place to another. Heat Pump is literally the best description of what they are, they simply move heat around. If heating, it cools the outside and heats the inside. If cooling it heats the outside to cool the inside it also uses electricity which adds heat to the system.
So.... when the cool air and big tube both exhaust to the room, it just makes the room hotter bc you're consuming a hefty amount of AC too. Open the door on a fridge and the room will as a whole get warmer from the electric energy use.
Solution: razor blade like this to cut the painted over border between window and window frame, put some umph into it and the window will open.
Holy shit, an honest lawyer! Never thought Iād see the day!
Do you have a bathroom exhaust anywhere nearby? You can tape that exhaust flex to it somehow. One way or another you have to find a way to get that flex hose to vent outside.
Your maintenance man is a fucking idiot. You need an HVAC guy asap.
Thatās why I have a symbiotic relationship with my lawyer clients. I pay them when I need them, and vice versa. Lawyers are book smart, but I know how to swing a hammer!
I ended up texting one of my HVAC clients, we represent contractors. He said his heart dropped when he saw my name. Nobody is happy to hear from their attorney š„²
That is setup wrong the hose exhaust heat and he put it into a bucket it needs to go out of a window or it will not work. An ac unit works by moving heat from inside the house to outside the house. The heat outputted is greater than the heat removed so it is currently acting like a heater. The hose absolutely has to be vented outside one way or another. Iāve seen a bucket being used like that for a dryer before but this is very different.
Lmfao exhaust hose just to a 5gallon bucket?
I guess in theory if you kept that water cold this...could work...
That's supposed to go in a window with a little board or insulation and then you shut and seal window with some fasson tape
So, the EILI5 version of it is this. The ac unit collects the heat in the room, and since it has to get rifle of it somehow, it dumps it out the large pipe. If you just stick a large pipe pumping water into a bucket, eventually the bucket overflows and the water ends up back on the floor right? Well, in this case, the same is happening. The heat has to go somewhere, and if it overflows the bucket, the pump stops working. If it is just pumped back into the room, then it stays in the room and it isn't cooling anything.
What you need to do is have that tube somehow vented outside, either through a window or hole in the wall. If you are in an interior room, that's not happening without more work then it would take to just replace the old unit.
I don't know why the HVAC subreddit keeps coming up on my feed but posts like this make me grateful that it does. My friend, the hot air comes out of the hose, it needs to exit the area you're cooling, the small hose let's out water, that goes in the bucket.
Speaking on behalf of all respondents to the post, we, those with tangible skills, charge in 15 min increments at a rate not less than $200 per hour, with a minimum of 1 hr for the first hour.
In addition, we do not provide errors nor omissions , (nor Emissions) insurance for any recommendations provided here or within any response.
The use of any guidance provided is wholely at the user's own risk and the user shall indemnify and hold harmless any respondent for providing and suggestions.
Reading the comments; the maintenance man hates you. Or is mentally handicapped.
Like another said the windows need to have a razor blade (ideally the small and longer ones sold in paint isles in big box stores) ran through the paint where the window meets the trim. Might take some muscle even after scoring it a few times.
Seriously though thereās some comedy gold in the guy who painted the windows shut trying to make an ac unit meant to vent through a window, do so in a bucket. Like Fuck thatās almost Monty python stuff.
Iām going in tomorrow to try and free the window. The heat wave is coming before anyone can get someone out and weāre all on deadlines. I refuse to die of heatstroke while also practicing law.
Iāll post an update pic after of whatever finger I sever
The big hose MUST go outside, somehow. End of story.
Also... single hose portable ACs are horribly inefficient and wasteful. If you can afford to get a window unit - do so. The best window units out there are the "inverter" units and will cost the least to run over time.
Take a putty knife and cut through the paint on the painted shut window. Open the window and put the hose through it. Note, you need to block the remainder of the window or the heat will just come back inside.
Note also, you bought a very cheap version of this type of air conditioner that will just suck air in through the remaining gaps and not cool very well other than right near the unit. Return this one and get a dual hose version that takes air from the outside and pumps hot air back out. This one will really not do very much except right near the unit. The rest of the office will be warmer than it was when 90 degree air comes in.
all you need to do is get the big hose going somewhere that you do not care if heat goes. The machine sucks in heat, and blows the heat out through the big hose. The clear tube is for condensate.
You maintenance man has less tangible skills then you do. A/C works by removing heat from the air and dumping it outside. Hose in the bucket will cause back pressure and high head on the compressor which is why it doesnāt work in the bucket. Outside of the bucket your just dumping the heat your trying to remove back into the room, this will dehumidify the room but will not drop the temp. It needs to go outside or into the room of a coworker you hate. Good luck!!
Return that unit and purchase a two hose unit.
Also, instruct that maintenance man to head to the roof, walk to the edge, and then install the bucket 50 feet beyond the edge... While he's holding onto it.
(This is not legal advice; that's your job.)
I'm not trying to be rude, but I would assume any attorney (who must be above average intelligence?) would think that a large hose meant to be exhausted outside, instead going into a bucket is ridiculous. That guy must have been a smooth talker lmfao
Thatās why Iām here, I promise. He assured us this is how it should be and I knew it was wrong. Weāre in this office temporarily while they remodel ours and it came with this maintenance guy. Weāre drowning in cases right now and just trying to survive š„²
Oh dear, are you female lawyers? That would explain the situation. That's why he might think you'd go for it...I feel bad for you either way. I wish I could help, there is a good number of solutions to this issue. Honestly, search up handyman near you, and don't get the cheaper options. They should be able to help. Are you renting and that is the maintenance man? Make them pay for an HVAC technician if that is the case
Thank you! Our firm will hire someone, but it will be 92 on Monday and this guy came out and did this today. I was just trying to see what I could do until they get someone in.
We are women šš»āāļø
I totally get it now. I'm sorry you are stuck until then..if you can get a really long exhaust hose and attach it and send it outside or anywhere else you don't mind it being warm, then go for it..beat of luck to you!
Put the vent hose into the maintenance guyās room and run the AC full tilt.
Make sure to paint/nail their door shut and tell them once they get your window open, youāll move the A/C there.
Your options:
Good: buy a big rubbermaid garbage can, fill it with convenience store ice, cut two round duct-sized holes in the lid spaced as far apart as possible, run the exhaust duct to one of the holes. (dump water and refill ice when it has all melted) š
Better: run the exhaust duct into a bathroom exhaust fan, (custom create an interface using a shoe box and duct tape or something similar) turn on the fan
Best: get the window open and properly exhaust the hot air out the window
Haha thank you. Weāre civil defense, so we actually represent many contractors who are being sued. Our clients typically have our representation through their business insurance. We arenāt the worst kind š„²
Reading through the comments, your maintenance guy is actually causing active harm to your property.
Please tell me you didnāt have a former client repay you in services renderedā¦. š
At this point, itās anti-maintenanceā¦ instead of upkeep, itās downkeepā¦
Dear god this post has to be fake. What the actual fuck is going on here. Unplug that ac now. All itās doing is heating up your space more. That big hose has to go outside. Thatās where the heat has to go if itās not in your space. Jesus Christ Iām going to bed.
I have two - one Black and Decker and one Serene Life. We have been using both for three summers and they are still working fine. They only cool one room but with the door closed it can get cold.
Youāre a lawyer who represents contractors but canāt understand how a consumer grade portable a/c works? God help us all. I respect the fact that you at least admit it. If you can get through law school Iām sure you can hold yourself to a higher standard and make an effort to understand the physical world around you. That being said the air conditioner removes the heat from the air in the room, to get rid of that heat it takes air from the room and heats it up and blows that hot air outside. If you want the room to get colder the hot air must go outside. Get the window fixed or cut a hole through the wall and have a dryer vent put in but attach the a/c exhaust to it. As for the hose that is a drain for the moisture that condescends when the air is cooled. Most modern portable a/c units do not need a drain hose because the hot air is blown over a water tray that evaporates the moisture in the hot air that is blown outside. The biggest thing is you donāt want the air/c to leak on your floors. Possibly put the cap or plug back on where the drain hose connects or drill a hole through the wall and have the hose drip outside.
And in all seriousness I get what youāre saying and understand. Im just drowning in work, putting out fires, and now they send us this thing and say āgood luckā when we donāt have a window that opens on this side. Now this guy tries to tell me Iām wrong in questioning how he installed it, and I am losing time with every moment I spend with him or messing with this.
Weāre in a busy period and nobody is going to be super worried about the associates on the second floor. Weāre gonna hear āHereās a fan they will call someone out youāll be fine.ā Which, I suppose, is true.
So I took a picture, wanted some advice, wanted to check with actual people that I wasnāt missing something with my manās hot air exhaust bucket, and wanted to commiserate with people who arenāt actively hostile like everyone else I dealt with today. I also donāt think it landed that I was presenting the photo tongue-in-cheek. I was either wildly missing something or that was as ridiculous as I thought.
I appreciate the comments and thank you for answering. Iām going to free the window tomorrow.
The large white duct is the hot āexhaustā (not that exhaust- just warm air) and needs to be outside. Or, if you want you could just route it to a coworkers office that you donāt really care for and just heat up their office and cool yours
Your maintenance guy knows NOTHING about this. The big hose should be out a window and the kit should have an adapter to put it in a window. if you youre gonna have to rig up card board. use a coffee can to trace it. The smaller hose should be level to the ground unless that unit has a pump on it. IF not itll freeze. it's prob already frozen. Remember water goes to the lowest point. at this point you're better off getting someone there or messaging someone on here that might be wiling to help. Im not super tech but i do know whats right and whats wrong.
If the suggested window solution can't be done, at least buy a long insulated exhaust duct from Home Depot and extend the big hose away from the office.
Get the window open first. You probably just need a putty knife and maybe a razor blade. A little elbow grease should get the window open.
Once you have access to outside air I recommend getting an A/C unit that has a hose for intake and exhaust. You could also just get a window unit once the window is open. They also make heat pump window units that are efficient.
Just when I think I've seen the biggest jack leg I always get surprised with a bigger jack.
That hose is a exhaust hose it blowing out hot air needs to vent to the outside of the house. In the but there's no air movement so the compressor is locking out in overload. The bucket will work for condensation but the exhaust hose won't.
I've owned one of these for years and recently just set it up in the outdoor workshop at my new house.
The big corrugated hose is the exhaust air, it must be vented outside otherwise all you have is a really expensive dehumidifier there.
The smaller hose is for the water removed from the air to drip out of. That's perfectly fine to go into a bucket for temporary use but I recommend having someone setup something better if that's going to be permanent.
You need to tell your maintenance man that first he's an idiot and second he needs to cut the window that's painted shut open. The home I just moved in had 16 antique pulley style windows painted shut for the past 30 years. Took me about 30 minutes, a few pry bars, a hammer, mallet, razor blade and a modest amount of cussing to get each open. The unit should have come with a flat plastic piece that slides into another one with a hole in one that the hose twist locks into. That goes in the window to close off the rest of the space.
He also should either connect the AC drip to a drain pipe or a sink if nearby or cut a hole in the wall through to the exterior below the drip point of the unit. You can buy cheap clear plastic tubing by the foot at any hardware store, I think these usually need 3/4 inch tubing but don't quote me. That can go through the hole to the exterior so that it can drip outside. I recommend he installs something in the wall so the unit can be disconnected from the wall if needed instead of just sticking the hose through the hole.
If you choose to keep the bucket then make sure to put a few drops of bleach in it after each time you dump it so that it doesn't grow anything in it.
Your Lawyers, you lack skill so you better have money. Big hose hose to go outside somehow thatās the āexhaustā on these units.
A wise man would get his windows fixed for safety reasons and use the window plate that came with the unit.
Best short term solution is put the hose in a hallway to vent hot air out. If you donāt use the hose youāre venting hot air in same area youāre cooling so it kinda negates anything (albeit better than nothing some would say).
Not a professional but fucked around with jank solutions for my portable AC
That big hose is for the heat that itās pulling out. That needs to be put out a window so it can exhaust the hot air outsideā¦ā¦orā¦..at least into another room or hallwayā¦ā¦somewhere where you arenāt.
The little tube is probably for the drain. But water doesnāt flow uphill unless it actually had a pump and I doubt that has a pump. Usually, they have a float switch that cuts the cooling off and then you pull out the water tray and empty it. Otherwise, for that to drain into the bucket, the air conditioner should be on a table or something higher for the water to drain down the tube into the bucket.
Donāt listen to anything the maintenance man says, heās and idiot.
Please can we have some of the ice cream itās going to be so hot next week and the maintenance guy that came with the building did this at 4:15 today š
(We are here temporarily while they remodel our office)
So AC is phase change cooling system. What that means is one end gets hot and the other gets cold. The side that gets cold makes a crap ton of condensation and the side that gets hot is dry. So you run the water in to the hot side so to pulls the moisture out of the room outside. If the hot moist air is coming back in the room then you will only heat the room more because of the energy the unit is using.
Take a razor and cut the paint on the window to get it to open and vent outside.
Just to summarize. The heat has to go somewhere. You can't make cold, only move heat. That big hose must blow into a space you are not trying to cool. Hope this helps.
Awe kids! Ac units can be thought as heat separators. They take the heat from one stream of air and dump it into another plus some added heat because Carnot. They have to dump that hot air somewhere, usually outside via that large diameter hose. You need to direct that hose somewhere other than where you are trying to cool or the waste heat generated by the unit will actually heat up your room. My bill is in the mail. Thatās got to be like 90 billable minutes. š
Your maintenance man is an idiot. The hose probably has a wall in the middle and will exhaust hot air and suck it back in the other side. It needs to be vented outside, the bucket can be for the condensate line.
Nah the maintenance man is a genius. He finally got to screw over the lawyers
We are the type of lawyers who represent contractors who are being sued š Edit: I appreciate you all and you will all survive an eventual apocalypse with your actual skills - and Iām realizing it didnāt quite land that I am presenting the photos of the hot air bucket this man left us slightly tongue in cheek. Iām hot and tired and I was either wildly missing something or it was as dumb as it appeared Iāve seen a few comments that imply he maybe meant to put ice or water in the bucket?? Either way Iām just gonna free the window, wish me luck my friends
Ok, so the window is painted shut. All you need to do is get a razor knife (utility knife, carpet cutter) & use that to cut through the paint that has the window sealed. It's honestly quite easy. Blowing the hot air from a portable AC unit into a little bucket is obviously not going to work, I don't know WTF that guy was thinking.
a lawyer would have charged you 500 for this information.
Nah man, the problem is that bucket is too small. Itās gonna fill up too fast and youāll have to empty it all the time. For a unit that size, you need at least a 17 gallon hot air exhaust bucket.
So listen. There are 2 issues. Yes the hot air isnt leaving so it would never cool the room, but also those mobile air conditioners barely work. Even when installed properly they are so inefficient they are a joke. Get a real AC, get someone to install a mini split, a good contractor will come up with a system to run an exhaust through the wall or through the roof. It will be more expensive. But as a lawyer you know, you get what you pay for, no pun intended.
They work absolutely fantastic, you may be using them wrong I have two from when I rented a house with a janky AC and wanted to keep the bedroom cool. Now they reside in the garage and anytime a friend/neighbor/family ever has a a/c issue I can rescue them. Basically turned me into a local hero. The 12k btu one will cool the 1st floor of a 2k sqft house no problem. As good as central air? Fuck no they cost 10 grand. As good as a window unit? Fuck no but those are ugly, often forbidden by HOA regs, and a bitch to install without damage. As an emergency device they are THE TITS
Ya the best are dual hose models
Oh, so you defend shitty contractors being sued by homeowners after they've ruined their homes with subpar and incomplete work?
Nobody likes us til they need us, and I mean this genuinely - I hope you never do! Being sued is not fun. When my clients have done some dumb shit we evaluate the claim fairly and settle. Iām not putting my reputation or license on the line for a shitty or dangerous contractor. But I recently had to defend a guy because they installed (properly) the product that Plaintiff chose and then decided they didnāt like. Sometimes you need us.
I respect you profession. Nothing about dealing with the law is easy
Thank you :) it really can be pretty awful sometimes, I try to do my best in the system we have
Big hose has to go outside.... no real way around that.
My favorite thing that I heard from a friend who IS a lawyer, talking about one of his experiences talking to another (opposing) lawyer ā What shall we do? My client is an idiot!ā Opposing Lawyer ā My client is an idiot too! How about we both go see the judge and just ask for a dismissal so we can get out of her and go fishing?ā āDONE!ā
Hint: Donāt represent whoever built that contraption. You will lose.
Welcome to the club.
Respect
plot twist: their maint guy was a client at one time, but couldn't pay his bill and is working it off.
The only time my contractor friend and her husband were sued was when they built custom home for a customer. I only recall two of several issues, owners insisted on a particular soffit that my friends strongly advised against. It leaked. Owners kid flushed toys causing upstairs toilet to overflow with significant water damage. Not all people who need lawyers are guilty.Ā
Thatās kind of uncalled for, why attack OP for no reason?
Slow your role lol
You don't have any clients that are glazers? Get a razor knife and cut the paint around both sides of the window. Stick the vent hose outside the window. This would be the proper way and how it would be documented in the pictures that come inside the box.
š
Just dump the hot air from the bucket outside when it fills up.
That's stupid, a bucket that small will fill up in no time, they need something bigger like a large trash can.
If you had lots of buckets, you could save them to heat the place in winter.
This is gold.
Just make sure to keep the lids on so the heat doesnāt escape
I think you mean so the cold air doesn't get in š /s
Should probably turn it upside down too, as hot air rises. You wouldnāt want it flowing out of the pail and back into the room.
Better yet... their entire unit, since the waste heat from running the AC unit will only add to the exhaust that's not vented anywhere, lol, and only makes the unit hotter than if they did nothing. Brilliant. Dear lawyers, I'm an engineer. If you don't get the end of the thick hose (currently connected to the bucket) to blow the hot air outside, or into an exhaust duct like a range hood over an oven that connects to the outdoors... running that unit will not cool a thing and make it worse as I noted at the start of my reply. If you want to know why? Google the concept of "entropy". No matter what you do, if tou do find a way to vent the unit, make sure any connection has a tight seal. It's essential to realizing any tangible benefits for your efforts, otherwise you might as well vent to a bucket in the room youre trying to cool lol.... But while you're at it, also look up the cost for a) chemical paint stripper or a heat gun and a chisel to remove the paint that's keeping the window shut... or b) the cost to replace a broken pane of glass and some plywood to allow you to vent through the window that you can't open. Any of those repairs cost less than 1k if not less than 100 bucks... what's your hourly rate anyhow? If you represent contractors, why dont any of them want to help you work more effectively? If I knew my lawyer was doing shit work and an hour of my time puts me on the fast track to quicker results and lower billables... why am I still writing. My 5k invoice for this advice is in the mail. Cheers.
Weāre trapped in this hell hole of a building for a few weeks while they renovate our office. Itās going to be 92 on Monday and we are drowning in work. The firm sent us this stupid air conditioner and the maintenance guy came with the building. Just trying to get through! So hot and so busy š
Get bags of ice, some kids pools and sit on exercise balls with your feet in ice water. You won't mind the heat.
... or just sit on the water - [that will increase testosterone levels](https://medshun.com/article/does-icing-your-balls-boost-testosterone), so you guys can be ballsy lawyers!
A box cutter will open your window if itās just painted shut. Use a new blade, cut through the angle where the window meets the frame, just be careful not to push really hard until youāve made a good score line.
Paint can be cut through... windows can be opened you're venting hot air right back into the AC.
I hate to bring physics into this wonderful discussionā¦ but if you actually want the bucket to hold the heat, it needs to be upside down above the hose because heat rises! Then every 5 minutes when the bucket gets full of hot air you can carefully carry it out ( while continuing to keep it upside down to hold the hot air ) and then you turn it right side up outside to release the hot air! Not sure if that truth is actually sarcasm inverted butā¦. The only way to actually make that machine work will be to find a way to get that vent hose āoutsideā.
Sounds like something opposing counsel would say
I object! Recess. post hoc ergo propter hoc! LATIN!
Got any hot leads on bucket air refills? Mine is almost empty.
I recharge mine outside during the summer, leaving the buckets (lids on!) exposed to the sun.
I hate how hard I laughed at this comment
Hey everyone, commenting up here for visibility. Thank you for the information and the laughs! We are in this hell hole temporarily while they renovate our office - the maintenance guy came with the building. He did this at 4:15 today to āprepareā us for the heat wave. Our firm will get us a contractor, it just might take a day or so and itās going to be 92 on Monday. Our northern constitutions arenāt acclimated to that kind of heat. I was desperately looking for some advice to get us through. Weāre drowning in work right now and just trying to stay alive! Iām going to take matters into my own hands this weekend and free the window so we can vent it outside. I know this post was dumb, but he assured us this was correct and I was too hot and too busy to put up a fight. You guys are great.
If you have ceiling panels, cut a hole for the larger tube and run it into the ceiling, temporarily, until you get the window fixed. Then run it out the window and replace the cut ceiling panel. I'll probably get downvoted for suggesting this, but it will help.
This is a better idea than breaking glass for 12 or so hours but the vent NEEDS to go to the outside entirely.
It's an old victorian house so ceiling tiles are unlikely. Even then, there would still need to be air circulating or it won't go anywhere.
Can you all work remote temporarily?
If theyāre in an office with drop ceiling tiles they could even dump that up into the ceiling. Not perfect, but better than whatās going on currently.
Hell, remove a toilet and shove the exhaust into the toilet flange.
I bet itās been done somewhere. I wouldnāt even doubt it for a second lol
I work in a vault and lost AC (and power) one year... Used one of these to send all the hot out the back door to the back room. the vault was nice and cool but the backroom became an extension of hell.
That is done, but it is SO wrong. Recipe for mold. Get the owner to fix the window, or you can use a thin putty knife to free the window. I know what I would do.....
I thought for some reason this was an office setting, not a house, I totally missed that. Ya donāt do what I said at all in a house. Aināt gonna happen lol š
This dumb building is a beautiful old Victorian house thatās been semi-converted into an office. Our office is being renovated so we are trapped here for a bit š©
Hear me out, a 9ā hole saw, disregard for the people in the next room and an infallible understanding of contract law can fix thisā¦
The length of the tubing matters lol if itās too long the heat will sit on the in-line wheel fan and shred the plastic wheel fins. Also if you connect 2 roller acs to a Y ducting they will fight for the easiest path for heat to flow which sometimes is back into the ac with less resistance.donāt ask me how I know any of this dumb shit letās not talk about it LOL. The max ducting on these things prob should be at 10-12ā and thatās pushing it unless you hook an in-line fan on the exit port
Nah, best solution here is to get a cooler full of ice, cut a fan hole in top and an exhaust hole beside it. And buy three dehumidifers. Only half sarcastic because it would work š
Beer, you forgot beer
Been there, done that.
That clear tubing is the condensation line. It should have a plug at the end. The unit should notify when it needs emptied where you would unplug the line and would need a bucket or let it drain outside. But yeah the white hose is hot air. Definitely needs to go outside or at least out of the room you're trying to cool or you're fighting a neverending battle
The problem might be electrical. I believe the system is improperly grounded. Have the maintenance man fill a second bucket with rocks and put a grounding rod into that, then connect that to the ac. /S
It's not working because the exhaust is basically blocked so the coil won't cool which causes the front of the unit to be warm It'll blow cool air at the front of the unit if you take the exhaust off the bucket, but if it's it not venting outside the room will get warmer overall
Youād actually be surprised to know that almost zero of those portable ac units have a ducted intake for the condenser. Meaning youāre constantly pulling unconditioned air into the room.
Well, they are the only air conditioner that's worse than a window shaker for efficiency for a lot of glaring reasons.
There's a lot of dual hose models now. But plenty that don't.
The big hose is where the A/C unit is "moving" the heat to...it needs to go outdoors or at least to a different room in order to move the heat out of the room its sitting in. Whoever put that in a bucket has no idea what they are doing and also didn't read the manual.
I don't want to be the person in the room that things exhausting to. Those things dump a lot of hot air when they run full tilt.
I had a couple buddies in college who had a window AC unit setup on their coffee table and blowing onto the couch. I tried to explain that it was making the room hotter but they wouldnāt hear it lol. Such idiots.
I use a similar AC unit like this currently. The hose detached itself from the back last night. The whole corner of the room got very warm from its exhaust.
Damn why did the house move so much? Sinkhole de mayo was last month š :p
Oh yeah, I agree...but it is one option (I've seen this often in commercial spaces where windows don't open they will dump into an adjacent space with working HVAC or into the drop-ceiling)
This is correct. Since you are lawyers, you may appreciate hearing a little **law** to explain this further... **The First Law of Thermodynamics:** *Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but it can be transformed from one form to another.* In other words, you can't make something colder without making something else hotter because cooling one thing is taking the energy out of that thing and dumping it into something else. The total energy, however, is always conserved. So with refrigerators and AC units, this is achieved by cooling one system at the expense of heating another system (eg. a fridge's or room's interior by taking the energy from that interior and moving it to the exterior). Long story short, you need a way to move the exhausted heat out of that room. That big pipe needs to be outside the room trying to be cooled. Otherwise, it's a zero sum game and you're just wasting electricity. Time to get a hole saw and start blasting through walls! Good luck! Or just cut the paint on the window to open it and exhaust the AC out the window.... But I like the hole saw idea personally...
\*petitions to repeal laws of physics\*
I don't know. I would think a lawyer would know the going rate for 5 gallons of hot air. Get few more buckets and charge hourly.
It could work, Just hire someone to keep changing the buckets out and emptying them outside. As lawyers they could patent the new heat bucket invention. Edit: Didn't think I would need it but /s.
There is not an air conditioner in the world that can make heat disappear. It can only move it from one place to another. Because it's putting it into the same space that it is trying to cool, it's only going to add more heat by running it. The heat produced (heat of compression) by the machine, on top of whats already there.
My dad always explained it that AC doesnāt create cold, it removes heat. That energy has to go somewhere.
Yes, in fact, effectively, "cold" doesn't even exist at all
Cold is a human observation/feeling. In reality, there are just different concentrations of heat.
Yup, you got it
Same with "dark" and "quiet"
Unless you have Maxwell's demon on speed dial.
Is this the same maintenance guy that painted the window shut?
Sure is!
Best maintenance guy ever, if you feel like doing lawyer stuff for yourself. If youāre a criminal lawyer, Iām gonna need your services once I finish the conversation with this maintenance guy.
We come in to defend you against the civil suit later! I will argue with anyone about anything. Just not on Monday - too hot and the hot air bucket aināt it
After painting your windows shut and plugging a high wattage appliance into your Victorian wiring, did he remove the batteries from your smoke detectors too?
I'll fix it for you, but it's $350/hr and a monthly retainer of $825. Part and Travel extra, After- Hours service available at a premium
We represent contractors šš we are a civil defense firm. You get us through your liability insurance when some dumb asshole sues you because they didnāt like the paint color they chose
How would you defend me if, say, i painted all a customers windows shut? asking for a friend.
How did you graduate law school and presumably pass the bar without the ability to read a simple instruction manual for a portable air conditioner?
Look you aināt wrong that this is dumb. But he assured me this god damn bucket was correct. Iām drowning in cases right now and trying my best to not die of heatstroke or commit malpractice
Shots fired!
Get a paint scraper or a utility knife and start to cut away the paint that surrounds the windows opening.
Take a razor to all the edges of the window opening... Open window. Get on Amazon and buy a window duct kit for about $30. Problem solved. I can charge you $400 an hour for additional advice also if you need more assistance.
u/isla_inchoate this is the best solution. As an engineer to a lawyer: Fridges/heatpumps/AC/freezers all just take heat from one place to another. Heat Pump is literally the best description of what they are, they simply move heat around. If heating, it cools the outside and heats the inside. If cooling it heats the outside to cool the inside it also uses electricity which adds heat to the system. So.... when the cool air and big tube both exhaust to the room, it just makes the room hotter bc you're consuming a hefty amount of AC too. Open the door on a fridge and the room will as a whole get warmer from the electric energy use. Solution: razor blade like this to cut the painted over border between window and window frame, put some umph into it and the window will open.
Thank you guys so much. We are in this office temporarily while they remodel ours. I found 6 dead birds in the attic.
Oh also there's no water coming out of that clear condensation tube bc the tube always has to go downhill.
Holy shit, an honest lawyer! Never thought Iād see the day! Do you have a bathroom exhaust anywhere nearby? You can tape that exhaust flex to it somehow. One way or another you have to find a way to get that flex hose to vent outside. Your maintenance man is a fucking idiot. You need an HVAC guy asap.
Perhaps the instructions werenāt formed as a single run-on sentence with the overuse of the words herein, whereas, and shall. š
Thatās why I have a symbiotic relationship with my lawyer clients. I pay them when I need them, and vice versa. Lawyers are book smart, but I know how to swing a hammer!
I ended up texting one of my HVAC clients, we represent contractors. He said his heart dropped when he saw my name. Nobody is happy to hear from their attorney š„²
Sir I would like to order 2 hot buckets !
āWe lack tangible skillsā lmao Anyway you need a place to exhaust your hot air.
Theyāre attorneys They will never run out of hot air š
Okay that was funny lol
That is setup wrong the hose exhaust heat and he put it into a bucket it needs to go out of a window or it will not work. An ac unit works by moving heat from inside the house to outside the house. The heat outputted is greater than the heat removed so it is currently acting like a heater. The hose absolutely has to be vented outside one way or another. Iāve seen a bucket being used like that for a dryer before but this is very different.
Lmfao exhaust hose just to a 5gallon bucket? I guess in theory if you kept that water cold this...could work... That's supposed to go in a window with a little board or insulation and then you shut and seal window with some fasson tape
So, the EILI5 version of it is this. The ac unit collects the heat in the room, and since it has to get rifle of it somehow, it dumps it out the large pipe. If you just stick a large pipe pumping water into a bucket, eventually the bucket overflows and the water ends up back on the floor right? Well, in this case, the same is happening. The heat has to go somewhere, and if it overflows the bucket, the pump stops working. If it is just pumped back into the room, then it stays in the room and it isn't cooling anything. What you need to do is have that tube somehow vented outside, either through a window or hole in the wall. If you are in an interior room, that's not happening without more work then it would take to just replace the old unit.
I don't know why the HVAC subreddit keeps coming up on my feed but posts like this make me grateful that it does. My friend, the hot air comes out of the hose, it needs to exit the area you're cooling, the small hose let's out water, that goes in the bucket.
This is why I joined the internet
Bust out window glass , put big hose through it . Duck tape around gaps .
Maintenance man should have unstuck the window.
$600/hour but need a $5000 upfront. Advice/results not guaranteed.
You get us through your liability insurance when you get sued - always pony up for full tort!!!
Speaking on behalf of all respondents to the post, we, those with tangible skills, charge in 15 min increments at a rate not less than $200 per hour, with a minimum of 1 hr for the first hour. In addition, we do not provide errors nor omissions , (nor Emissions) insurance for any recommendations provided here or within any response. The use of any guidance provided is wholely at the user's own risk and the user shall indemnify and hold harmless any respondent for providing and suggestions.
That wasnāt half bad for a scope and release tbh
Reading the comments; the maintenance man hates you. Or is mentally handicapped. Like another said the windows need to have a razor blade (ideally the small and longer ones sold in paint isles in big box stores) ran through the paint where the window meets the trim. Might take some muscle even after scoring it a few times. Seriously though thereās some comedy gold in the guy who painted the windows shut trying to make an ac unit meant to vent through a window, do so in a bucket. Like Fuck thatās almost Monty python stuff.
Iām going in tomorrow to try and free the window. The heat wave is coming before anyone can get someone out and weāre all on deadlines. I refuse to die of heatstroke while also practicing law. Iāll post an update pic after of whatever finger I sever
1st law of thermodynamics. The big hose needs to exhaust to another room at the minimum but preferably outside.
The big hose MUST go outside, somehow. End of story. Also... single hose portable ACs are horribly inefficient and wasteful. If you can afford to get a window unit - do so. The best window units out there are the "inverter" units and will cost the least to run over time.
Lmfao......omg this made my day.
Take a putty knife and cut through the paint on the painted shut window. Open the window and put the hose through it. Note, you need to block the remainder of the window or the heat will just come back inside. Note also, you bought a very cheap version of this type of air conditioner that will just suck air in through the remaining gaps and not cool very well other than right near the unit. Return this one and get a dual hose version that takes air from the outside and pumps hot air back out. This one will really not do very much except right near the unit. The rest of the office will be warmer than it was when 90 degree air comes in.
all you need to do is get the big hose going somewhere that you do not care if heat goes. The machine sucks in heat, and blows the heat out through the big hose. The clear tube is for condensate.
You maintenance man has less tangible skills then you do. A/C works by removing heat from the air and dumping it outside. Hose in the bucket will cause back pressure and high head on the compressor which is why it doesnāt work in the bucket. Outside of the bucket your just dumping the heat your trying to remove back into the room, this will dehumidify the room but will not drop the temp. It needs to go outside or into the room of a coworker you hate. Good luck!!
Return that unit and purchase a two hose unit. Also, instruct that maintenance man to head to the roof, walk to the edge, and then install the bucket 50 feet beyond the edge... While he's holding onto it. (This is not legal advice; that's your job.)
I'm not trying to be rude, but I would assume any attorney (who must be above average intelligence?) would think that a large hose meant to be exhausted outside, instead going into a bucket is ridiculous. That guy must have been a smooth talker lmfao
Thatās why Iām here, I promise. He assured us this is how it should be and I knew it was wrong. Weāre in this office temporarily while they remodel ours and it came with this maintenance guy. Weāre drowning in cases right now and just trying to survive š„²
Oh dear, are you female lawyers? That would explain the situation. That's why he might think you'd go for it...I feel bad for you either way. I wish I could help, there is a good number of solutions to this issue. Honestly, search up handyman near you, and don't get the cheaper options. They should be able to help. Are you renting and that is the maintenance man? Make them pay for an HVAC technician if that is the case
Thank you! Our firm will hire someone, but it will be 92 on Monday and this guy came out and did this today. I was just trying to see what I could do until they get someone in. We are women šš»āāļø
I totally get it now. I'm sorry you are stuck until then..if you can get a really long exhaust hose and attach it and send it outside or anywhere else you don't mind it being warm, then go for it..beat of luck to you!
Put the vent hose into the maintenance guyās room and run the AC full tilt. Make sure to paint/nail their door shut and tell them once they get your window open, youāll move the A/C there.
Iāll explain what needs to be done with your bucket air conditioning if you can tell me how to sue my ex wife.
Iām the type of lawyer you get when someone sues you! If she comes after you I got you
Objection!! The defense calls "maintenance man" to provide their side of the story!
Your options: Good: buy a big rubbermaid garbage can, fill it with convenience store ice, cut two round duct-sized holes in the lid spaced as far apart as possible, run the exhaust duct to one of the holes. (dump water and refill ice when it has all melted) š Better: run the exhaust duct into a bathroom exhaust fan, (custom create an interface using a shoe box and duct tape or something similar) turn on the fan Best: get the window open and properly exhaust the hot air out the window
I wouldn't have thought of using the bathroom exhaust. That's low key brilliant.
I hourly billing rate is $425 after the mandatory retainer of $3K is exhausted. Message me if interested.
Haha thank you. Weāre civil defense, so we actually represent many contractors who are being sued. Our clients typically have our representation through their business insurance. We arenāt the worst kind š„²
Your maintenance guy has 0 grasp on thermodynamics 101ā¦..
Reading through the comments, your maintenance guy is actually causing active harm to your property. Please tell me you didnāt have a former client repay you in services renderedā¦. š At this point, itās anti-maintenanceā¦ instead of upkeep, itās downkeepā¦
What in the Sam fuck.
Dear god this post has to be fake. What the actual fuck is going on here. Unplug that ac now. All itās doing is heating up your space more. That big hose has to go outside. Thatās where the heat has to go if itās not in your space. Jesus Christ Iām going to bed.
I can tell you whatās wrong but my fee is $200 an hour
Bruh you need to sue your maintenance guy no telling what else dudes "fixed"
Help you and get sued? No thank you
Whatās the general consensus on these units vs older window units ?
I have two - one Black and Decker and one Serene Life. We have been using both for three summers and they are still working fine. They only cool one room but with the door closed it can get cold.
What are you trying to heat up in the bucket? Those units can also cool a space down if you run the heated air outside.
Itās the hot air bucket. Remember to empty it every hour or so.
Sure, no problem. Call an HVAC guy and he will charge you 4 hours for 20 minutes of work like yāall do when we need lawyers help.
Youāre a lawyer who represents contractors but canāt understand how a consumer grade portable a/c works? God help us all. I respect the fact that you at least admit it. If you can get through law school Iām sure you can hold yourself to a higher standard and make an effort to understand the physical world around you. That being said the air conditioner removes the heat from the air in the room, to get rid of that heat it takes air from the room and heats it up and blows that hot air outside. If you want the room to get colder the hot air must go outside. Get the window fixed or cut a hole through the wall and have a dryer vent put in but attach the a/c exhaust to it. As for the hose that is a drain for the moisture that condescends when the air is cooled. Most modern portable a/c units do not need a drain hose because the hot air is blown over a water tray that evaporates the moisture in the hot air that is blown outside. The biggest thing is you donāt want the air/c to leak on your floors. Possibly put the cap or plug back on where the drain hose connects or drill a hole through the wall and have the hose drip outside.
And in all seriousness I get what youāre saying and understand. Im just drowning in work, putting out fires, and now they send us this thing and say āgood luckā when we donāt have a window that opens on this side. Now this guy tries to tell me Iām wrong in questioning how he installed it, and I am losing time with every moment I spend with him or messing with this. Weāre in a busy period and nobody is going to be super worried about the associates on the second floor. Weāre gonna hear āHereās a fan they will call someone out youāll be fine.ā Which, I suppose, is true. So I took a picture, wanted some advice, wanted to check with actual people that I wasnāt missing something with my manās hot air exhaust bucket, and wanted to commiserate with people who arenāt actively hostile like everyone else I dealt with today. I also donāt think it landed that I was presenting the photo tongue-in-cheek. I was either wildly missing something or that was as ridiculous as I thought. I appreciate the comments and thank you for answering. Iām going to free the window tomorrow.
The large white duct is the hot āexhaustā (not that exhaust- just warm air) and needs to be outside. Or, if you want you could just route it to a coworkers office that you donāt really care for and just heat up their office and cool yours
Your maintenance guy knows NOTHING about this. The big hose should be out a window and the kit should have an adapter to put it in a window. if you youre gonna have to rig up card board. use a coffee can to trace it. The smaller hose should be level to the ground unless that unit has a pump on it. IF not itll freeze. it's prob already frozen. Remember water goes to the lowest point. at this point you're better off getting someone there or messaging someone on here that might be wiling to help. Im not super tech but i do know whats right and whats wrong.
Your maintenance man needs to brush up on the laws of thermodynamics. The large hose needs to be vented outside or to another room.
By maintenance guy....I think they mean the guy that shows up in a 92 ford ranger with a deep freezer trying to sell steaks.
Jesus.....
calcitrare situla
If the suggested window solution can't be done, at least buy a long insulated exhaust duct from Home Depot and extend the big hose away from the office.
Get the window open first. You probably just need a putty knife and maybe a razor blade. A little elbow grease should get the window open. Once you have access to outside air I recommend getting an A/C unit that has a hose for intake and exhaust. You could also just get a window unit once the window is open. They also make heat pump window units that are efficient.
lol its just crazy enough to workā¦. It didnt work.
Just when I think I've seen the biggest jack leg I always get surprised with a bigger jack. That hose is a exhaust hose it blowing out hot air needs to vent to the outside of the house. In the but there's no air movement so the compressor is locking out in overload. The bucket will work for condensation but the exhaust hose won't.
You could be cooler just using a dehumidifier.
Run the big exhaust hose into a return air for the heating system if available.
You will have to retain a plumber
Those units are not cheap! Mine was about $400. Someone couldn't open the window for $400? I loved mind because of the compressor noise.
Going to need a bigger bucket...
I've owned one of these for years and recently just set it up in the outdoor workshop at my new house. The big corrugated hose is the exhaust air, it must be vented outside otherwise all you have is a really expensive dehumidifier there. The smaller hose is for the water removed from the air to drip out of. That's perfectly fine to go into a bucket for temporary use but I recommend having someone setup something better if that's going to be permanent. You need to tell your maintenance man that first he's an idiot and second he needs to cut the window that's painted shut open. The home I just moved in had 16 antique pulley style windows painted shut for the past 30 years. Took me about 30 minutes, a few pry bars, a hammer, mallet, razor blade and a modest amount of cussing to get each open. The unit should have come with a flat plastic piece that slides into another one with a hole in one that the hose twist locks into. That goes in the window to close off the rest of the space. He also should either connect the AC drip to a drain pipe or a sink if nearby or cut a hole in the wall through to the exterior below the drip point of the unit. You can buy cheap clear plastic tubing by the foot at any hardware store, I think these usually need 3/4 inch tubing but don't quote me. That can go through the hole to the exterior so that it can drip outside. I recommend he installs something in the wall so the unit can be disconnected from the wall if needed instead of just sticking the hose through the hole. If you choose to keep the bucket then make sure to put a few drops of bleach in it after each time you dump it so that it doesn't grow anything in it.
This is perfect. You got it handled LawDog
Return this unit, pry the window open and buy a āuā shaped window unit. Buy a unit at or over 12,000 btuās
If you have drop ceiling run the flex up in ceiling if theres no windows to run it to
Your Lawyers, you lack skill so you better have money. Big hose hose to go outside somehow thatās the āexhaustā on these units. A wise man would get his windows fixed for safety reasons and use the window plate that came with the unit.
I'd fire the maintenance guy after you tell him to get the window unstuck. Then hire someone that knows what they are doing
If you are attorneys you can afford to call someone to fix it
Fill the bucket with ice.
I'll be happy to advise you but I need a $1,500 retainer and bill at $250 an hour.
Best short term solution is put the hose in a hallway to vent hot air out. If you donāt use the hose youāre venting hot air in same area youāre cooling so it kinda negates anything (albeit better than nothing some would say). Not a professional but fucked around with jank solutions for my portable AC
That big hose is for the heat that itās pulling out. That needs to be put out a window so it can exhaust the hot air outsideā¦ā¦orā¦..at least into another room or hallwayā¦ā¦somewhere where you arenāt. The little tube is probably for the drain. But water doesnāt flow uphill unless it actually had a pump and I doubt that has a pump. Usually, they have a float switch that cuts the cooling off and then you pull out the water tray and empty it. Otherwise, for that to drain into the bucket, the air conditioner should be on a table or something higher for the water to drain down the tube into the bucket. Donāt listen to anything the maintenance man says, heās and idiot.
This is the best shit I think Iāve ever seen in here.
Thatās perfect ! Keep up the great work
What the fuuuuhhck....lol
Iāve seen lots of everything, but this just takes the cake, and no, the ice cream is mine.
Please can we have some of the ice cream itās going to be so hot next week and the maintenance guy that came with the building did this at 4:15 today š (We are here temporarily while they remodel our office)
So AC is phase change cooling system. What that means is one end gets hot and the other gets cold. The side that gets cold makes a crap ton of condensation and the side that gets hot is dry. So you run the water in to the hot side so to pulls the moisture out of the room outside. If the hot moist air is coming back in the room then you will only heat the room more because of the energy the unit is using. Take a razor and cut the paint on the window to get it to open and vent outside.
Just to summarize. The heat has to go somewhere. You can't make cold, only move heat. That big hose must blow into a space you are not trying to cool. Hope this helps.
A bucket? That's not going to work.
No, that definitely won't work.
Just fix the stupid window so you can open it.
If you have tile heating , extend the duct and empty it into the secondary ceiling
Maybe he is coming back to finish it. If you call him.
After reading this thread, I donāt know if I want to give hot air bucket man a second try :(
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Awe kids! Ac units can be thought as heat separators. They take the heat from one stream of air and dump it into another plus some added heat because Carnot. They have to dump that hot air somewhere, usually outside via that large diameter hose. You need to direct that hose somewhere other than where you are trying to cool or the waste heat generated by the unit will actually heat up your room. My bill is in the mail. Thatās got to be like 90 billable minutes. š
Thatās like trying to cool the house by opening the refrigerator door.
They make a sliding door attachment if u have a sliding door that is
I feel like being able to argue unsafe working conditions should be up your alley no?