Can I trust reconditioned prtable ac's?

[Rick Schieck]

I would like to try my luck at getting a portable ac, again. Last summer I bought a reconditioned LG portable. The temp in my apartment was about 85F. I installed it as per instructions but instead of venting via the window my apartment is equipped with a vent hole right through the wall. That is to discourage window units that are not allowed as per the lease. A few seconds after installing and turning the unit on it began to blow cool air. The default temp setting was 72F I believe. I initially thought oh great. I let it run hoping/expecting my tiny apartment tool cool down soon. After about 2-3 minutes the compressor kicked down, which I thought was strange. After about a minute it kicked back in and started blowing cool air again. But then in less than one minute it kicked down again. And this continued on a continuous basis. Blowing cool air for less than a minute and then shutting down to just the fan blowing warm apartment air. I really didn't want to have to take it back if I could help it because I don't drive and it is a big hassle trying to find someone to take me or paying a car rental fee. So I called the manufacturer and they said to try let it run like that for 24 hrs to see if that would fix it. Nothing. I tried calling local ac techs and they said I probably just got a bad one. So I took it back and got a replacement. After going through the same steps again I got the same results. So needless to say I was pissed. So I took it back for a refund and just bought a couple standup fans. The weird thing was that they had a lot of these ac's with varying BTUs and they all were in new boxes. And both units I got appeared brand new. in every aspect. Even the packaging. The only thing I can think of that I did that may have been the cause, was I had to lay the box down on its side when travelling. But I was informed that as long as I let it sit upright for 24 hrs before turning it on I should be OK. Well I let (them both) sit for approx 36hrs. So do you think that caused it? I really would like to get another one for this year.

 

[RealBeast]

No, laying it down was not a problem since you left it upright before use. It certainly could be an issue that the reconditioned units had problems, which led to their being reconditioned in the first place and the issue was not resolved properly by the rework.

Another concern is that your vent hole, unless close to window size, may not be adequately sized for a standard window unit output.