In connection with moving to a new place of residence or with a change in the location of the office, it may be necessary to dismantle the split-systems of air conditioners - removing the external and internal modules from the mountings. The process has its own characteristics regarding the type of device, the season, and also requires the presence of appropriate tools.
A team of professional installers will be able to carry out these works efficiently and quickly, but their work costs money, especially if it is necessary to dismantle several split air conditioners at the same time. If they have high power indicators, on which the price depends, then the total cost will turn out to be rather big. Is it possible to save money on this, or will it be expensive to try to cut costs?
Of course, dismantling an air conditioner with your own hands is the first thing that comes to mind in a situation of a shortage of funds. A man who is at least a little versed in technical topics, it would seem, will intuitively understand how to unscrew the fittings, pump freon, disconnect the necessary communications, remove and pack everything in boxes. There are instructions and a video of dismantling the air conditioner with your own hands - I read it, looked it up and set to work. But in reality everything is not so simple.
Cons of self-dismantling
The main danger is not pumped freon. And this can happen if there is no special pressure gauge to measure the pressure on the gas line. Freezing of water vapor in the air conditioner will damage the pump.
Operations with non-professional tools will damage the evaporator pipes of the indoor unit, which are very close to the place where the device is mounted in the walls.
If the pipeline was cut too short, then it may simply not fit in length during subsequent installation. Build-up of a new one disables the unit.
The evaporative units of split duct systems, in addition to pumping out the refrigerant, disconnecting the piping, electrical wires and the drain hose, require careful disconnection from the air ducts. It is quite difficult to do this without experience.
To dismantle the air conditioner yourself, you will need special tools, the cost of which significantly exceeds the prices for dismantling by qualified craftsmen, even if they are rented.
Large-sized semi-industrial splits have considerable weight and dimensions. It is impossible to remove them alone. Here you can add the difficulty of removing the external block - it is located on the facade of the building, often at a sufficient height and a decent distance from the window. Here, in any case, a team of industrial climbers will be needed, if the master amateur does not want to risk his life.
No one can guarantee 100% safety of the functionality of the air conditioner when dismantling it with their own hands. The risks of bringing the device to a new facility in a faulty state are very high.
If these arguments do not stop a person in his decision to try himself in the role of a master-assembler, then you should carefully study the instructions for dismantling air conditioners of various types given below on your own.
Dismantling the wall split system
Oversized wall splits are not particularly difficult to remove. The following set of tools should be available:
- pressure gauge;
- 2 Swedish keys;
- nippers or pipe cutter;
- set of hexagons;
- wrenches or a set of heads;
- indicator screwdriver, simple screwdriver;
- manometric station for collecting freon (if the air conditioner needs to be dismantled in winter).
They start work by pumping freon into the external unit, so that they can be used again later. For this, a pressure gauge must be connected through the shredder valve to the gas valve of the pipeline. At the same time, the air conditioner operates in a cooling mode. Next, remove the covers on the side valves and tighten the discharge valve using a hexagon. After a couple of minutes, the pressure should drop below zero. Now you can close the suction valve, turn off the device, turn off the power.
The next step in dismantling the air conditioner with your own hands will be to disconnect (trim) the main pipes with nippers or a pipe cutter at a distance of 15-20 cm from the fittings, stamp them and remove the outdoor module from the bracket. It must be placed in a tight cardboard packaging and wrapped around with foam. Then the brackets are unscrewed with wrenches or heads.
The condensing unit can only be transported in an upright position.
Next, proceed to dismantle the indoor unit of the air conditioner, in which it is necessary to open the cover that protects the device. The module is held on both sides and the fasteners are unscrewed. Disconnect the pipeline, stamp the ends of the tubes, disconnect all electrical interconnect wires and remove the unit from the mounting plate, opening the fastening latches and following the guides of the indoor unit.
Now they move on to removing the fastening itself, the remaining pipeline and the decorative plastic box. Thus, the dismantling of the split-system of the wall-mounted air conditioner is completely completed, and all that remains is to carefully pack the system and transport it to a new location.
If you do everything according to the proposed scheme, then during the subsequent installation you will not have to completely fill the circuit with freon.
All the described work can be seen below on the video of dismantling wall-mounted air conditioners.
Dismantling of the channel split system
The greatest difficulties arise when you independently dismantle the duct air conditioner, since the weight of this structure is significant, and you still have to disconnect the air ducts from the blocks.
The set of tools in this case remains the same. Work begins with disassembling the air ducts. Removable supply and exhaust adapters with a grill. Clean the air ducts by disconnecting them from the indoor unit. If they are metal, then they unscrew the self-tapping screws, flexible ones - remove the clamps. Further, freon is pumped into the receiver of the external unit and is removed according to the scheme of dismantling the wall split system.
At the evaporating unit, the fastening nuts are loosened, the freon line, drain hose and electrical wires are disconnected. Next, carefully remove the block from the wall and pack it in a special container.
Some craftsmen dismantle the channel air conditioner with their own hands in the following order:
- pumping freon into the receiver of the external unit;
- removal of the outdoor module and disconnection of its connecting communications;
- disconnecting air ducts;
- dismantling the indoor unit of the air conditioner and its connecting communications;
- split-system packing and its transportation.
Both options will be technically correct and will not bring subsequent problems with the functioning of the system in the new location.
Dismantling of column, cassette and console split systems
The column split system, along with the wall one, does not present any difficulties in terms of dismantling work. Everything follows the same pattern:
- checking the pressure with a pressure gauge and pumping freon into the indoor module;
- disconnection of all its connecting lines with the subsequent removal of the device from the outer wall of the building;
- disconnection of the connecting lines of the indoor unit of the air conditioner and its subsequent dismantling.
The indoor unit of the column has neither a mounting plate (like a wall-mounted one), nor pins (like a cassette, column and console) to which it would be attached, so in this regard there are much fewer problems with it.
The cassette split system is dismantled according to the channel scheme. When working with the indoor unit, it is necessary to loosen the fastening nuts, and then carry out the rest of the manipulations. The only difference is that in this case there are no air ducts.
The indoor unit of the floor-to-ceiling (console) split system is attached to the wall or ceiling with studs, like a cassette or channel unit. When removing it, the instructions for dismantling a wall or channel split system will help.
Do not remove the outdoor unit when it is raining or snowing, as moisture trapped inside the ports will damage the compressor.
Dismantling the split system in winter
Some difficulties arise if you have to dismantle the air conditioner yourself in the winter. What are the difficulties? The fact is that at outdoor temperatures below the permissible operating values of the device, it cannot be turned on, therefore, it is impossible to remove the working fluid from the line. In such cases, you will need a manometric station to collect freon. The taps on the outdoor unit are closed, the station is connected to the shredder valve and the refrigerant is collected from the main line and the indoor module.
Failure to do so will result in complete refrigerant leakage. You will have to re-fill the circuit and change the seals of the service ports. Therefore, it is better not to dismantle the air conditioner with your own hands in winter.
You should watch the video of dismantling the wall split system with your own hands for a complete picture of the process.
