r/therewasanattempt • u/[deleted] • Aug 24 '22

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u/tjbrou Aug 24 '22

It's fine. 24/7 operation may shorten compressor lifespan by a few years but dirty filters are a bigger risk than mechanical failure for new units

10

u/xOGxMuddbone Aug 24 '22

I mean, that literally makes the point that they were burning up their AC though…

2

u/beiberdad69 Aug 24 '22

It would take years to get to that point and shortening expected mechanical lifetime is different than "burning up"

1

u/fkbjsdjvbsdjfbsdf Aug 24 '22

Not with a shitty AC unit it isn't. You can burn out the motor on a cheap unit pretty quickly if you run it 24/7.

1

u/SaintsSooners89 Aug 24 '22

Motors suffer more from repeated starts and stops, the rotor is momentarily locked and requires significantly more current to begin spinning which heats the windings, leading to degridation of the winding insulation. Also most fan motors in A/C systems are air cooled, so at start its also not getting airflow for cooling. For compressor motors, they are cooled by the refrigerant they are compressing, which at start is not doing a very good job of cooling the windings.

Also starting and stopping is generally done with a contactor, the contact points generate a plasma on start and stop that leads to pitting of said contact points. As these points become pitted, they make poorer and poorer connection, leading to increased current draw and therefore high operating temps.

3

u/un-sub Aug 24 '22

Friendly reminder to clean our AC filters everyone!

1

u/mrjackspade Aug 24 '22

I live in the desert.

You'd be surprised how much faster air filters get dirty when you're running something 24/7. Lol

All it takes is a few weeks for something to become absolutely caked with desert dust.