Why after four years of stellar cooling would my amcor altl 12000EH suddenly NOT be utilizing the water for its cooling system and now only works for 2 to 3 hours before needing to be manually drained? Even during the heatwaves of the past two horrible summers, there was not even once a necessity to drain the unit? Could it be something simple like tubing or an aperture of some kind just being clogged by particle buildup?
Heating & Cooling - Amcor - PLM12000E Portable Air Conditioner
Answers & Comments
Actually this is a compressor unit - it doesn't uses water, it extracts it from the air during the process of cooling it and then tries to eliminate it by evaporation.
This is how it works: a compressor is liquefying freon vapors from the cooling circuit; this generates some heat that is used to evaporate the water collected in the tank - the air heated and with the water vapors is taken outside the room thru the hose by a fan; the liquid freon goes to the evaporator where it turns- a radiator with fine coils and it turns to liquid, in the process cooling the coils; a fan blows air over the evaporator - this cools the air and because of that the water vapors in the air condense on the coils and from there drip in the water tank.
The way in which that this cycle takes place means that the capacity of the unit to vaporise the water collected in the tank is limited. It the air is very humid (over 80% humidity) that limit is passed so the water accumulates in the tank faster that it can be vaporized. The humidity has no direct relation to the air temperature - it can be very hot and very humid (like in the tropical forests) and it can be barely warm and bone dry - like in the Atacama desert. So the way your unit behaves is absolutely normal, nothing to worry about - you have just a very humid air due to the rains.
The evaporation is done thru a sponge that is dipped in the tank - maybe that sponge got dirty so it must be cleaned. But all units of this kind need to be drained - the limit for the evaporation is by design at 80% air humidity, over that and the water will accumulate faster than it can be evaporated - it says that very clearly in the user manual, at page 7. But it's easy to set up a drain tube: just plug in the drainage hole a small plastic tube and route it directly thru the wall outside.