• [deleted]@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Reliability tends to be in opposition to efficiency for mechanical stuff. Yeah, it sucks more energy which is bad, but if you use 50% less stuff for an efficient unit but end up replacing it 4 times while the old one still runs you end up using more materials.

      We need a happy medium between as efficient as possible but only last for a few years and reliable but very inefficient.

      • taladar@sh.itjust.works
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        2 years ago

        That might be true for materials but a large percentage of those can likely be reused while energy inefficiency is a much larger problem.

      • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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        2 years ago

        The flip side is we don’t think about the old ACs that destroyed themselves inside the expected lifetime, we only see the freaks that blast on regardless of damage and just never deteriorate. If the old ones all lasted 50+ years, we wouldn’t see people needing to buy new ones.

        It’s still probably the case that older devices without plastic control boards lasted longer, but it’s worth remembering that we only see the edge cases.
        Also, some of the old appliances will keep trying to function even when they’ve degraded to the point of being nearly inoperable, where the new device will be able to detect that it’s not working right and shutdown, probably before it’s not worth it to run anymore, but probably in time to be reparable.

    • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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      2 years ago

      CFC’s are great at coolimg things as long as you do not care about having an ozone layer.

      They’re even fine if you care about the ozone layer so long as you never ever let any leak. Until the coolant leaks the CFCs are cycling in a closed system in which they can’t do any damage. The problem is that “not letting any leak” is harder than it sounds, and the newer coolants just don’t do the job as well.

      It’s like how asbestos tiles are fine until they get damaged, and then they fuck the lungs of anyone unfortunate enough to breathe in a tiny bit of it.

      • Ridgetop18
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        2 years ago

        The ozone hole is mostly repaired, because we stopped using CFC’s.

        • Robust Mirror@aussie.zone
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          2 years ago

          I think it’s more accurate to say the problem is mostly solved and its on track to being repaired rather than mostly repaired.

          Antarctic ozone hole:
          2000: 28.3 million sq km (largest recorded).
          2020: 24 million sq km.
          2024: 20 million sq km (approx 3x size of usa).

          Global ozone levels will return to 1980 levels around 2040.
          Arctic ozone will recover by 2045 (currently around 1 million sq km).
          Antarctic ozone hole will fully recover by 2066.

        • MothmanDelorian@lemmy.worldBanned
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          2 years ago

          Yup much like with acid rain Reagan and George HW Bush stepped up environmental regulations to confront the problem.

          As most of the problem was due to America’s use of CFC’s it was their issue to solve.

    • rhythmisaprancer@moist.catsweat.com
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      2 years ago

      Where I lived as a teenager, we had a window unit that couldn’t easily be removed. Second story window, required a ladder. After multiple years, and some issues, we took it out, I disassembled it, and found ALL of the styrofoam, fan, and housings, to be coverered in mold 😬 Dry, dark, crusty. It was a whole world in there…

    • BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      A common feature was to let the interior fan blades sit above a pool of condensate and flick water over the coil to aide in cooling.

      This is not appropriate for humid weather.

  • Sabre363@sh.itjust.works
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    2 years ago

    I installed a mini-split system in my house, each individual unit has a couple of safety switches that need to pressed in in order to operate and make sure you still count to ten after sticking your grubby little fingers up its fan. Some of the units work as intended, others, a Christmas tree of error codes and mystery breaks loose if you even think about touching those switches funny. And every single one has to be set to a random degree beyond what you actually want before the thing even tries to turn on. LG deserves suffer slowly in the fires of Mordor for all eternity for the atrocity they have created.

    • Shadow@lemmy.ca
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      2 years ago

      Huh, I have an LG and haven’t had any issues like that at all. My only complaint is home assistant can’t manage them directly and has to go through their cloud.

  • _cryptagion [he/him]@lemmy.dbzer0.comBanneddeleted by creator
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    2 years ago

    Are you sure old ACs actually worked better, or are you just remembering a time from your childhood when climate change wasn’t as bad and summers were cooler?

        • this_1_is_mine@lemmy.world
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          2 years ago

          I’m not talking freezing up I’m talking putting out 30 degree air after running for 15 minutes… Good job trying to down play the efficiency loss we suffered moving away from horrible refrigerants. We are better for it but the change In Refrigerants was the biggest cause of difference.

          Hell i have had snow flakes in a car with older r12 and full on Florida humidity.

  • AmazingAwesomator@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    im sad my 20 year ild one just died, but we are going to get a heat pump instead of fixing the broken one. the broken one uses the super toxic old stuff (even though it worked very well, it was missing parts, and hadnt been serviced for a very long time, heh)

  • lorty@lemmy.ml
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    2 years ago

    We had many of those old ACs to know they were shit. Modern ones are great compared to them.