Air conditioner and AAC block walls

[Muhendis]

I want to make a small, air conditioned room using AAC blocks.

Has anyone mounted a split air conditioner internal and external units on an AAC block wall?

[MJCM]

Yep we did.

 

in our old house on 10cm AAC blocks a 18k BTU and in the other room a 12k one, and in our current house with 7,5 cm AAC blocks a 18k BTU one.

 

Also the compressors are mounted on the AAC blocks in both houses and NO Issues 

 

edit: all the aircons are Daikins

Edited April 16, 2023 by MJCM

[KhunLA]

Ditto .. 13k & 24k BTU units mounted in & outside on the wall.  Same with previous house at Udon Thani, so a 12 yr test of time (UT), and buyers haven't advised of anything falling off.  

[sometimewoodworker]

1 hour ago, Muhendis said:

Has anyone mounted a split air conditioner internal and external units on an AAC block wall?

All ours are mounted on AAC walls, just make sure you use the correct wall plugs 

[Hakuna Matata]

Attaching the AC compressor directly to AAC block wall is not safe even using special metal plugs mentioned earlier in this thread. One day it may fall down and kill someone. You should find a place on the outside wall where is the concrete beam over the ceiling. And use only anchor bolts to fix the compressor brackets to the beam.

[Muhendis]

9 minutes ago, Hakuna Matata said:

Attaching the AC compressor directly to AAC block wall is not safe even using special metal plugs mentioned earlier in this thread. One day it may fall down and kill someone. You should find a place on the outside wall where is the concrete beam over the ceiling. And use only anchor bolts to fix the compressor brackets to the beam.

Thank you for your important reply and I take your point re. concrete beam.

Do you have any first hand knowledge of AC units falling off?

[Khun Roberto]

Sure, there are examples above where it has held, but there are many examples of short cuts in construction around here. A small tremor could easily knock down many AC units, even on cement block walls. But you’re building the room, and know where the units will be placed, so maybe incorporate some steel support during construction? Even if it’s visible, it can be painted and plastered so it looks good when finished. And it will be much safer.

 

[jesimps]

The cement render on both sides should give them a fair bit of strength.. I have air cons and compressors on my block walls. All ok after nine years.

 

Edited April 17, 2023 by jesimps

[MJCM]

11 minutes ago, jesimps said:

The cement render on both sides should give them a fair bit of strength.. I have air cons and compressors on my block walls. All ok after nine years.

 

+1

 

They have been installed in our old house now 7 - 8 years already and totally no issues. Had my wife look at the points where the compressors are mounted this morning and both look ????????

[rwill]

My compressor units are mounted on the walkway around the house, not on the wall.  Helps keep the noise down from them.

[The Theory]

Just make sure there will be used at least 6 screws (8 is safer) for the bracket (outdoor unit). 

[sometimewoodworker]

3 hours ago, Hakuna Matata said:

Attaching the AC compressor directly to AAC block wall is not safe even using special metal plugs mentioned earlier in this thread. One day it may fall down and kill someone. You should find a place on the outside wall where is the concrete beam over the ceiling. And use only anchor bolts to fix the compressor brackets to the beam.

Total tosh and absolute ignorant BS.

 

the weight bearing capacity of correctly built AAC block walls with correctly placed and installed saw steel anchors far exceeds the weight of a domestic, and probably many commercial, AC outdoor unit.

[sometimewoodworker]

3 hours ago, Muhendis said:

Thank you for your important reply and I take your point re. concrete beam.

Do you have any first hand knowledge of AC units falling off?

I can virtually guarantee that the answer will be no, if they were correctly mounted in the first place. Not only that there have been no firsthand reports that I have seen of any AC compressors committing suicidal jumps off the walls.

Edited April 17, 2023 by sometimewoodworker

[sometimewoodworker]

1 hour ago, MJCM said:

+1

 

They have been installed in our old house now 7 - 8 years already and totally no issues. Had my wife look at the points where the compressors are mounted this morning and both look ????????

We have had a single AC, wall installed for 14 years and another 3, one is a cassette unit so quite large, installed for the last 5 years. 
The only possible difficulty is that being 4+ meters up they are a little harder to clean.

 

[MJCM]

54 minutes ago, rwill said:

My compressor units are mounted on the walkway around the house, not on the wall.  Helps keep the noise down from them.

In our current house the compressor is right outside the window and we don’t hear it when it’s running even at full blast. It helps that the compressor is mounted on those rubber blocks.

 

We sometimes are wondering if the compressor even is running and we have to open the Window just to hear it’s “humming” away ????

[MJCM]

2 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

The only possible difficulty is that being 4+ meters up they are a little harder to clean.

 

Ours are not high up, just around approx 100++ cm up, but that said we have a single story house (both the old and the current house are)

[sometimewoodworker]

3 minutes ago, MJCM said:

In our current house the compressor is right outside the window and we don’t hear it when it’s running even at full blast. It helps that the compressor is mounted on those rubber blocks.

 

We sometimes are wondering if the compressor even is running and we have to open the Window just to hear it’s “humming” away ????

Correct placement also helps. That is why ours are always shaded and on the walls of the workshop 

 

[sometimewoodworker]

7 minutes ago, MJCM said:

Ours are not high up, just around approx 100++ cm up, but that said we have a single story house (both the old and the current house are)

We thought of that for the first one but decided that just under the roof would shade the unit for most of the day, that one is about 1.7 metres up, the ones above are on the new house and at least 3 maybe 4+ metres up

[Mark Nothing]

A few years ago I was cleaning a bird nest and birds out of the outside 24k btu compressor that was rarely used and while on the ladder I steadied myself by putting pressure on the bracket.

 

The next day the 10 year old bracket failed and the compressor had fallen off landing on a chair and breaking a wood table. I checked the bolts and they were very short and not inserted very far into the concrete brick wall.  Make sure bolts are long enough and inserted far enough to carry the weight load.

 

The wall was standard brick and concrete, not AAC.

[Muhendis]

1 hour ago, MJCM said:

Ours are not high up, just around approx 100++ cm up, but that said we have a single story house (both the old and the current house are)

High up is relative just so long as one's head has a bit of clearance when walking underneath. I'm not so tall but I think I would be hard pressed to avoid cranial damage if it was only 100++ cm up.........

[MJCM]

23 minutes ago, Muhendis said:

High up is relative just so long as one's head has a bit of clearance when walking underneath. I'm not so tall but I think I would be hard pressed to avoid cranial damage if it was only 100++ cm up.........

You definitely can’t walk underneath ours ????

 

We are glad that we didn’t put them high up because we had a while ago an ingress of Jingjok into the compressors electronic board and it caused us to be without an aircon for over a week. Nowadays we regularly check the compressor and put in new deterrents and sometimes spray with Chaindrite which would be more difficult if the compressor was high up..

[sometimewoodworker]

3 hours ago, Mark Nothing said:

The next day the 10 year old bracket failed and the compressor had fallen off landing on a chair and breaking a wood table. I checked the bolts and they were very short and not inserted very far into the concrete brick wall.  Make sure bolts are long enough and inserted far enough to carry the weight load.

Good points, though any badly installed unit on any wall may decide that freedom is an option. ???????? 

 

https://youtu.be/To48HBVk4wA

Edited April 17, 2023 by sometimewoodworker

[quake]

5 hours ago, rwill said:

My compressor units are mounted on the walkway around the house, not on the wall.  Helps keep the noise down from them.

+1 

They did charge me a bit more for the extra length pipe work 

but worth it. for silent nights. 

[quake]

1 hour ago, sometimewoodworker said:

Good points, though any badly installed unit on any wall may decide that freedom is an option. ???????? 

 

https://youtu.be/To48HBVk4wA

That would be a right bummer.

 

[Encid]

1 hour ago, MJCM said:

We are glad that we didn’t put them high up because we had a while ago an ingress of Jingjok into the compressors electronic board and it caused us to be without an aircon for over a week. Nowadays we regularly check the compressor and put in new deterrents and sometimes spray with Chaindrite which would be more difficult if the compressor was high up..

I've heard that mothballs (naphthalene) make a good deterrent, so I'm trying this method at my place now.

I put about 20 mothballs into plastic bags and then sealed them with rubber bands.

I then punched about 50 holes in each bag using a toothpick, then placed them inside inside the AC compressor housing as well as the fuse box inside our pool pump house.

 

Seems to be working so far... 

[Dickp]

We first installed 3 AC one each for the 3 BR's we were going to be using on the 2nd Fl. All walls are red brick. The the split pack fan unit was mounted about 3" from the ceiling and compressor mounted to cement cross beam that supports the 2nd Fl. . Over the years we have replace 2 of the old AC and added 6 more new units 2 upstairs 4th Br and PC Rm and the rest on the first Fl. living RM, dining RM, TV Rm and in one kitchen. We extended 2 Br's using AAC block and AC Fan units mounted to those new walls, compressor's all mounted to old cross beams, . No problems with any units or walls. Still have one AC from the first three 32 years old and still runs but noesy will be replacing that one when we need that Br.   

[MJCM]

2 hours ago, Encid said:

I've heard that mothballs (naphthalene) make a good deterrent, so I'm trying this method at my place now.

I put about 20 mothballs into plastic bags and then sealed them with rubber bands.

I then punched about 50 holes in each bag using a toothpick, then placed them inside inside the AC compressor housing as well as the fuse box inside our pool pump house.

 

Seems to be working so far... 

we placed them all around and have even attached them to the front of the compressor and thus far so far so good. ????????

[MJCM]

2 hours ago, quake said:

+1 

They did charge me a bit more for the extra length pipe work 

but worth it. for silent nights. 

I really don’t hear our compressor running at the moment (or at night) and it’s only approx 1-1,5 meters from us while laying on the bed. And yes I checked the compressor is working with the aircon (18K BTU) set to 26c.

 

I think it depends also on the brand if the compressor is loud, we only use Diakin FTKM inverters and they are quiet IMHO. 

[quake]

11 hours ago, MJCM said:

I really don’t hear our compressor running at the moment (or at night) and it’s only approx 1-1,5 meters from us while laying on the bed. And yes I checked the compressor is working with the aircon (18K BTU) set to 26c.

 

I think it depends also on the brand if the compressor is loud, we only use Diakin FTKM inverters and they are quiet IMHO. 

You will gain a better understanding of this in future years. 

 

 

[Denim]

23 hours ago, Hakuna Matata said:

Attaching the AC compressor directly to AAC block wall is not safe even using special metal plugs mentioned earlier in this thread. One day it may fall down and kill someone. You should find a place on the outside wall where is the concrete beam over the ceiling. And use only anchor bolts to fix the compressor brackets to the beam.

Oh dear. Millions of people around the country who have already done this without issues will be alarmed.