This funny meme is also a good example of survivorship bias. There are both good and shitty ACs from both eras. We're just only comparing to the good old ACs because the shitty ones already broke.
The same seems to apply for old music as well - only the "good stuff" survives and everything else is forgotten
While I agree with you past generations weren't swamped with infinite selections of shitty versions of products at their fingertips. Think it feels worse now because it's harder to find the good stuff these days
It's had a lot to do with manufacturers trying to cater to a certain price point where they can maximize sales and profits, rather than simply trying to make the best product they can make. It leads to a lot of cheap garbage.
That's a very valid point. Today's ease of access to a wider variety of sources is vastly different to the pre-internet era of appliance shopping. Back then, we just went to the nearest Sears or some other appliance warehouse to try them out. They'd have just a few different models available, so those were all your options. The other method of purchase was through direct shipping catalogs, where you hoped the product you bought didn't actually suck.
That is true, although earlier generations didn't have access to as many different variations of a product, most of the ones available to them were the high-end versions. The trade-off is that they costed much more due to being a more premium product and being new on the market.
Pretty sure all of my old apartments had the shitty window units, none of them ever worked.
Air conditioner then: 2 kilowatts / ton
Air conditioner now: 0.4 kilowatts / ton
Can't we have like .8 kw / ton thats twice as reliable?
Reliability exists, just don’t buy crap. Invest and reap the efficiency. Personally, I’ve spent years with mini-splits and never had this filter problem crap, everything just works and for less than half the cost.
What is planned obsolescence?
A way to destroy the earth for temporary profits while guaranteeing the future generations to be screwed because we exploited all the resources in chase of a quick buck?
can someone explain this for the uneducated?
It's another one of those weird non-metric units. In the world of air conditioning (or cooling in general), a "ton" is the amount of cooling you'd get from melting a ton (a short ton - that is 2000 pounds) of ice that's already near its melting point. Air conditioners are usually rated in tons per day, with 1-5 tons about right for a typical apartment or house, depending on things like square footage and climate.
In the world of air conditioning (or cooling in general), a "ton" is the amount of cooling you'd get from melting a ton (a short ton - that is 2000 pounds) of ice that's already near its melting point.
I'm the kind of person to argue the merits of the imperial system, and even I think that's bonkers.
He's saying they improved in efficiency
You forgot about the part where it is 70% asbestos and radioactive coolant. 10/10 best ACs ever.
That old, toxic refrigerant just hit different
The new stuff just doesn't taste the same.
You can do a 1:1 swap of refrigerant, and if I remember correctly, the new stuff actually works better.
Heck, early refrigeration systems used friggen ammonia as it's refrigerant of choice. Works good at being compressed and evaporated, shame about it being poison.
Didn’t know that, I was thinking of the CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) we used like 30/40 years ago
The reason those took off so well is cause Freon, while awful for ozone, is significantly safer than the previous usage of ammonia.
Refrigerators and air conditioners just compress a gas into a liquid, moves it through piping, and then decompresses the gas. When compressing the gas (a refrigerant), it'll want to turn liquid, but has to burn off heaps of excess energy, done as heat energy. That's done in the part of an AC unit that hangs outside. The liquid is then pumped to the other side of the machine, relieved of pressure, and sent through tons of piping with heat grates and fans for dissipating the cold air it generates. When evaporating from liquid to gas it needs to take in heaps of energy, so it'll draw heat from the air, cooling it. The gas is pumped back to the compressor on the other side of the unit to repeat the process over and over. Propane is really good at being compressed like that, and it has minimal effect on global warming, so it can be used as a freon alternative. Just yanno, don't use it in your car's AC.
But the first needs at least two power lines to work.
CoP of negative 10.
Weird my mini split is a workhorse. It doesn't give two shits about dust, dirt, ice, rain, or snow. It has heated the house in single digits and cooled the house in triple digits (both F). 10/10. Best $1800 I ever spent.
For real, mini splits are insanely powerful. They'll make a room frigidly too cold in nanoseconds if you ask them to.
German here, I don't get that joke. What the fuck's an Air Conditioner? Some time of specail air you put in your hair after using shampoo?
Yeah, it's for when your air is too flat and frizzy.
My old AC works great. I just wish I could hear other things while it's running.
We need to figure out how to retrofit those old machines to be as efficient as the new ones, and be clean and pigeon free. Then we can keep them around.
They still make those old style ones and they are energy star certified.
The ones that look like the new one are what's used with heat pumps here.
Is there any reason a window unit couldn’t be a heat pump? My understanding is the difference is just about a single valve to reverse the direction of the coolant.
Which air conditioner are you talking about specifically that shuts off when it gets dust on its filter?
Planned Obsolesce!
No. Industrial air conditioning units are showing the same thing. They are getting lighter and better at cooling.
Control panels some times need air conditioners. Old enough companies, like my ex-employer, can even pull up records to show that the shipping weights are going down. Lost a bet with my old boss about this.
Yes the older models are the little engine that could. (come to think of it most of you are too young to get that reference). The expensive big one threw a belt and became useless after four years.
But I moved to a place where I'm on the shady side of the building and as a result all I need are fans.
We missed out on the freon black market that's consumed by cyborg men in vans.
I miss my old really noisy air conditioner window unit. I loved the noise from it, it drowned out other sounds and I got better sleep. My room air filters generate some decent white noise effects, but it's just not the same.
The best part about window units is the dank freezer smell they emit. Sometimes I just stand there and smell it while enjoying the cool air on my face.
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