BRRRR Conditioner
 

Not sure where to post this, but it seems a sort of techie question. Sort of.

The problem is the room air conditioner in my living room. It was such a tight fit that I decided to just keep it installed permanently. Here are my questions:

1) Will it hurt it to leave it sticking out of my window all winter? I notice a few people who kept theirs up and covered them with black plastic stuff. Should I run down for plastic and cover my conditioner's shame before its too late?

2) There is one spot that is not a tight fit and that is about 2 inches from the bottom of the AC to the top of the sash. What should I do about this? Should I seal with that caulk type stuff? Or should I just keep wrapping with turquoise duct tape. Yes, turquoise is my favorite color. Anyone wanna make something out of that? :eyebrow:

3) If it matters, I live on the verge of the desert where we get 3 or 4 rainstorms all summer. The heat is hot and dry. We do get some real floozies of snow storms here. In fact we are have one now. Its shaping up nicely and meandering its way east and will probably bring some startling excitement into your humdrum little lives.

I was out comparing snow flakes to see if any were the same, when I suddenly remembered my air condtioner and the approach of summer's end.

Thanks in advance your suggestions..

Us kids take my mom's air conditioner in and out all the time.

I wouldn't wrap it up.It looks trashy but that's just me.

Wrapping or covering will keep weather and insects form getting into the unit during the winter. May make the unit last longer. The covering doesn't have to be black, but that would go nicely with the turquoise duct tape.
What? There's a 2 inch gap between the AC and the window sill? 2 inches of open unfettered passage from inside the house, out to the cold cruel world?

Yeah, man. This is what I'm worried about.The sides of the AC fit so tightly, it would take 4 stallions to pull the thing out. And it won't move from just above the window ledge either. This is why I'm wondering about just caulking the thing.

Caulk in a tube is pretty permanent. I wouldn't caulk between the unit and the window frame because it could be a pain to remove in the future. There are putties that work pretty well and are easily removable in the future. Mortite makes a decent one. They call it "caulking cord" but it's just a thin string of putty you can press into gaps and cracks. It won't stick to dust, so you have to wipe down the surfaces beforehand and let them dry if you used a damp cloth. You can fill larger gaps by pressing more of it in place. It's like working with clay.

So you've been air conditioning the outdoors all summer. Ouch, that's expensive. I'd fill the 2 inch gap with foam rubber. The open cell (soft and squishy), or closed cell (like hard foam insulation board), it you can cut it for a tight fit. Mortite works well, but you'd need a shitload of it to fill a 2 inch gap.

Wait, let me rethink this...
I thought you were saying sash instead of sill. The sash is the movable frame with glass in it, that you had to move up out of the way, in order to put the A/C in the window frame, right?
So you're saying the full height of the sash, plus the full height of the A/C, minus 2 inches? Now I'm confused, and wondering if we're talking about the same thing?

See, I'm such a dufus that's why I have to ask dumb questions like this. I meant the sill NOT the sash! Sorry about that. :smack:

OK, go with the foam. :D

Thank you, Bruce. I love you deeply :joylove:

Aw garsh. :blush:

Would a thick, solid-ish chunk of styrofoam work to fill most of the void, with some sort of putty?

Its an air conditioner. Can't you use duct tape???