“Just Looking For a Part”

~ Elizabeth

The filter in our trusty window air conditioner(pictured above) is held together with tape. If we added any more tape to the plastic screening it would no longer allow air to pass through, rather defeating the purpose. We decided to find a replacement for the filter. The unit still works very well and we only needed a new filter.

Charlie started at the local appliance store which gave him a card with a parts warehouse number. Of course we would need to know the model and serial number to order the part. The machine is made by Friedrich whose phone number was easily visible. A call to them told us how to find the required numbers by taking off the front panel of the unit.

With the two required numbers in hand, I called the parts warehouse who said they didn’t carry Friedrich parts and that I needed to call Friedrich. When I did so, the lovely clerk told me they didn’t carry parts either. But she was able to give me the number of the part and another phone number to call to order the part.

I called the new company and optimistically gave the woman the part number. The reply? “That part is no longer available and there is no replacement.”

This winter, when the air conditioner is removed, Charlie can figure out how to fix the old filter with new screening material. He always needs projects when it is snowing.

31 thoughts on ““Just Looking For a Part””

  1. I was going to say you could probably buy a filter of any size and then cut it to fit. I have the same problem with my unit. We moved in 13 years ago and the units are those that are on the wall with the main box outside. They were blowing hot air (hahaha, really) and when they came to service them they said that next time it will be cheaper to replace the whole system. Easy to say when you aren’t the one writing the check! Anyhow, he put more refrigerant in it at $150.00 a gallon! Luckily we only need 1.5 gallons.

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  6. If they made the spare parts permanently available, nobody would need to buy new airconditioners.
    They call it ‘Planned Obsolescene’, and it really is a ‘thing’, in everything from cars to washing machines. (And airconditioners, apparently)
    Best wishes, Pete.

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  8. Yes! Been there. And it is SO frustrating. There are times when you hope the whole economy of cheap crap/ planned obsolescence breaks down and we have to make-do-and-mend. Somehow rigging up what we have so it functions. Good luck with shoddy crap.And not all of us have the basic skills to do that.

    But I don’t want to live in end times.

    I want good well-made products that can be serviced and mended as necessary. And then – after a couple of decades of solid service – we can try the duct tape and fix-it-up method.

    And what’s with smoke alarms?

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  9. Good grief! You’ve performed a public service, though. We now know not to buy a Friedrich air conditioner.

    What’s with that name? Fried rich?? Do they think you are rich and should be fried???

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  10. It so hard to find a “repairman” who knows how to fix something back up to “will work another decade” – I remember finally having to call it quits on a washing machine, when the guy who had faithfully repaired it for decades and decades said “time up” … it had been my Mothers I inherited it in 1975 but I think she had it from the mid 60s – it finally gave up about 2006…

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  15. I recently replaced one of those, with a carbon pre-filter that I cut to fit. In the past, I have also stretched and glued a layer of nylon stocking/hose on the filter frame. It is generally better than the ones that come with it.

    As long as it allows enough air, and yet catches as much as the real filter. You want something that isn’t going to restrict the air too much, so the fan doesn’t have to strain.

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