On Sun, 23 Oct 2005 13:27:26 -0400, "Abbacus" wrote:

just wondering if i should put a cover over my air conditioner for my
central air?
i have seen some people put the covers on, but someone told me the best
thing to do is just put a piece of wood over the top, and let the rest
breath?

whats your opinions?

I'm not a role model, and up until the last year or so I didn't have
any leaves.

I live in Baltimore. Plenty of rain and fairly high humidity at least
half of the year. I never did anything, and about 15 years into it,
I had some left over spray paint that matched my previous car. So I
took off the AC covers and painted the dull grey to be Chrysler glossy
mink brown. I painted the outdoor AC fuse box too. It looked great
and they basically match the house, although the house is flat and not
glossy.. I painted the electric meter box with the house paint., and
it looks good too.

After 24 years, there is no rust in the floor of the compressor and
only the tiniest bit of rust on the edge or corner of a cover panel or
two. In 5 or 10 more years, I'll paint it again.

What I do regret is not trying to bolt the compressor to the slab when
I first bought the house. It's moved about 5 inches in the last 25
years and is now at an angle, and sticks a little over the slab's edge
at one corner. I'm convinced that if I push it back, it will cause a
leak in one of the two main pipes..

I only use the AC about one month a year so it should last a another 5
or 10 or 20 years. The next compressor I'm going to bolt to the slab.

The collar on the plastic motor cover broke off several years ago.
Sunlight I guess. It rattled until it got up to speed. After a year
or two, I replaced it with a cover from a neighbor's unit when he got
a new one. No more problem (I also kept his capacitor and his fan
motor in case those fail.)

Remove NOPSAM to email me. Please let
me know if you have posted also.