Window ac units

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Originally Posted by hills

Well ... see ... Mike was saying that she is his boss at work.

I can see why she would say no. Most bosses aren't really crazy about one of their employees moonlighting on another job after work. They know their employee is burning the candle at both ends. It affects their job performance when they show up for work the next morning. Instead of being well rested, refreshed, and ready to work ... they look more like the walking dead when they clock in.

As an employee working for somebody else and earning their money ... you gotta keep your priorities straight. Your first priority has to be your regular day job cause that's what pays the bills. The side gigs that bring in a little extra have to come a distant second.

At least that's my understanding of the situation. It might be that i've got Mike's story all mixed up.

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You got it right, she is Mike's boss but not the top dog who has the final say in the disposal, therein is the issue. looks to me middle boss was trying to make herself look good by saving the company a huge sum of money offloading AC's that had not been evacuated.

The top dog boss realizes the potential liability to the company and any shareholders, his/her first responsibility would be to the company and share holders.

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Originally Posted by alloy2

You got it right, she is Mike's boss but not the top dog who has the final say in the disposal, therein is the issue. looks to me middle boss was trying to make herself look good by saving the company a huge sum of money offloading AC's that had not been evacuated.

The top dog boss realizes the potential liability to the company and any shareholders, his/her first responsibility would be to the company and share holders.

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It's just my opinion ... but i think the main thing in this situation is to respect the chain of command.

Mike works for her. She is his boss. She is the one responsible for keeping her end of the operation running right. She is the one that has to answer to the big boss for any screw ups. It's her head on the chopping block.

If she's tactfully telling Mike no .... he can't have the window ac's to take home to dismantle on his own time ?????

She's not being a woman that can't make up her mind. She's just being a boss. It's her judgement call to make.

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Originally Posted by hills

It's just my opinion ... but i think the main thing in this situation is to respect the chain of command.

Mike works for her. She is his boss. She is the one responsible for keeping her end of the operation running right. She is the one that has to answer to the big boss for any screw ups. It's her head on the chopping block.

If she's tactfully telling Mike no .... he can't have the window ac's to take home to dismantle on his own time ?????

She's not being a woman that can't make up her mind. She's just being a boss. It's her judgement call to make.

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If I were to believe your scenario as it played out I see the boss as nothing more than a cock tease. She should just say NO which would be more fitting to the position she holds in management. Perhaps she;s a DEI hire.

Seems we are missing half the story here.

Why did she say you cant take them?

Were all these units part of a contract to be removed and then properly disposed of?

Is the company planning to scrap them their self's or do they have a guy thats going to pay for them, or planning to auction them?

Are they going to be resold?

I also agree with Alloy that the units have not been drained. I never heard of window units having the refrigerant removed from them.

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Originally Posted by greytruck

Seems we are missing half the story here.

I also agree with Alloy that the units have not been drained. I never heard of window units having the refrigerant removed from them.

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I concur. We don't have the whole story.

I think different parts of the country have different customs.

The states here in the Northeast are pretty serious about environmental issues. Removing the refrigerant from Freon appliances like window ac's, refrigerators,freezers, and dehumidifiers has been standard practice for quite awhile now. It's just what you do at end of life before shipping them off to the scrap yard to be recycled.

Maybe they do things differently where Mike is.

I believe the EPA and OSHA have no state boundary's when it comes to enforcing regulations. Many rulings / cases end up with SCOTUS the highest court on the land.

The boss I work for is cool he's awesome she is the boss of him I think she is road blocking me giving me hurtles to jump through. She knows this scrap is money I need to pay off a debt she doesn't know how much there worth I know this cause she was like are the ac units going to pay for a u haul truck haha. This is going to be almost two months of my pay I only get little over 1k bi weekly net I had to drop medical,dental,eye and 401k payments to keep as much money as a can without getting a second job to pay for stuff.18.54 a hr ia not enough in this economy plus no overtime. To answer alloys question she said she didn't ask the right questions when she said yes and yes if I got hurt on site her head would be on the chopping block. I usually don't go to bed til midnight anyways always been a night owl somehow ended up with a day job haha. So 3hrs after work shouldn't burn me to bad. Yes they drain them how else would HVAC people scrap them if they didn't ? Do they go and snip window ac lines in their shops I wouldn't think so it would be a contradiction for all the school they had to go through and thsy could lose there licences for that. Safe to say I get along better with my boss he is more laid back. If all goes well I should have some this Friday I'll keep you updated.

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Originally Posted by alloy2

I believe the EPA and OSHA have no state boundary's when it comes to enforcing regulations.

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There are different levels of government alloy. They all have their areas of responsibility and respective roles to play. It's best if all the different levels try to work together for the purpose of serving the people. It's also important that the different levels stay out of each other's way.

At the end of the day .... it involves some complicated ideas about where power should rightly reside and the preservation of democracy. Federal law doesn't necessarily reflect the will of the people of a given state or region of the country.

Most states have an Environmental Protection Agency called the Department of Environmental Protection. Acronyms federal EPA and state DEP respectively. Enforcement of the environmental laws seems to happen more at the state and local level in my experience. That's the way it should be as it more accurately reflects the will of the people in that state or municipality.

Most environmental problems that come up can be handled at the local or state level. It's a relatively rare thing for the the full force and power of the U.S. Federal government to be called in to handle a situation. Big things are apt to start happening when those guys roll into town.

You would be surprised though. Most of the time it's less about law enforcement and more about lending the financial support that will be needed to address a problem that has come up. That comes in the form of grants and loans that will be needed to tackle a project. It's a positive thing and not a negative thing. More carrot and less stick.

My apologies Mike. This thread should rightfully be about you and processing window AC's. I just wanted to take a moment to explain to alloy why his picture as a Canadian citizen isn't an accurate reflection of the reality on the ground here in the United States. At least not here in the State of Maine.

The situation might be different for greytruck. It could be that the DEP in his state is a bit more laid back about the laws and such. It would depend on the will of the people and the state legislature where he is.

It's all good ! :)

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Originally Posted by hills

There are different levels of government alloy. They all have their areas of responsibility and respective roles to play. It's best if all the different levels try to work together for the purpose of serving the people. It's also important that the different levels stay out of each other's way.

At the end of the day .... it involves some complicated ideas about where power should rightly reside and the preservation of democracy. Federal law doesn't necessarily reflect the will of the people of a given state or region of the country.

Most states have an Environmental Protection Agency called the Department of Environmental Protection. Acronyms federal EPA and state DEP respectively. Enforcement of the environmental laws seems to happen more at the state and local level in my experience. That's the way it should be as it more accurately reflects the will of the people in that state or municipality.

Most environmental problems that come up can be handled at the local or state level. It's a relatively rare thing for the the full force and power of the U.S. Federal government to be called in to handle a situation. Big things are apt to start happening when those guys roll into town.

You would be surprised though. Most of the time it's less about law enforcement and more about lending the financial support that will be needed to address a problem that has come up. That comes in the form of grants and loans that will be needed to tackle a project. It's a positive thing and not a negative thing. More carrot and less stick.

My apologies Mike. This thread should rightfully be about you and processing window AC's. I just wanted to take a moment to explain to alloy why his picture as a Canadian citizen isn't an accurate reflection of the reality on the ground here in the United States. At least not here in the State of Maine.

The situation might be different for greytruck. It could be that the DEP in his state is a bit more laid back about the laws and such. It would depend on the will of the people and the state legislature where he is.

It's all good ! :)

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No prob she said it's not the acs that is the problem it's all the way in the back the truck driver is going to have to move them up so she knows where it's at so if someone gets hurt say one falls on top of me lol not likely I've been doing it a long time haha. She's fine with me taking acs now. I can even get more after the 160 lol. As long as they don't work.

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Originally Posted by mike1

No prob she said it's not the acs that is the problem it's all the way in the back the truck driver is going to have to move them up so she knows where it's at so if someone gets hurt say one falls on top of me lol not likely I've been doing it a long time haha. She's fine with me taking acs now. I can even get more after the 160 lol. As long as they don't work.

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That's good news. I'm glad you were able to get things cleared up.

I had a little time a few days ago so i tore one of the ac fan motors apart to see how much copper was in it. It was about 1/3 of a pound. It's really up to you to decide if you want to break them down or sell them whole.

grey truck has a sealed unit scrapping video up on youtube. It's one of the best ones i've seen. It might be worth a watch if you are looking at doing 160 of them. Don't know about you but i'm always looking for different ways of doing the job. Once in awhile you hit on something that makes the job go easier.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuJULtkw_vI

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Originally Posted by hills

That's good news. I'm glad you were able to get things cleared up.

I had a little time a few days ago so i tore one of the ac fan motors apart to see how much copper was in it. It was about 1/3 of a pound. It's really up to you to decide if you want to break them down or sell them whole.

grey truck has a sealed unit scrapping video up on youtube. It's one of the best ones i've seen. It might be worth a watch if you are looking at doing 160 of them. Don't know about you but i'm always looking for different ways of doing the job. Once in awhile you hit on something that makes the job go easier.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuJULtkw_vI

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Thanks for sharing the video, Its been a bit since i did a sealed unit.

Thanks I'll watch that. I was wondering what a power cord on a window ac weight is if it's worth stripping them ?. If a u haul has a weight limit of 2,850lb how many window ac units should i be able to put in it on one go ? I was thinking 25 ? If each one weighs 80lbs I'm estimating on that since they are not all the same.

I'm an old fart. Anything over 40 lbs makes my back and knees ache the next day.

Most of the window ac's i've got coming in these days are fairly comfortable to lift. They're mostly plastic and styrofoam with a steel sheet metal shell and solid steel bottom. Most of the weight seems to be in the sealed unit. I doubt most window ac's are over 40 lbs these days. They're not that hard for this old codger to manage.

The window ac's are built to operate on a 110 volt / 15 amp circuit. They don't seem to be any more than what you would get with a 12 ga extension cord. It's stranded wire inside so it would be a hassle to strip. The plug ends are way oversized with a circuit breaker built in. Probably best to cut the plug ends off and sell the cord as ICW. About he same grade as any other cord that plugs into a wall outlet.

Hard telling on the U-haul. They rent different sized trucks. Most of the trucks and trailers they rent are a little overbuilt cause they know their customers tend to overload them sometimes.

YMMV ... it's all just based on most of what i see coming in on a regular basis. The really old ac's would weigh more because they were built with more metal and less plastic back in the day.

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Originally Posted by hills

I'm an old fart. Anything over 40 lbs makes my back and knees ache the next day.

Most of the window ac's i've got coming in these days are fairly comfortable to lift. They're mostly plastic and styrofoam with a steel sheet metal shell and solid steel bottom. Most of the weight seems to be in the sealed unit. I doubt most window ac's are over 40 lbs these days. They're not that hard for this old codger to manage.

The window ac's are built to operate on a 110 volt / 15 amp circuit. They don't seem to be any more than what you would get with a 12 ga extension cord. It's stranded wire inside so it would be a hassle to strip. The plug ends are way oversized with a circuit breaker built in. Probably best to cut the plug ends off and sell the cord as ICW. About he same grade as any other cord that plugs into a wall outlet.

Hard telling on the U-haul. They rent different sized trucks. Most of the trucks and trailers they rent are a little overbuilt cause they know their customers tend to overload them sometimes.

YMMV ... it's all just based on most of what i see coming in on a regular basis. The really old ac's would weigh more because they were built with more metal and less plastic back in the day.

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�� A old fart huh how old is that?. So the ones from the 90s are more weight. There are lots of different ones some have one bracket on top and some have two brackets on top the ones with two brackets are the heavier ones the ones with the single brackets on top are easier for me to lift. If I was able to send pics I would haha.

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Originally Posted by mike1

�� A old fart huh how old is that?. So the ones from the 90s are more weight. There are lots of different ones some have one bracket on top and some have two brackets on top the ones with two brackets are the heavier ones the ones with the single brackets on top are easier for me to lift. If I was able to send pics I would haha.

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I'm in my mid sixties Mike. At this age ... it's better to have some kind of boss job and leave the heavy lugging & tugging work to the younger hands. Work with your head / not with your back.

The AC's from the 90's would definitely be heavier. I went to buy a new ac from Home Depot awhile back and couldn't believe how light it was in comparison to the one it was replacing. It seems to have held up well enough even though it's not built as heavy.

The few older ac's i've torn down seemed to be more difficult to scrap out. Some of the sheet metal screw heads were all rusted up. The teardown procedure varies some from manufacturer to manufacturer. The good part is that you're likely to get a little more copper out of them. They were built more heavy duty and made to last back in the day.

Nowadays they're built as cheaply as possible.

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Originally Posted by hills

I'm in my mid sixties Mike. At this age ... it's better to have some kind of boss job and leave the heavy lugging & tugging work to the younger hands. Work with your head / not with your back.

The AC's from the 90's would definitely be heavier. I went to buy a new ac from Home Depot awhile back and couldn't believe how light it was in comparison to the one it was replacing. It seems to have held up well enough even though it's not built as heavy.

The few older ac's i've torn down seemed to be more difficult to scrap out. Some of the sheet metal screw heads were all rusted up. The teardown procedure varies some from manufacturer to manufacturer. The good part is that you're likely to get a little more copper out of them. They were built more heavy duty and made to last back in the day.

Nowadays they're built as cheaply as possible.

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The coils tend to be thicker

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Originally Posted by mike1

The coils tend to be thicker

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If all goes well I should have some Friday.

I've got a couple more window ac's waiting for me when i get into work this morning. There seem to be more coming in lately. That's weird ... cause we're well past the summer and into the heating season now. I have to wonder if it's because so many people are going to heat pumps these days. Electric rates have just about doubled over the past few years. The heat pumps are supposed to be more energy efficient.

Ten or fifteen years from now ... we will probably be scrapping heat pumps instead of window ac's. I've already had a couple of heat pump water heaters come in over the past few years.

Times ... they are a changin'.

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Originally Posted by hills

I've got a couple more window ac's waiting for me when i get into work this morning. There seem to be more coming in lately. That's weird ... cause we're well past the summer and into the heating season now. I have to wonder if it's because so many people are going to heat pumps these days. Electric rates have just about doubled over the past few years. The heat pumps are supposed to be more energy efficient.

Ten or fifteen years from now ... we will probably be scrapping heat pumps instead of window ac's. I've already had a couple of heat pump water heaters come in over the past few years.

Times ... they are a changin'.

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Right a heat pump I have never done one of those I don't think. I used to cut open compressors with a hacksaw when I started haha a sawzall is much faster and no sparks like a grinder since I'm in a trailer park sparks are bad haha.

Got some acs had to stack em 3 high I was going to stack them 5 high but I figured it was dangerous to do that. I got about 30 I would say. The window ac that are the heavy ones are 77lbs each I have a bunch of those left to get over the next two Fridays. I'm going to start the break down tomorrow too tired now haha two truck loads of loading and unloading plus loading steel up to take to scrap yardplus I loaded up all my rads i had clean and other non ferrous into my grandma's car took it in after work got 285$. Plus 47$ for the steel 540 lbs of steel. She said I could get more next Friday so things are finally looking up for me.