Calibrate, Clean, and Install Arctic King WWK05CM81N 5,000 BTU Window Air Conditioner

This is an Arctic King (Arctic Queen) branded window air conditioner that I found on the curb in the very late 2010s. It is a 5,000 BTU unit with a model number of WWK05CM81N. It utilizes a Qingan rotary compressor with R-410a refrigerant.

Despite being a cheap economy model, this has been a good machine. I've gotten a lot of use out of it. I first used it at work, then my grandfather used it for a season or two, then I used it when I first bought my house. A heat wave is creeping up upon us and I don't have any other vintage air conditioners ready to use, so I'm going to put this in for another week or two this year.

The unit has mechanical controls. The thermostat never went quite low enough. The thermostat was re-calibrated to allow the temperature to go down into the 60s, which is sometimes necessary at night when trying to dehumidify the air when it's not that hot anymore.

I was not expecting to clean it at this time, but since it was quite filthy when I opened the machine, I decided to take it outside for a quick rinse before installing into the window. A few minutes of cleaning got it looking like new.

Despite several years of service, there is still no rust present on the machine. I wonder if the evaporator is made of solid aluminium, as opposed to copper and steel. Perhaps also it's coated in some kind of anti-rust/anti-corrosion material that works well.

I am typically not one to speak highly of modern appliances and almost always find vintage equipment to be far superior, but I think this is a completely respectable machine. The design is very good and comes apart easily for cleaning. The performance is also quite satisfactory, often providing around a 30 degree split with decent air flow. The failure point with it is the noise level. The fan is unreasonably loud and almost intolerable to be in the same room with it for any amount of time if you need to do a task that involves or is effected by audio. The blower design seems poor, perhaps someday I will try changing out the wheel with one of a more conventional design to see if the noise will be reduced.