I have a 100-year-old house in Chicago, 3 floors, and given the economy and the length of the winters, I've held off on installing central A.C. I use one window unit to cool each floor. One is on a dedicated 15-amp circuits (nothing else is connected). I get about two years out of the units before they start to trip the circuit breakers (the second and the third, both on shared 15-amp circuits, are fine). I tried having a local repair company fix one unit; they replaced a part and the unit lasted a year before the same thing happened. I've tried units from 8,000 to 12,000 btus, all with a draw under 12 amps. The same thing keeps occurring. Should I treat these things as disposables after two years? I'm hot; unit worked fine last summer, andis now tripping breaker.

Could be the units are too small due to size of the area, or poor insulation, I will let the reefer experts size that for you. Either of these conditions will shorten a units life.

Could be poor voltage also. Either too high or low. Should be in the 114 to 126 volt range, closer to 120 v the better.

What exact part(s) was changed?

Hmm.. . I'm thinking trsnsformer? The repaired unit had something burned with oily residue.

Thanks kindly,
Wade

I have an idea,, buy a replacement from Lowe's ,with a 5 year warranty and trade it out every 2 years,, but you do need to have the voltage checked,also check how many amps the unit is pulling while running and check the label/tag to see what the unit should be pulling

Windows units generally last much longer than what you're experiencing. My gut reaction is to check your power quality, starting with voltage. If that checks out you may need to monitor your household voltage for longer periods. I would call your power company and discuss the situation with them if an electrician cannot find anything, they may be able to monitor your power quality.