What is inside the new Gradient $5,000 window air conditioner unit?
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- čas přidán 10. 09. 2024
- A teardown of the new Gradient $5000 window-mounted heat pump. This is pitched as being a replacement for a mini-split for people who can not install a mini-split. Check out what is going on inside both the indoor and outdoor units, and see somethings Gradient did right in this product, along with some missed opportunities that could have made it better.
Gradient company website:
www.gradientco...
SeriesLock quick-connect couplers:
serieslock.com/
How the REVERSING VALVE Works in a Heat Pump:
• How the REVERSING VALV...
Electric Expansion Valve (EEV) Operation
• Electric Expansion Val...
Brazed Heat Exchanger Manufacturing:
• Brazed Heat Exchanger ...
Condensate pump:
www.pioneermin...
Chapters:
1:10 Outdoor unit
1:30 Control board enclosure
1:45 CONCERN: Insect access port
2:30 Inverter board
3:05 Safety lockouts
3:30 Overpressure switches
5:11 Outdoor control board
5:42 24VDC low voltage power supply
5:57 Outdoor unit refrigerant loop
6:20 SeriesLock coolant quick connectors
7:10 Concern about uninsulated coolant hose
7:58 Reversing valve
8:17 Over pressure switches
8:26 Pressure sensors
8:41 Accumulator
8:57 Antivibration foam blocks
9:10 Condenser PWM fan
9:55 Condensate management
11:05 Coolant circulator pump (BLDC)
11:27 Coolant temperature sensors
12:02 Electric Expansion Valve (EEV)
13:00 Heat exchanger
14:28 Indoor unit
14:59 Condensate collection system
15:32 CONCERN: Condensate intake port
16:40 MISSED: Overfill sensor
17:28 CONCERN: Data connector
18:22 AC Power connections
18:58 Coolant reservoir
19:41 Fan and louver motors
19:50 Main controller board
20:12 Bodge boards
20:43 ESP32 module
21:03 DIP switches
21:45 FDTI chip
22:21 Serial EEPROM
23:04 Temperature sensor connections
Outstanding review and HVAC education. This video really brings some thoughts together.
What a fantastic review, thank-you for organizing it so well!
3:20 there are two pressure sensors. One is a high pressure cut out the other is a loss of charge switch in case you get a refrigerant leak. Also note the other two larger pressure transducers or senders.
Ah, makes perfect sense! Thanks!
love your air conditioner hobby, i have one of the tiny brushless compressors on the way.
I think that using the condensate to run it over the condenser heat exchanger could be clever cause it could be converting the system into a "wet" heat exchanger which would allow the medium that is cooling the refrigerant (hx surface) to approach the lower wet bulb temp as opposed to dry bulb temps. Probably isn't a huge bump in efficiency but is clever if that is how it was designed.
I find your videos interesting, informative and fun. I’d like to see you get your hands on a solar AC like the eg4 to see what you think. They may even send you one. 😅
The SEER 10.6 is much lower than the Midea at over 15.
I'll wait for the Midea unit. Not supposed to cost as much and being a Fortune 500 company with long experience in A/C, I doubt they'll make the same mistakes Gradient engineers did.
You are smart man!
Those transducer switches on the high side of the system , one being a high pressure cut out, the other a fan cycle switch for low ambient temps.
Or a LOC (Loss of Charge) switch. Most use NTC Thermistors for temperature control.
Man that is some huge capacitors
This is so helpful! I was a beta tester for this model and my unit just stopped cooling, so now I’m researching the world of HVAC. This has been an amazing primer.
My linear fan runs and will cycle at a faster speed for a few seconds every minute or so. The AC has an accurate ambient reading, there are no clear leaks, and I’ve made sure the pump in the pan is clean and functions properly. However, the condenser never seems to turn on, though I occasionally hear a single quack noise in that area. I can’t tell if it’s coming from the sensor, accumulator, or condenser. Do you have any ideas or suggestions on the first areas I should check?
Please report back when you figure it out, I would be very interested in knowing what failed!
Can you post a video of the "quack" noise? Have you tied Gradient tech support? Where are you located?
I have a feeling that the other manufacturers who entered this nycha challenge but did not get the contract will be releasing their units to the public soon
Josh can you make a video explaining the difference between a heat pump and a traditional unit? And are most heat pump units inverter style? Or is my question confusing? I have no idea that’s why I’m asking. Btw I own the u shape AC it’s great
The words "heat pump" mean different things to different people. To a physicist, a heat pump is any device that pumps heat against it's normal flow (normal is from a hot thing to a cold thing). So to a physicist, an air conditioner like this Gradient unit is a heat pump because it pumps heat from the inside of your house (which is cool) to the outside of your house (which is hotter). But HVAC people usually call things that pump heat from inside a house to outside a house an "air conditioner" and they call things that can pump heat in either directions a "heat pump". So an HVAC person would not call this Gradient unit a heat pump because it can only cool the inside of the house and not heat it. If this unit also had a heat mode that could pump heat from the outside to the inside of your house (for use in the wintertime) then the HVAC person would call that a heat pump. To be able to pump in either direction requires more complicated stuff (see "reversing valve") so units that can do this are typically more expensive than ones that can only pump in one direction.
If a unit is "Inverter" or not inverter is about what kind of motor the unit uses. An "inverter" uses a type of motor whose speed can be controlled pretty much continuously between slow and fast. A non-inverter unit typically has an "AC induction" motor that can only run at fixed speeds (typically only 1-3 different speeds depending on the unit). Inverter can be more efficient and comfortable because the motor can run at just the right speed to meet the load, whereas a non-inverter unit might need to switch between the limited available "speed steps" where one speed is too high and one is too low. Inverter units are more complicated so they are usually more expensive - and the cheapest units are usually just an AC motor that can only run at a single speed and it just turns 100% on until the room gets to the set point and then turns 100% off. This Gradient unit is an inverter unit.
You can have a (HVAC) heat pump that is inverter or not, and you can have an air conditioner that is inverter or not. The most complicated and efficient... and therefore most expensive.. units are reversable so can both heat and cool the inside of your house (they can pump either way and and HVAC person would call them a "heat pump") and they also have inverters so they can run the motor at just the right speed to match how much heat needs to be moved.
Make sense?
I'm waiting till competition improves this design and price
The thing that concerns me is the condensate drain pan that the pump can get will become moldy and contaminate the system
Agreed!
Pretty neat idea just a little pricey.
I think that magnetic float assembly for the condensate pump has a high level position that will actually kill the system the mini-split pumps that are like that have that feature that if the float goes all the way up it triggers an alarm
Agreed, but if I remember correctly, the safety shut off on this one was not attached to the control board.
@@bigjoshlevine I think the whole thing is a cool design but there's just way too much stuff to go wrong in my opinion, I think they need to mechanicalize some of these newer heat pump deals, my opinion on these types of things are buy the early ones because they're overbuilt and the manufacturers are worried about failures as they become more confident and make more of them they'll make them cheaper and cheaper.
I forgot that I was subscribed to you. I subscribed back when you made those little synchronizing, blinking light toys. I always thought that it would be interesting to make a neural network chain that could do the same thing.
I always wanted to make an analog circadian rhythm sleep schedule clock for a robot,
Can we get a review of it? There aren't any on CZcams.
I think a $5000 window AC probably falls into the category of "If you need a review, then you probably shouldn't buy it." :)
@@bigjoshlevine ...and can't afford it.
Will you check out the counterpart made by midea as well?
I think that Midea is only making their version for NYCHA so it will be hard to get my hands on one! The only one I've ever seen in real life was in the Midea booth at an HVAC show and they were not letting people look inside. My guess (hope?) is that Midea is sending circulating between the two side rather than coolant, so it would be interesting to see how they made the flexible joint work. I'd also be interested to see how they will deal with condensate - especially since NYCHA does not let you drip anything out of the unit.
Home Depot sells them. Delivery by tomorrow on the West Coast.
@@Krunch2020 Really? How much are they selling them for? Can you post a link?
Seems like a convenient and industry changing machine for those who aren’t blessed with a ductless mini split.
I’m always skeptical about high SEER equipment like this. The efficiency curve of more efficient systems has a directly inverse reliability curve, especially with inverter driven communicating units such as this one.
Too many bells and whistles. Everything you save on the bill you will spend on repairs. I’d much rather a single stage compressor. They use more electricity, but these newer units will never last long enough to recoup the cost in electricity savings as they need to be replaced so often. Planned obsolescence. Either way very informative video.
I have a master bedroom single story home that really does not get any AC or heat, so it is a perfect candidate for a ductless system, what brand do you like? the room is about 250 sq ft if lucky. Summers 95 to 115, winters low is 32 degrees usually 40.
R32 is mildly (not highly) flammable.
For a $5,000 air conditioner I expected better engineering with full vertically integrated hardware.
Agreed, but to be fair this is the first iteration of a brand new product from a brand new company. They have already updated the design and I expect will continue to optimize and work out kinks.
Unnecessarily complicated. Adding a heat exchanger just makes everything way more complicated and heavier and more expensive. No reason not to just do what the other U shaped units do, run the copper refrigerant lines over the split. Can't separate the units but it's lighter altogether so you don't need to separate the units! This kind of unit doesn't have to be that complicated and ought to cost less than $1,000 for this much capacity with standard new inverter heat/cool designs, which are elegantly simple and direct and efficient and cost-effective compared to this.
the heat exchanger might work they put that there for a reason.
All agreed. I think coolant was a safe choice for the first iteration, but it looks like the next version will be direct refrigerant exchange.
What is this video for? Repairmen?
For anyone who wants to see what is inside this new heat pump and how it works!
@@bigjoshlevinethanks!!
Are you an electronics technician, engineer or HVAC person to know so much about these type of units?
I have taken apart a lot of AC units. :)
czcams.com/video/XOlNXSCh86A/video.html