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What did you do this week (and weekend)?
As part of a weekly series, these topics are a place for users to casually discuss the things they did — or didn't do — during their week. Did you accomplish any goals? Suffer a failure? Do nothing at all? Tell us about it!
We finally got our mini-split air conditioner installed and it is working great! The most stressful part was drilling through the brick wall. On my first try I was 1cm away from drilling the pilot bit into live wire. Scary! We moved the hole a couple inches down and there was only insulation. Drilling the actual brick was also a bit difficult because the brick was hollow (our house is over 100 years old--from what I read this isn't commonly used anymore) but the hollow void made it difficult to keep the slight downward slope. If I had to do it again, pre-drilling a pilot hole all the way through would have definitely helped--but I didn't order a separate bit long enough for that.
Yesterday I over-tightened the 1/4 inch low pressure line and broke the flare off (I guess some nylog got on the threads because the torque wrench wasn't activating) so I had to re-flare the copper pipe. Luckily, AutoZone had a flaring set to loan for free (for brake lines) but had to buy an pipe cutter... the only place nearby that had one was WalMart. So dealing with that was a bit stressful--but in the end everything worked out fine. Pulled down a vacuum down to 280 microns--it slowly went up to 380 after 15 minutes of isolation so maybe there is a small leak but I pressurized it and there weren't any air bubbles with the gas leak detector...
Total cost was around $1,485:
$888 Della Optima Series 12000 BTU SEER2 23 Ultra Heat Mini-Split AC
$100 Della Rental Install Kit (vacuum pump, valve core removal tool, micron gauge)
$85 Ground stand (to keep it elevated away from future snow)
$80 Supplyhouse: PolarPad, gas leak detector w/ dauber, conduit whip, nylog
$35 Caulk gun and two tubes of dynaflex 230
$103 SDS-Plus rotary hammer, 70mm core bit (to drill through brick wall)
$180 Electrical work to add the disconnect switch outside
$11 Tube cutter and round file
These YouTube videos were really helpful:
Neat trick but not particularly helpful: DIY Toolless Tubing Bends and Shapes