1980’s National Air Conditioner Indoor Unit | Pre Restomod

Air conditioners, as cool as they are, never really grab my interest. I only buy and use them simply because of necessities. That said, I originally wanted to have an 80's air conditioner with wired wall controls for my shop, but the ones I could find were either cosmetically damaged, rusted out, or have very inefficient compressors. That's why I finally landed on a pre-owned 2006ish Sharp minisplit AC.

Since I don't need a 2nd AC in my shop, my dream of owning an 80's AC is on hold until 2 weeks ago, when I found someone selling an 80's AC, with all of its aircon-y bits yanked out of it at a very low price. While it isn't the AC I grew up with, I decided to try my luck out and buy it to modify & restore, then put it up on display.

This thing is honestly no more than an oddly shaped wall fan with a really clunky speed selector switch. The evaporator coil, and the whole condensing unit is long gone. Here's a quick info for my international viewers: When minisplit air conditioners quit working, they usually are given new leases on life by AC techs here in Indonesia. The evaporator coils are removed, and any issue with the circuit boards are fixed, then they're sold as remote controlled wall fans. Fan-split as they're called, are seen as a luxurious way to move air around a house. One reason is because they fool guests into thinking the homeowners have aircon in their living room, kitchen etc², and because ACs are seen as a luxury item by some group of people, fan-splits sell like hotcakes.

Back to my particular fan-split. As I said, this AC was made before the days of remote control, and because this type of AC is meant to be installed high up on the wall, it has to have a control panel accessible to the user. What they did back then was make a box with switches, knobs, and buttons on it, and run wires from the box to the evap unit's "computer". It isn't as fancy as pressing a button from a remote control, or yelling to a soulless internet linked robot assistant thing, but it's a thousand times easier than climbing up a ladder to access control switches mounted on the unit.

Being an 80's "remote controlled" appliance, it is desperately outdated & janky. It gets confused if the user moves the switch too quickly or slowly, or move several switches at once. The computer sometimes go into modes the user didn't select, and shuts the fan off when it's overwhelmed with inputs. It requires a soft touch & patience to operate this old unit, but once you get it going at the settings you want, it runs beautifully smooth.

#AirConditioner