Do-it-yourself: Air Conditioner Repair

I recently moved into an old house that does not have central heating and cooling. Instead, it employs two window units to chill the place down, which usually works out alright as it is not a very big house. The a/c unit in the bedroom is a Whirlpool brand relic. I initially doubted its cooling capacity, but that thing has been an absolute air conditioning beast, chilling my bedroom down to temperatures that normally only occur in places like Siberia and the Upper Peninsula so that I may snuggle up under as many layers of blankets as I like, even when the MS weather is 90 degrees overnight.

However, in the past week or so, I have been noticing that the unit has been making some funny noises, almost like the fan was trying to chew something up. I did not think it was terribly abnormal, but it did seem strange to me that the noises only occurred in the morning, after the unit had been running all night. This morning I finally took a look at it, and this is what I saw:

That would be ice, people. Lots and lots of ice. There is only one cure for an ailment such as this one, and that is to defrost the unit. This can take up to 36 hours depending on the temperature of your house / outdoors, how much ice there is, etc. I decided to take the Ashley approach, which is always to agitate the situation in order to speed it up.

I'm pretty sure this goes against every electrical safety thing I have ever learned, but oh well. It is working, and I haven't lit anything on fire. Yet. It is really hot in here, though. (And I know, it's really messy in my house, but I just moved, which I think is a worthy excuse.)

That cup fills up about every 15 minutes, and I've been defrosting for about three hours, which should tell you how much water is coming off the thing. At least it's draining outside, not inside like I expected it to! 

Once this thing is ice-free and dry, I'll have to take a look to figure out what is causing the ice to form. It could be something as simple as a blockage in the airflow, which I can just adjust, or it might be that the unit needs to be recharged, in which case I will be calling the landlord!

In other, better news, my chive plants are growing! I actually planted something that grew! I had a couple of starter kits,

which came from Target c/o Jake, but I have a particularly brown thumb and can't usually keep my plants alive for longer than it takes to get them from the store to my house.

But there it is-- growth! There are actually two little chive plants growing. Hopefully they don't figure out that they're in my care and decide to kick the bucket.

To update on the a/c situation-- it appears the problem is a severely nastified filter. I plan to clean it off and let the fan run for a while to get it all dried out. Hopefully I can get it running properly before nightfall!