LG Split AC 10 year warranty with gas charging?

Are there any DIY websites you have found useful to learn to make repairs yourself in the Indian context?

I basically have a house to take care of, and I find the repair services shoddy all around. I also have not lived in India much, and am used to a very different set of standard of workmanship. Had to fix a dripping tap today and realized that the plumber who fixed it 2 months ago had not put any washer in it. What kind of a bloody plumber forgets to put a washer in the appropriate place? I fixed it but there are a thousand others I need to fix/get fixed.

Even simple things like what rating the electric/power lines going into the house to accommodate X number of ACs, etc is beyond the grasp of our neighborhood electrician. At one point we had 2 MCBs in our main power box, and one day our local electric guy decided we just need one, and threw out the second one, no explanation whatsoever given. Ha!

I am planning to educate myself a lot, especially given that I am planning a major renovation. So any DIY type websites would be very helpful.
No specific websites are around. I just use Youtube and answers to specific queries on the various internet forums. I designed and did my whole house plumbing myself with the help of a labor guy. It was a learning curve for me as well, but I could anticipate my needs and issues better and plan accordingly. I kept my pipes outside walls which is a big no-no for most people these days. For me functionality always trumps aesthetics. Also I used a lot of unions which increased the costs but it helps in easy disassembly and repair if and when needed. I used food grade silicone on all union threads so that it doesn't rust and become impossible to open after a few years. I also ensured that every bathroom/kitchen had a separate connection directly to the tank which again increased costs, but it ensures there aren't any pressure related issues. I went with GI pipes because that's what seemed best to me at that point but I could have probably gone for CPVC instead. I also carried out the whole electrical installation of my dairy farm myself.
It takes me much longer to get the work done because I have to learn and research first and then rectify mistakes as well but all in all work done is better than the average tradesman and just below par what a really skilled and adept guy would achieve in their trade.
 
Ac fins and pipes collects dust and moisture from room over time.it is hard to remove.Thats why we see blue coating fins,gold coating fins they for same purpose.these fins doesn't let water droplets on fins so only dirt deposits on them which is easy to clean with water.Water and dirt deposit on fins is really hard to clean.If a mechanic cleans ac with water it will not look clean to customer because some dirt marks remains on fins.machanic out frustration will put double quantity of acid cleaner on fins now.AC cleaner is mixture of acid and some foam making chemicals with 10% hcl in it. acid will cuts dirt and foam formed will push that dirt out of narrow spaced fins .Condensor cleaned this way looks like new and shiny and increase in cooling as brand new.Biggest drawback is you will need 200 letre water to get rid of acid from fins and pipes and still you will not be able to get it completely off the fins it will remain there and keep damaging fins over time.even if you have cleaned your fins with acid based cleaner only once it will damage fins same way as it was cleaned 10 times with acid.you don't have options sometimes if you have not cleaned condensers for years then condensers will be clogged so heavily that they can't be cleaned with water and brush you will have to use cleaners to remove heavy dirt.Moisture and dust makes a solid type of blockage between fins.If you got some sort of coating on fins they will get cleaned easily with water only a few durt marks will remain on fins.Here is where customer becomes dumb if a machanic has faithfully cleaned fins with water and brush don't ask him to clean fins like mirror shiny you are not going to shave you beards by looking at fins if air is flowing freely trough fins they are well cleaned.Now to remove those marks machanic will use acid based cleaners now.This is main reason mechanics uses acid based cleaners because customer is never satisfied with his work and wants every mark to be gone from fins.With acid based cleaner it takes 15,20 minutes to get them cleaned and with water and brush it takes 3,4 hours.so machanic can clean 10,12 ac in same time he is not going to waste 2,3 hours on single ac.front condenser in cars is always cleaned with acid it gets cleaned with water every time you gives your car for washing.Dust stuck between fins is so hard it can be removed with cleaner only.
So it is user ignorance that has created this bad solution.

clean you ac fins when there is water in dirt if you shuts down your ac for longer period in winter.and you have not cleaned it.then water will evaporate and that dirt will be rock solid.just clean your ac when dirt is moist it is super easy to clean with water and will be out trough moisture pipe which throws out moisture from room do it before switching it of for longer time.you will get super cooling when you turns on your ac in summer season.
Bingo! this is known as user maintenance. Clean the condenser every winter, take your time to soften the dirt preferably with distilled water (what comes out the AC is as good as distilled) and when summer arrives you're good.

Thing is external units of split AC's tend to be placed on ledges and are not easily accessible by the user.

If ac is cleaned with acid then neutralize acid with base like calcium carbonate.i learned this on site where people repairs antique radios.they removes cover from old copper wire get rids of oxidation on copper by acid and neutralizes acid with CC water and soldiers wire.They have small test tubes filled with acid and neutralizing agent.If you try to clean condensers with anything that have sodium hydroxide(caustic soda) it will react violently with aluminum fins.Try to put a silver foil in caustic sauda and see what happens.Thats why soap,washing powders are not recommended for cleaning condensers.
What they should be using is a neutral PH cleaner. But i don't know of any.

Aluminium won't react well to any soap powders and if any oxy cleaners like Vanish powder are used it will turn black.
At one point we had 2 MCBs in our main power box, and one day our local electric guy decided we just need one, and threw out the second one, no explanation whatsoever given. Ha!
I had a lesson in MCB's when i asked the electrician who looks after the house to replace a couple of them. He got it done and things were ok.

Then when power cuts occurred i noticed something strange. When the power returned some times these MCB's would trip. Made no sense its as if power returning from the utility was too much of a surge for them to handle. It took a lot of reading. The hard part to figure out was it happened some times and not every time.

I learnt there were different classes of MCB's. A class, B & C.

Well when i looked at the ones he replaced i noticed they had the letter B before the max current. So B10 or B16. For the lighting circuit.

Whereas the MCB's on the heating circuit were all C class and never tripped. I had him replace them with C class and this irritating problem went away.

They would be times we were waiting for hours for the power to return only to realise it had hours ago but the damn B class MCB's had tripped. So it seemed like the power was still out (!)
 
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What they should be using is a neutral PH cleaner. But i don't know of any.

Aluminium won't react well to any soap powders and if any oxy cleaners like Vanish powder are used it will turn black.
Sulphuric acid will not react with aluminium but it will react with copper pipes.HCL is used in all cleaners as it doesn't reacts with copper.This chemical cleaning was for centralized ac very big units which were hard to clean and now they have bought to smaller home units to do the job quickly but it is harmful for small units.there is no neutral ph cleaner if you neutralize acid it will not clean.Even bear cag cleaners contains nitric acid.Key here is to neutralize acid which on surface and it will keep reacting with metal.calicium carbonate mixed in water will neutralize that acid and it will stop reacting with metal and you are good to go.If someone cleans a firearm barrel with acid it is considered unfit for firing and then barrel is backed in oven or heated at certain degrees to relieve steel from acid there is special term for it but it got out of my mind now.There are some special chemical cleaners but they are patented by different companies.look google online patents for them.Look at msds of chemicals used by very well known companies for further knowledge.
 
Sulphuric acid will not react with aluminium but it will react with copper pipes.HCL is used in all cleaners as it doesn't reacts with copper
Correct but HCL does not get along with stainless steel. So if there isn't any steel in that condenser than fine.

This chemical cleaning was for centralized ac very big units which were hard to clean and now they have bought to smaller home units to do the job quickly but it is harmful for small units.there is no neutral ph cleaner if you neutralize acid it will not clean.Even bear cag cleaners contains nitric acid.Key here is to neutralize acid which on surface and it will keep reacting with metal.calicium carbonate mixed in water will neutralize that acid and it will stop reacting with metal and you are good to go.
ok but what surprised me acid was being used. See, to clean dirt normally requires a base not an acid. Both will do the job but it seems the industry has found acids to do the job better in this use case.

Citric acid has a ph of 2 that is pretty acidic as well. This is used to remove hard water scale. You would not need to neutralise it with a base after. Just a good wash would remove it.

Not as caustic as sulpuric or HCL though and likely slower acting. Gentler perhaps.

If someone cleans a firearm barrel with acid it is considered unfit for firing and then barrel is backed in oven or heated at certain degrees to relieve steel from acid there is special term for it but it got out of my mind now.There are some special chemical cleaners but they are patented by different companies.look google online patents for them.Look at msds of chemicals used by very well known companies for further knowledge.
Yeah i usually do that to figure out how things work. But it only works for western stuff. Indian products have no obligation to mention ingredients at all on the packet unless they are also exported and the annoying bit is people only know them by trade names or some other vague terms making it impossible to figure out what they contain as ingredients.
 
Correct but HCL does not get along with stainless steel. So if there isn't any steel in that condenser than fine.


ok but what surprised me acid was being used. See, to clean dirt normally requires a base not an acid. Both will do the job but it seems the industry has found acids to do the job better in this use case.

Citric acid has a ph of 2 that is pretty acidic as well. This is used to remove hard water scale. You would not need to neutralise it with a base after. Just a good wash would remove it.

Not as caustic as sulpuric or HCL though and likely slower acting. Gentler perhaps.


Yeah i usually do that to figure out how things work. But it only works for western stuff. Indian products have no obligation to mention ingredients at all on the packet unless they are also exported and the annoying bit is people only know them by trade names or some other vague terms making it impossible to figure out what they contain as ingredients.

Acid doesn't goes well with anything.In order to stop acid attacking metals you have to neutralize it with a base.Again strong base like sodium hydroxide will also eat away metals.There are lots of patents given in recent years for products with mineral acids as main ingredients in many categories. Last year Nobel award was also given to a scientist who had worked on sulphuric acid.there was also talk of nasal spray for corona based on acid.They are very dangerous in lower consontrations as low as 10% and people should stay away from them a drop in eye and it will blind you,if it falls on cloths it will cut a hole.Acids have got bad name here because of it's use in crime against women and sulphuric acid is used in all cases and same acid is used most widely. all explosives and gun powders are made from acids.from pistol bullet to missile.It was invented accidentally when a scientist wiped spilled sulphuric acid and nitric acid with same cotton piece and as soon water evaporated cotton burned giving a bright flash.that incident gave the idea to make nitro cellulose a smokeless gun powder.later other acid based propllents were added to make it double proplent,triple proplent according to needs.Dynamite is combination of 2 acids and stone powder or saw dust to keep it stable.There are lots of research going on in this field.India or USA damn Chinese makes everything.
This is used widely in India and other countries as ac chemical cleaner.
 
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