I thought I'd bump up this happy little thread I created so long ago, lest it fall into the jaws of obscurity. That and I was perusing my profile and happened to see it in my activity feed. Anywho, just last week I dragged out the family's extremely old (and gigantic) original window air conditioner (which I've nicknamed Big Bertha) and powered it up for the first time in the 12 years since we got central air, and I was delighted to find that it still works. I managed to muscle it up into my bedroom and install it in my window. The room, a converted attic, is poorly insulated and has exactly one air vent, buried in a corner somewhere, so it regularly reaches over 100 degrees F up there during the summer, which means it's been basically uninhabitable for a little over four months out of the year for the past five years. I've gone through three window air conditioners over the years, and every one has burned out, sometimes spectacularly. Big Bertha is number four and so far she's conquered two near-ninety degree days. The only bad thing is the racket it makes isn't exactly an ideal backdrop to music listening, but it gives me a cool place to sleep at night, so I can't really complain.
