Airconditioning Units
Buy and sell airconditioning units in Guatemala.
Almost nobody in Guatemala City or Quetzaltenango puts air conditioning in a house, while in Zacapa, Petén or along the Pacific coast a bedroom without it can be hard to sleep in. That difference decides which machine makes sense: a wall-mounted minisplit, a portable unit, the odd window box or an evaporative cooler, new or pre-owned. Plenty of used units come off the wall when a family moves or an office refits, so check whether the seller is handing it over still mounted or already down, because that changes who pays the technician.
Minisplit, portable or evaporative cooler by region:
the answer starts with the altitude of the house. In the wet lowland heat of Izabal, Petén, Escuintla or Retalhuleu, only a compressor unit cools a room and pulls the damp out of it at the same time. The minisplit is the usual choice: an indoor head high on the wall, a condenser outside and copper lines between them, quiet and efficient but fitted by a technician. A portable unit rolls on castors and vents through a hose in the window. It cools less for the same power, but a renter can take it to the next house without drilling anything. The Motagua valley is the exception. Around Zacapa, Estanzuela and El Progreso the heat is dry, and there an evaporative cooler, a fan blowing through a wet pad, plugs into any socket and does a real job on little electricity. Take the same cooler to Puerto Barrios and it only makes a humid room stickier. In the highlands a good fan covers most hot afternoons, and where the trouble is mould in a wardrobe rather than heat, dehumidifiers are the cheaper fix.
Minisplit capacity, voltage and heat-pump models:
size it to the room first. A 12,000 BTU unit suits an ordinary lowland bedroom, and a living room open to the kitchen wants 18,000 or more. Then check the wiring. Guatemalan homes run on 120 V, and many 12,000 BTU splits are made in a 110 to 115 V version that goes on a normal circuit; most larger units need a 220 V line from the panel, which means an electrician before the installer. An inverter compressor slows down instead of switching on and off, costs more up front and earns it back on a unit that runs every night. Heat-pump models warm the room as well as cooling it, which is worth knowing in Quetzaltenango or San Marcos, where the problem is cold nights rather than hot ones.
What a split costs boxed and off the wall:
a new 12,000 BTU minisplit runs from about Q3,500 for a basic on/off unit to around Q6,500 for a branded inverter, and 18,000 BTU inverters start near Q5,500, all before installation. A used one is worth a good deal less, and the reason is the work still to come: the buyer pays for removal if it is still mounted, a new copper line set, a vacuum and gas charge, and the installer’s visit, with no way of knowing how many hours the compressor has done. A unit already down, with its lines and remote, is worth more than one still hanging on someone else’s wall.
A second-hand minisplit and its condenser:
ask to see it running for ten minutes. The air from the indoor head should come out clearly cold, and the condenser fan should spin without rattling. Read the nameplate on the outdoor unit and check it against the listing: capacity, voltage and refrigerant. Older units on R-22 are harder and dearer to recharge than ones on R-410A or R-32. Look for white powder on the condenser fins, or fins that crumble under a finger, and for black mould on the indoor coil. Most indoor heads have no buttons, so a missing remote matters, and on an inverter a blinking error code usually points to the control board, the expensive part.
Taking down an air conditioner to sell it:
photograph the outdoor nameplate, the indoor head with its louvres open, the remote and a close-up of the condenser. State the capacity, voltage, refrigerant, inverter or on/off, roughly when it was bought and when it was last cleaned or recharged. Say whether it is still mounted and who will take it down, and whether the copper lines go with it, since they are often cut during removal. Name the town, too: a buyer in Santa Elena will want to know the unit is in Chiquimula before setting off, and a split mounted on a second floor in Escuintla is a different job from one sitting boxed in a garage.