How To install Ductless AC & Heating System __ True DIY Mini Split MRCOOL

What's up guys and welcome back to the workshop. So anybody knows that if you work in a garage or some kind of building or whatever, it gets pretty hot in there. And depending on where you work, it does get pretty cold. And I did want it to do this for a very long time. It just hadn't gotten around to it. I was actually looking and researching which system should I go with. But one of the big thing is I wanted to go with a system that I could do completely from start to finish on my own. So before I committed to this system, I did a ton of research and this was the only system that I was able to find that I can do from start to finish without bringing in the HVAC guy. The system I'm installing is by Mr. Cool and I'll link the model that I'm using for my garage. I reached out to them the first quarter of this year. They got back to me and they got me a unit and they're today's sponsor. So big thank you to them for that. So this is their DIY kit. I have the 12,000 BTU one. So I'll link that down in the video description. Basically this one comes pre-charged already. The only thing you're going to need is an electrician if you're not comfortable with that part of it, but I'm going to go through the entire installation and you'll see how I did it and maybe it can help you. You'll get the concept once I'm done. There's so much to do. Let's get to work. Let me show you how I did it. Oh, by the way, roll the intro. Once I settled on a location for the indoor unit, I then need to find a location for the outdoor unit. My main goal was to get it over here on the existing air conditioner pad. The condenser is not too heavy, so if you need to mount it on a wall, that shouldn't be an issue. The unit for the indoors is really light, but the harness on it does make it a challenge to handle. This unit does come with a mounting template, but I believe I must have threw it away or something, not sure what happened to it, so I'm going to have to install mine the hard way. To get this unit installed, the first thing I need to do is hold it up to the wall and trace it so I have an idea on where to mount it. Now I really wanted to center this over the door and it was driving me crazy that I couldn't. You do have to respect the drain line and in this case, the drain line needs to go straight outside and down. So the way I plan to install this is the drain line is going to go straight outside and the harness is going to go up, over and down. So one of the main reasons for sending the harness up into the attic is one, I didn't want to have all this harness outside coiled up, you have to leave it that way you cannot cut it. The other reason my house is CBS construction and this is a solid poured wall right here. I do not have the tools, nor do I want to hire someone to come in and drill a three and a half inch hole. After cutting out the drywall, I then cut out the framing strips so I can then get to the attic. So anytime you need to drill concrete, you want to start off using a small masonry bit first, then increase the size. If I was drilling from outside to inside, that kind of goes away. It's mainly when the bit exit the concrete, when the blowout occurs. So now that I know where my hole is, I can now drill from the outside back to the inside. If you have a wood frame, then it should be simple to drill through. However, if you have a solid poured wall, you'll want to drill with a hammer feature on it. I'm going to tape up the drain line and then push that through the hole that I just drilled. The next thing I did was install the bracket and unfortunately I didn't line up with any stud. And with the unit being so light, I was able to install a couple wall anchors and mount it that way. If you're researching units and you want to do it yourself, just think about this 25 foot hose does need to go somewhere, as I said before, mine is going to pass through the attic. So some of that's going to be left up there. In the harness, you have the two copper lines and you also have the electrical wire. I taped the ends and then I pushed it up to the attic. To make this easy, you'll need somebody in the attic that's pulling and also somebody that's pushing from below. Within the harness, you have the two copper line going to the condenser and also the electrical wire. It's really important to keep an eye on the entire harness and do not put any sharp bends in it. After feeding the entire harness up, I'm going to rest the unit on the bracket and then connect the drain line. I mounted my bracket a little higher than it should have been. So I came back later and fixed it. And now I can address the outdoor unit. The first thing I did was drilled up through the soffit and the location I picked, I made sure that I had clearance going from the soffit all the way down. And with the hole being fully cut out now, I need to push up a pull wire cable so I can then tie it onto the harness and pull it back down. And doing something like this, you definitely going to need an extra hand. I ended up doing this on my own. So I was exhausted from the many trips to the attic just to pull a couple inches at a time. As a way to hide the harness that's coming down, I bought a separate cover kit from Amazon and this came with a bunch of pieces. I just used what I needed. The kit actually worked out great. It helped me hide the area where I cut through the soffit. Plus it gave a cleaner look rather than to have the harness just coming down and seeing straps. I drilled my own holes in the cover kit. I thought this made things a little easier. All throughout this installation, I kept dropping the screws. And then I remembered I had this magnetic tip for the screws. These things are super handy and I used it where I could. So this part is pretty much done. I'm going to put the cover kit on and close that up. And now the next thing is I'm going to jump over to the condenser. Beside mounting it to the pad. The only thing I have to do is now hook up the electrical and also tie in the refrigerant lines. For the cleanest hookup, you'll want to use some kind of liquid tight. It's flexible and it's easy to maneuver and route wherever you need it to go. Now you'll need to remove the two knockouts that's in the cover. The unit I have runs off 120 volts and it's recommended to have its own breaker, whether it's 15 amps or 20 amps. The liquid tight can do it. It's great for what it's used for, but it's really tough to push wire through. So it's easier if you use a fish tape or just stretch it out as straight as you can, and then you can possibly push the wire through. The kit come with two screw on connectors. I'm going to put the 91 at the unit and the other one I'm going to leave off since this is a temporary connection. A while back, I added a sub panel in the garage, which was also sized for this unit. At a later point, I'll run wires from the sub panel to this unit. But luckily I do have some local power here that's used for my sprinkler system, which I absolutely don't use. This is good enough to get my unit up and running. So I no longer have to be sweating in the heat. The power cord that comes with the unit already have a connector on it. And I don't want to leave this big hole just there. So I'm going to use a push on connector as a way to fill this in. Then I'll come back with some silicone or some kind of sealant to close that up. After stripping all the wires, I then crimped on spade terminals and now I'm ready to connect to the unit. Now it doesn't matter which order you choose to go. I first connected the ground wire for the indoor unit. Then I'll just connect the connectors and this part is done. At this moment, the unit is not plugged into any circuit. Since this unit is 120 volts, I need to connect the green wire to ground. Next, I connect the black wire to the line. And last but not least, I connect the white wire to the neutral terminal. I would recommend anchoring down the unit first before connecting your refrigerant line. But for the purpose of this tutorial, I just want to make sure that I'm getting a good view for you guys. Now it's also important that you leave the caps on until you're ready to connect these lines. They are color-coded and you'll know exactly which one needs to go where. To avoid stripping the thread, I do recommend that you tighten these on by hand first, and you should be able to get around 50% or more of it on before using a tool. For the final tightening, I'm going to recommend using a wrench or a couple of wrench or a couple of adjustable wrench, but never use a pair of pliers on the end that turn. This is soft material and you can easily strip it. So I'm now going to anchor the unit down and I'm going to use these rubber feet that came with the unit. I drilled four holes in the slab and then I installed tap cons to hold the unit down. So I need to make one more trip to the attic and I'm going to use these PVC clamps to lift the harness off of the installation. Before firing this up, I got one more thing to do and that's opening up the lines. The system already come pre-charged. So all you have to do is loosen up the caps, turn the valve all the way counterclockwise until it stops. Now put the caps back on and then get some soapy water, spray it on all the connection just to make sure you don't have any leaks and a good indication that you have leaks is you'll see bubbles showing up. Once you've opened up the refrigerant valve, you cannot loosen the lines again. Otherwise you're going to have to have an HVAC guy come out and service the system. Everything looks to be fine. So I'm going to put the cover on and plug it in. It just so happened that I have a few power options at my disposal. To the left, I have a regular 15 amp breaker there and the one I'm going to now is a 20 amp breaker that's for my sprinkler system. And just above that, to the right, I have a junction box with a 220 circuit in it. That one's going to be used for my irrigation pump. And with the addition of my electrical sub panel, I'm going to bring a separate circuit here with a cutoff switch outside. For the time being, I'm going to plug the hole with some putty, but I'll come back with some pest block foam so insect can't get inside. In most cases, the harness is going to come out the same hole as the drain line. Because my situation is a little unique, things went in different direction. So the clamps I'm using, they're not included. You'd have to pick those up separately. And I have a link to that in a written version. Once you've brought the drain line to where you need it to go, it's pretty simple to cut. To prevent the grime from building up next to the AC unit, I installed this drain line to direct that away. So this is the remote for the system. We're now going to see this thing turn on together. So it does come with the batteries. Just snap the batteries in, put the cover on, and then we can fire up the system. This system come with a Wi-Fi dongle that you would plug into the unit, and this will enable the system to have the Wi-Fi feature, which you can then connect to it with your phone. Now, all you have to do is lift the lid and plug in the USB stick. Next, you'll need to go to your app market and then look for the Mr. Cool app. If you're not really into the smart features, then no worries. You can still get the same control with the remote that come with the system. This system can not only keep you cool, but it can also warm you up. Overall, I'm pretty happy about this install. I finally get to work in a space that's cool down now. Now, one of the biggest downfall with this system, it does come with this attached 25 foot harness, so you can't cut it, you have to work with it. So in your case, you may have to just go straight out the wall and then build some kind of box that you can coil it up in and leave it there. So that's the only suggestion I got for you. So I've never owned a mini split before, so I don't know how common this is, but I do like that this has a schedule built in it. I can have this operate and turn on a couple hours before I come in and shop. On top of that, there is an app so I can control this remotely. If I'm coming home or if I'm out of time, I can change the schedule on it. So that is pretty dope about this system. I do want to thank Mr. Cool for hearing me out and definitely get me one of their units out here so I can get it in my place and be able to work in a cool environment now. Hope you guys enjoyed this video. Don't forget to like, comment, hit subscribe. I have links down in the video description, so check that out and I'll see you guys in the next one.