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Over the past three years I have recommended the DIY Mr. Cool ductless mini split as a viable option for home studios. In this article I am going to explain why I no longer think this is a good option.
1) Three Weeks of No Heat at 4 Degrees
Every once in a while we learn from experience rather than books or videos. This is one of those situations. In theory the DIY Mr. Cool systems are great. They cost about $1200-$1500, you can install them yourself with a few tools, and they can heat and cool a room while staying somewhat quiet. You can always turn them off if they are too loud. Awesome, right? Well here is what happened to me so you can see where things go wrong.
First, this past fall, three years after my mini split install the compressor stopped working. I think this was due to a a power surge hitting the unit and frying the logic board. The lesson here is to add a surge protector to your condenser.
Through this experience I learned that most HVAC technicians have never heard of Mr. Cool and needed to call their tech support line. The tech could never get ahold of tech support. In fact, nothing happened until I emailed Mr. Cool and got involved. After several weeks of back and forth they finally decided to send me a new condenser outside unit free of cost except for the cost to ship it and hire someone to install it.
This was great, minus the three to four weeks I didn’t have any heat in the studio because Mr. Cool’s tech support was not top notch. Then about two to three weeks after installing the new condenser I realized that the mini split was not putting out any hot air.
I called another HVAC tech to come out and just yesterday he said that I had a refrigerant leak in the line set in my double wall system and that the only fix would be to open up the walls.
Well, you can imagine that this is not an ideal scenario, so the lesson learned here is do not put your line set with the refrigerant lines where you cannot access them easily. It would have been best to run the line set on the outside of my studio so that we could easily check for leaks.
This might lead you to wonder how a leak would open up? The HVAC tech said that a screw or nail could tag the line or the vibration of the line itself over time could rub against a sharp edge and open up. This could be what happened to me. We may never know.
So here I am writing this in my studio with an oil based space heater (just to rub salt on the wound my internet is also out and Google Fiber can’t figure out what is wrong). What is the lesson for you in building your own soundproof home recording studio.
2) Ducted Mini Splits Vs. Ductless Mini Splits
There are two types of mini splits and to be honest I am surprised at the the number of HVAC techs, contractors and even architects that don’t know this. The mini split I have is called a ductless mini split, meaning there is a condenser unit outside and a mini split wall or ceiling cassette unit on the inside. The condenser outside is connected with a refrigerant line set that runs to the head unit on the inside of your room.
This system is great for most situations, but it is not great for soundproofing. First, the unit is quiet, but not that quiet. Now that it has not been working I am realizing how noisy it really was. In an ideal world you should not have any mechanical noises in your studio. This means no mini split head and only using solid state hard drives if possible.
The other superior option is to use a ducted mini split. This is a system where the mini split is not attached to the wall or ceiling, but is instead installed in the attic or a separate mechanical room. The mini split unit is an air handler and it pulls air from the room heats or cools it and then pushes it back in the room. Simple right? Well, for a normal room, yes, but for a soundproof room, well it is a different story. More on that install in a second.
So why didn’t I install the ducted mini split in the first place? Great question and...read full blog at www.soundproofyourstudio.com/...
0:00 - Intro
1:56 - Three Weeks of No Heat at 4 Degrees
8:34 - Ducted Vs Ductless Mini Splits
14:42 - Conclusion
2 июл 2024
