Air Conditioner 150mm Hose Adapter for Windows: Robust and Reliable !

1. Introduction

Winter……oops………Hot Summer is Coming !

That's why I bought a portable air conditioner with a 150mm hose. Unfortunately, it is common here in Europe to have “casement windows” (windows with vertical rotation axis) while portable aircon are mostly designed for “sliding windows”.

Therefore, you have to put you the hose through the open window and live with the mosquito at night….or with the incoming heat at noon. Otherwise, you can figth with a kind of mosquito net, sold here and there, to hold with velcro around the hose and on the window. Hate that !

I seached for other solutions based on a wood plate or a plexi but didn't find something reliable and easy to use to be able to move the aircon from one room to another with ease. 

Hence I designed this solution:

• Easy to print. Only 2 printed parts required for minimum installation. 35h print for full-package + 1 plate, 3-5mm thick, wood or plexi (to buy where you prefer).
• Compatible with most “european” windows.
• Easy to install/uninstall the aircon. Less than 2 minutes ! Simple and Stupid Sliding System. Nothing to turn, check position, etc. Just slide it top-down !
• Printable solid wedges to hold the system in the window, even with high wind. Already tested during a summer night thunderstorm.
• Robust and reliable. All screws are covered by design in the full-package to avoid corrosion and dirt due to weather conditions.

In option, I provide a rigidifier and a mosquito net cover to facilitate the assembly with nuts and add a mosquito net in between….just in case some bugs or spiders would like to live in the pipe.

2. Revision History

3. Printing Instructions

1. All parts
   • PETG (or other material with some heat resistance)
   • Layer Height: 0,2
   • Min 4 perimeters
   • No Support required except for the the “Pipe Adapter” where you need snug supports on plate.
   • Min 20% infill
   • Infill Pattern: Gyroid
   • Top and Bottom Layer Pattern: Monotonic Line except top surface of the “Pipe Adapter” where you can use “Concentric”.
   • Adaptive Layer Height: Mandatory on “Pipe Adapter” and recommended on all parts except wedges.
   • Positioning: according to 3mf files

In all pipe-related parts, I have manually added printing tabs as “brims” to avoid some issue with the automatic brim feature of prusa slicer. To avoid misuses, just work with the 3mf files and reslice them according to your printer.

Otherwise, you need to split the step files, change amount of perimeters for all tabs to 1 and be sure that they are printed before the part….(again, reslice the 3mf files..it is much easier)

4. Materials for Assembly (BOM)

• The printed parts:
  • Pipe Adapter
  • Pipe Locker
  • Rigidifier (optional)
  • Mosquito Net Cover (optional)
  • Wedges + nutholders
• A plate, 3-5mm thick, wood or plexi
• 7x  M4 screws and 7x M4 hex nuts for the pipe mount.
• 1x M4 screw and 1x M4 hex nut for each wedge.
• 170mm square of mosquito net. (optional)

• Drilling Machine
• Cutting Machine - Dremel + circular cutter
• 4,5 mm drill bit
• Screwdriver
• Two hands, maybe 4.

5. Manufacturing and Assembly Instructions

1. Just download the relevant files and print them. Be patient….
2. Remove printing tabs, brims, burrs. Don't forget the screw holes and nut holes.
3. Add nuts inside all nut holes (Wedge Nutholders and MosquitoNetCover)
4. Now, we think about the plate. It should be place inside the groove of the window and against the external side…..Difficult to explain….see the pictures below. But it might be different depending on windows. In all case, take some measurements and cut the plate ;)
5. You will need now to make a 152mm diameter hole inside the plate. Place it according to your space, pipe length, etc. For info, to make the hole, I used a dremel with the circle cutter accesory (dremel 678).
6. Now we need to drill the screw holes and there are 2 solutions. If you don't want to print the optional “Rigidifier”, place the “Pipe Locker” on the plate and align it, concentric with the 152mm hole and parallel to plate edges. The, drill the screw holes in the plate through by using the screw holes of the “Pipe Locker” as guides. Otherwise, if you have printed the “Rigidifier”, put it inside the 152mm holes to be concentric, rotate it to be parallel to the plate edges and drill with the same technique. It should be a little bit easier with the Rigidifier ;)
7. Voila, you can start the assembly of the pipe mount. Put the screws inside the “Pipe Locker” and through the screw holes in the plate (and the Rigidifier). Add the mosquito net on the Rigidifier according to the square trace on the part. Add the MosquitoNetCover and screw the whole assembly tightly to clamp the mosquito net. If you didn't print the optional parts….just use nuts directly on the plate to screw the “Pipe Locker”.
8. Screw clockwise the “Pipe Adapter” on the pipe until it blocks tighly. You can now check that it slides well onto the “Pipe Locker”.
9. Now, it is time for the wedges. Quite easy ! Just think first where you want to place them according to you window. Then, drill holes in the plate at 30mm from the edges. These will be the holes for the nuts and screws of wedges.
10. Then take one of the NutHolders and drill it through…yes you have to sacrifice one ;p
11. Place the little stud inside one of the holes. Turn the part so that the nut entry is NOT facing the center of the plate but still parallel to the edge……erf…check the picture - it should be placed in the opposite way, with the nut entry facing outward XD
12. Drill again a hole but through the part as a guide.
13. Now you have to place the NutHolder in the correct position with the nuts behind the hole at 30mm from the plate edge and the stud inside the other hole. (This blocks the rotation). Actualy, the nut entry should face inward (the opposite position than when we were drilling the holes).
14. Screw the edge on the opposite side of the plate but not fully, to be able to rotate and move the wedge freely.
15. Do the 10 to 14 for each wedge.

Finally install the plate in your window. Push each wedge into the groove and screw them tightly. Nothing will move the plate after that ! Trust me ;)

Then just slide the pipe and enjoy cooling.

5. Notes

• Parts are designed to avoid rain on nuts and screws. But anyway use stainless steel ;)
• 2 wedges on the top edge is better than only one…

• G-code files only made for MK3S+. The file contains some custom lines to add a pre-heating before the printing to avoid oozing during the mesh bed levelling.
• Do not use the g-code file on other machines than MK3S+ ! In any case, I recommend you to slice the .3mf files by yourself to make your own g-code files.

Have a nice print !

Last note! I've spent quite a lot of time designing, iterating and prototyping on all my models. Therefore, if you enjoy them, please don't forget to like+download and then rate them, so that I can earn so prusameters to continue ;)