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Commercial · Hotels & MotelsHotel & Motel HVAC — PTAC Repair & Replacement
Hotel and motel HVAC starts with keeping every room sellable, and in most properties that means PTAC repair and replacement. Our rule: repair a fan motor, control board or drain fault on a unit under about ten years old, and replace the chassis when the compressor or sealed refrigerant circuit fails out of warranty. A replacement must match the existing sleeve, voltage, amperage and plug type exactly. Beyond the rooms, we service the corridor make-up air unit, laundry make-up air and the domestic hot water plant.
A PTAC — packaged terminal air conditioner — is a self-contained chassis that slides into a wall sleeve under the window, with a grille on the outside. A PTHP is the same box built as a heat pump, with electric heat as the backup for cold weather. Nearly all current models fit the standard 42 × 16 inch sleeve, which is why one manufacturer's chassis can usually replace another's, while older non-standard sleeves need an adapter kit or a new sleeve. Newer properties often use vertical units (VTACs) in a closet with a short duct run, and larger hotels use fan coils fed from a central plant.
Like-for-like has three parts, and all of them are printed on the nameplate. Voltage comes first: most room units are 208/230 V, some buildings are wired for 265 V, and the two are not interchangeable. Amperage is second: the size of the electric heater decides whether the unit needs a 15, 20 or 30 amp circuit, and each rating has a different plug, so the wrong one will not physically fit the receptacle. A bigger heater than the circuit supports means new wiring by a licensed electrician under an ESA notification, so we match the existing rating unless there is a reason to change — the ordering details are on our PTAC unit replacement page.
PTACs fail in a short list of ways. A dead compressor or a leaking sealed system is replacement territory, while a seized fan motor, a failed control board or a blocked condensate path that wets the carpet is a bench repair. The sleeve fails too: a flattened gasket, or a sleeve that has lost its slight slope to the outside, lets wind and rain into the room, and no new chassis fixes that. Keep spare chassis on a shelf for each voltage and amperage in the building, so maintenance staff slide a spare in, the room stays in inventory and the failed unit gets repaired without a guest waiting on it.
The rooms are only part of the building: a gas-fired corridor make-up air unit pressurizes the hallways so cooking and smoke odours stay inside the rooms, and when it is down the corridors smell and the doors whistle. The laundry needs its own make-up air, because commercial dryers exhaust a great deal of air and a starved laundry room means long dry times and a risk of pulling flue gases back down the water heater vents. The domestic hot water plant has to carry the morning shower peak (see commercial water heater replacement), and pool-room dehumidification is specialist equipment we refer to a pool-ventilation contractor. For the overview see commercial HVAC, or contact the shop with a nameplate photo and your room count.
Equipment we install and service
Through-the-wall chassis in the standard sleeve, cooling with either electric heat or a heat pump. The washable filter behind the front cover is the part that decides the unit's life: a clogged one ices the coil, overworks the compressor and soaks the base pan.
Closet-mounted vertical units ducted to the room, or fan coils on building piping. A two-pipe fan coil system can only heat or only cool at any one time, so the spring and fall changeover dates produce the complaints, not a fault in the room unit.
Gas-fired units that replace the air leaving through bathroom exhaust and dryer vents. Each has a burner, safeties, filters and a belt or direct-drive fan that need a fall service, and each is a TSSA gas appliance that only licensed technicians work on.
Water heaters or boilers with storage tanks, recirculation pumps and mixing valves serving rooms, laundry and kitchen. Recovery rate against the morning peak is the number to know, and scale from local hard water is what erodes it over the years.
What goes wrong in these buildings
- Three rooms are out of inventory this weekend because the units are down and parts are a week away.
- A guest found the carpet soaked under the window unit.
- The replacement PTAC arrived and its plug does not fit the receptacle.
- Rooms on the windward side are drafty all winter even with the heat on full.
- The hallways smell of someone's dinner and the room doors whistle.
- We run short of hot water around 7:30 every morning when the house is full.
How it works
Every room unit listed by model, voltage, amperage, plug type and age from the serial number, with sleeve and gasket condition noted. The list shows which units are worth repairing, which are due, and how many spares of each type the property should hold.
Failed chassis are pulled and bench-repaired or replaced, spares go into the rooms in the meantime, and sleeve leaks are sealed and re-sloped. Replacement orders are checked against the nameplate data before they ship, not after they arrive.
Corridor and laundry make-up air burners are serviced before heating season, the hot water plant is checked and flushed, and room-unit coils are cleaned on a rotation agreed with housekeeping so rooms come out of service one floor at a time.
Common questions
How long does a PTAC last in a hotel room?
About a decade of hotel duty is a reasonable planning figure. Units whose filters are washed monthly and whose coils are cleaned every year go longer; units beside a busy road or in rooms where the filter is never touched go sooner. Plan replacement by floor or wing so models and spare parts stay consistent across the building.
Can I replace a PTAC with a heat pump (PTHP) model?
Yes. A PTHP fits the same sleeve and the same electrical circuit, provided voltage and amperage match. It heats with the compressor in mild weather for less electricity than resistance heat, then switches to its electric element when the temperature drops. The payback depends on how many spring and fall nights the rooms are occupied.
Why is water leaking from the PTAC into the room?
Condensate is meant to collect in the base pan and leave toward the outside. It comes indoors when the pan's drain openings are blocked with dirt, when the sleeve has settled level or tilted inward, or when a clogged filter has iced the coil and it thaws all at once. Wind-driven rain past a failed sleeve gasket looks the same.
Do you work on hotel pool dehumidification?
No. A pool room needs a purpose-built dehumidification unit, corrosion-resistant ductwork and careful pressure control to keep chloramines out of the building, and that is a specialist's work. We refer it to a pool-ventilation contractor and handle the guest rooms, corridors, laundry and hot water around it.
Related
Keep the building running.
One licensed team for installs, maintenance contracts and 2 AM calls.