Bottom blower wheel holder jig for mobile AC + MacGyver repair guide

Warning, this is part rant, part cautionary tale, part repair guide and probably utterly useless unless you found yourself in possession of the Honeywell HJ14CESAWK (EU manufacturer code) and the bottom blower wheel tore itself apart. And even then this is still a questionable model to share, but perhaps someone finds themselves in the same situation I found myself one hot summers day. In which case this might help to get you cooled down again.

First off, if you still have the option to return / replace it. Do so, this mobile AC is a complete piece of sh!t. It hides that fact somewhat decently but based on what I've uncovered, significant part replacement and / or modifications will be needed to make it reliably through more than a couple of weeks of summer.

If you can't return / replace and need to send it back for weeks of repairs, this might help to get the bottom blower wheel back into functional shape. This is assuming it did not tear itself to complete shreds. Mine just ripped along one side between two of the blades. This might also apply to the top blower wheel, it seems equally janky but I did not inspect that further. One rabbit hole was enough.

So I quickly modeled this jig and printed it to 1) keep the blower wheel from spinning as it is either a flywheel or so out of balance it will not hold still even when not operating and 2) in hopes to put some pressure to allow it to bond with some glue, the latter turned out to be a waste of time. With the jig place you have both hands to try and repair. I initially tried 3D print and super glue but it failed to bond the crack, I'm guessing it may be made out of nylon but that is at best a wild guess as I found no specification on it. In any case, any glue I had at hand did not hold for more than a few minutes.

After trying a couple more random things I had laying around (various tapes and threads) I used some stainless steel (24GA 316L, but I'm assuming any metal-y wire should do) to fix the blades around the crack. That held up for a good 8hrs of operation but then still failed. 

But seeing as the stainless steel wire did not appear to suffer from the heat or spinning action, I just wrapped a length around the whole diameter and twist tied it. That's been holding up for a couple of weeks with up to 16hrs of operation a day.

So that's my rant / tale on why this model is being posted. If you somehow were looking for a fix and ended up here. Godspeed, here's what I did and I hope it may help you out.

Well, first… how would you even know that the bottom blower wheel broke? If all of a sudden you hear a loud sound as if there a large Lego brick sucked into a vacuum and tearing a whole in the space / time continuum, you probably have this issue.

The print itself, PLA is with any defaults should be fine. The weight of it should be enough to do what it needs to do and the legs are long enough to bend enough and put enough pressure where needed. Stupid amounts of infill may make it too rigid, but I didn't test anything beyond my initial quick print. I was at war with the heat and in no mood to do a bunch of test prints.

It should probably go without saying that this will probably void any warranty, may lead to complete and catastrophic failure of the unit, bodily harm or worse and I am by no means a qualified or authorized engineer. If you have no tolerance for any of these things, click away now. I take no responsibility for any outcome such as injury, death, fire, broken units or other devices, upset better halfs, family members, pets or other co-inhabitants. I'm merely posting this for adults making their own adult decisions and taking responsibility for those decisions.

1. Unplug the AC. You should probably grab some protective gear such as eye protectors. Wiring and cooling parts will be exposed throughout this process, take appropriate precautions and inform anyone in the vicinity to take appropriate precautions. 
2. Detach the outlet hose.
3. Make sure to attach the drain hose to the top drain hole and grab a bucket, this is one sweaty unit despite it not really seaming so if you were waiting for the indicator light to do anything.
4. Remove the air filters, the one in the corner has one screw.
5. Remove the whole back cover. Note that there's screws in the handles on the side. You should lift up about 5mm on the edges as it is seated on lips on the inside. If you struggle, check for any tape or stickers preventing the removal of the cover.
6. Remove the air outlet hose attachment part, careful. If you look at these screws the wrong way the screw holes will strip.
7. Inspect the bottom blower wheel and look for where it may have been broken. Any crack may be hiding under a thin layer of plastic (?) residue. If you can find a crack, carefully place a metal object angled at the side so scrape away the residue but be careful not to dig in too deep and for any abrasions that make things worse or impact the metal object you placed.
8. When you found a crack, place the jig so you can work around the damage.
9. Form a fish hook shape of the stainless steal wire and hook around the back of a couple of blades around the damage. Twist tie until the crack closes and place the twist tied wire within the diameter of the blower wheel.
10. Remove the jig.
11. Turn the blower wheel a half turn and make another hook with the stainless steel wire. This time it just needs to temporarily hook so we can wind a length of the wire around the whole blower wheel.
12. Wind a length of stainless steel the around the blower wheel until you're back at your temporary fish hook.
13. Place the jig.
14. Cut the stainless steel wire to length that allows twist tying both ends together. Place the twist tied portion into the diameter of the blower wheel.
15. Remove the jig and ensure both wires are in place, the crack (mostly) closed. 
16. Slowly turn the blower wheel, ensuring it the stainless steel wire runs as straight as possible, i.e.: the shortest path around the blower wheel. Adjust where needed.
17. Tighten the twist ties.
18. Turn the blower wheel again, increase speed as you feel comfortable with to confirm it is holding an remaining in place.
19. Grab something to protect whatever is behind the exhaust of the AC unit in case of catastrophic failure and turn on the AC unit briefly to make sure it is operating as expected and the wires hold.
20. If all goes well, it may just hold and you may have saved yourself a few weeks without AC unit while it would be repaired.

I ran mine for several days without the back cover just to have easier access to do any quick fixes but none were needed.

I did further research to find a replacement part, none are sold to consumers in EMEA. US manufacturer code differ and I'm not even sure this unit is actually still sold, from what I found it seems to have been pulled from sales. Which would make sense since, again, it's a piece of sh!t. I found one or two resellers of similar looking parts but no means to confirm the size.

So, this winter I'll probably attempt to model and 3D print a replacement blower wheel though I'm not sure what material would be capable of withstanding the amount of heat and movement this thing will be subjected to. ASA would probably be my first bet but I'm not sure as things get real toasty in there. Any input or insights would be appreciated.