I was recently in a home where their multi split air conditioner was completely out of commission.
As an HVAC technician, there are certain things I expect to see in a air conditioner or furnace, but this multi split air conditioner was mission so many parts that I could hardly recognize it.
After inquiring, I found out that the HVAC customers had noticed the multi split air conditioner having problems and decided to be their own HVAC technician. They went to the cooling and heating business and purchased some heating and cooling equipment for sale. After finishing at the cooling and heating business, they went back home to their multi split air conditioner and started taking out the original parts and replacing them with HVAC parts they purchased from the cooling and heating business. These HVAC customers started watching air conditioner self help videos in an attempt to fix their multi split air conditioner on their own. They made one major mistake however, instead of watching videos on how to fix a multi split air conditioner, they mistakenly watched videos on fixing mini split air conditioners. This is why the inside of their multi spit air conditioner was so messed up. They had replaced many of the normal air conditioner parts with the wrong ones. The most surprising part about this is that the a/c unit still worked a little! In all my years as a cooling expert, I have never to this day seen anything like this messed up multi split air conditioner with mini split a/c parts