Normal for a compressor to get hot immediately?

[bigjoncoop]

Unit: 8000 btu LG Portable A/C

Main Question: Compressor too hot to touch only after 2min or so... Normal???

More Info:

I picked up a LG 8000 BTU portable air conditioner the other day and it appears to be brand new. By the looks of it, it's never been used before.

The A/C works great and immediately produces cold air. I've ran the unit for about an hour and it seems to work great.

Last night I took the plastic shell off of the unit in order to modify/install a inrush current limiter, so I can run it off a inverter. While doing so I've turned the unit on a few times for a minute or so and I realized that the compressor basically gets too hot to touch after running for only a minute or two...

After I noticed this I made sure to block the airflow so it has to suck air past the compressor to help keep it cool, since I had removed the plastic out shell from the unit. Even after doing this the compressor still gets very quickly...

I looked around online to find the normal operating temperature of a A/C compressor and it seems that the 185 - 195 degrees is normal. So needless to say that is way hotter than what you could comfortably keep your hands on it.

So it may be perfectly fine I'm just curious if it's normal to get hot that quickly?

Your thoughts?

[Sergroum]

It's not so important for air to go past the compressor. It is extremely important for air to go through the fins of the condensation coil.

So if you opened up the shell and now the air is going through the opening (even if past the compressor), but not through the radiators, then the refrigerant cant reject heat and the entire system will start getting hotter.