Air conditioner and outdoor unit therefor

摘要

An air conditioner comprising an outdoor unit (121) and an indoor unit (11) provided with an indoor heat exchanger (13) and an indoor expansion device (15), wherein the outdoor unit comprises a compressor (23) for compressing a refrigerant, an outdoor heat exchanger (33) for heat-exchanging a refrigerant, a four-way valve (31) adjacently arranged to the compressor (23) for circulating a refrigerant discharged from the compressor (23) according to a heating cycle or a cooling cycle, and a refrigerant detouring path (51) for detouring a refrigerant discharged from the outdoor heat exchanger (33) to the compressor (23) at the time of a defrosting operation, thereby performing the defrosting operation without stopping the heating cycle and thus preventing an indoor heating loss.