Hello everyone. I'm a first time homeowner and looking for advice on cleaning out my Aspen horizontal plenum evaporator coil installed in our attic. The plenum is mostly sheet metal with part of the sides and top constructed from duct board.
There doesn't appear to be an obvious access panel. All edges are covered in a thick layer of mastic with some seams having tape underneath. But close inspection revealed screws and a seam on top. Product literature makes mention of "split access doors on top of the coil for easy service".
Does anyone have experience with Aspen or similar units? Assuming I can do this without damaging any coolant lines, is it as simple as removing the mastic and unscrewing the access door? Removing the access door seems to require removable of the line set bushings and resealing the penetrations afterward. That's not exactly "easy service" if you ask me. But it beats cutting out a new panel, I suppose.
The last professional I called out for an A/C maintenance basically shrugged his shoulders and said, "Sorry, can't open it up. Can't clean it out." I can call another company who won't send out someone I suspect was primarily a salesperson. But if this is safely doable by a relatively handy homeowner, I'd like to take a crack at it.
I'm getting errors submitting a new thread. If this new thread does actually get submitted, I'll add a few photos soon.
Half plenum, half duct board
Top access panel?
Last edited by PJmax; 03-28-23 at 06:45 PM.
Reason: resized pics
Houston204, yes, it's from 2006. The bottom couple of pics are pulled from the website of a vendor selling a similar model. It's definitely an old, likely filthy unit. There was some amount of unfiltered air making it through the system due to the return air filter box being bent out of shape. So, I've been looking into cleaning out the blower and coil since I doubt that this 17 year old unit has ever been cleaned out.
I'm a little anxious working around the refrigerant lines and scraping the mastic. I'm hoping that I can just cut around the bushing edges. Then the panel will lift out from underneath the bushing lip.
Do you folks have any recommendations for best technique and tools to use?
Your are not in for an easy job.
Since air travels in at that end..... that's the end that needs to be cleaned.
The other side of the coil to the right will be clean.
You will need to remove the duct on the left side (blue) ........
or remove the two sides (yellow)
Actually.... in looking at the picture again... I don't think the sides will come off.
Pete, the unit is 22 inches wide. I had assumed that coming from the top would provide enough space to work an angled sprayer with some liquid coil cleaner on the return air side.
If it's not enough space, the left side is the gas furnace. So that's not moving without redoing the intake/exhaust/flue and gas lines. Everything is hung from the top chord of our roof storage trusses using a couple straps which makes it more of a dangerous proposition when disassembling anything.
Ok... so that just leaves removing that piece of duct above the furnace.
There will scraping to do on all sides.
The refrigerant lines shouldn't be a problem.
Pete, I could cut out the highlighted area in red. But that would give just 2-3 inches of access. With the refrigerant lines running right behind the red area including the suction line going horizontally across, my guess is that it won't help too much.
Houston, do you come across many attic furnaces in Texas like this? I'm in southern Nevada.
Is there ever a world where someone would cut open new access panels on each side? If I were to try to clean from the top, I'd use something like this fin cleaning brush (Youtube Supco CCB100). The brush head pivots side to side allowing brushing from horizontally left to right. Then spray with liquid coil cleaner and rinse.
I use the plastic bristle brushes from Johnstone supply or a shop vac with a brush attachment, a can of foaming green coil cleaner and a pump up sprayer to rinse. My approach kinda depends on how dirty they are.
I also service the drain if I'm going to introduce dirt into the pan.
I have seen many of those coils over the years. The internal pan can be a little flimsy. Be careful not to bump the drain line.
Hi all,
would appreciate some advice from the experts here. My upstairs AC unit has a slow refrigerant leak (likely had one for a long time) that is causing it to really struggle in very hot temps and often freeze up when the AC is running over night. When this happens if I turn off the AC, it thaws, and the air flows again shortly after.
The tech I had out confirmed I have R22 and said he cannot charge it and I would likely not find anyone that has it or is willing. So he is going to send me a few options to replace it. The system is 17 years old so I knew this day was coming.
My questions are...
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[*]Is it worth trying to find a company that still has R22 and see how much they would charge (pun not intended) to charge the system? The tech estimated I am about 3 lbs low.
[*]If I go with the replacement option should I pay the extra money to have the furnace also replaced. I'll confirm the quoted prices when I get them but by chatting with the tech it looks like it could save me around $2k now.
[/list]
Thanks in advance.
[img]https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.doityourselft.com-vbulletin/2000x1124/pxl_20220327_125608451_360739dd2aed4e5c58b5254594125ea53cf51eca.jpg[/img]
This is the evaporator drain in my attic which is leaking at the gray tape (trap). What's the best way to fix it? Cutting the PVC and coupling in looks tough given the location and connectors between the trap. The T part to the right is an access, probably to blow out the trap before winter? Any help repairing this would be appreciated.
03-28-23, 02:03 AM
