I just moved into my first house about a year ago. I have found that the air contitioner (central air) has to be cleaned. A repairman informed me that the coils on the inside unit are approximately 40 percent blocked, and the condensor is 90 percent blocked. I asked him how much! He said $500 smackers.
Needless to say, that is too much for my cheap blood.

Can this cleaning be done by anyone other than an a/c man/ Does anyone know how I can do this without killing my wife and suffocating my dog? Are there any how-to books telling how to clean the coils on my A/C?

 

Not that hard to do, and that price is way out of line. Try posting the same question in the A/C part of the forum for a quick answer.

frank

 

I'm going to move this to the HVAC forum so you can get the answers you need.

I'm not sure of the a/c setup you have, but I was told that I had to buy a new unit. I was able to clean the coils myself, and the unit runs great now!

Kay

 

This price may not be out of line if they need to remove the the coil to do the job. Unless we know the conditions it's hard to judge if a quote is out of range. The best way to clean an a-coil is to remove it and wash it out. Is this air handler in an attic?

If you want to clean it in place 1st turn off all power. You may need to cut an access panel out to get to the coil then spray it down good with simple green or something of that sort, let it soak awhile then hose it down. It's best to remove the blower and cover any controls with plastic. You want to flush the water the opposite direction of the airflow.

The condensor is simple, unless it's got multiple rows of coils. Just turn off all power and hose it out good from the inside out.

 

mattison,

I'm sure this is why 2 different companies wanted to sell me a new unit instead of messing with trying to clean the coils on this one. The coils were not removable unless we cut the sheetmetal ducting (unit isn't in attic).

I put newspaper to catch the debris so it would not fall down into the furnace area of the unit while I worked on the coils. I used Simple Green as the cleaner, and then rinsed (from one side only since I couldn't access the tops of the coils) with a small pump sprayer - and put old towels on top of the newspaper while rinsing.

I ended up using toothbrushes to clean the coils, but if you can find a snowbrush for vehicles that would be a better tool. Here in this part of the country people look at you funny when you ask for winter products during our summers!

I'm sure my coils inside were about 90% blocked. I don't think they'd been cleaned during the units life.

Kay

Ps. At least once a week check the outside unit to make sure that nothing is obstructing air flow around the unit, and also it doesn't hurt to hose it down after mowing the lawn or after a windy and or dusty day.

K.

 

Like to add this to Kays

One of the best little tools we have on all the trucks is a small axe. This is to service the outdoor units of the A/C. If the condenser cant get 18" of air around it . Down and out with the bush. ED

 

They always want to grow sticker bushes around the condensor. OUCH!

 

I think that is to try and keep the kids and animals away from the unit.

Kay