Cleaning Your Condenser Coil with an Air Conditioning Coil Cleaner
Your air conditioner’s outdoor condenser coil performs a very difficult job in warm weather. It functions by taking the collected concentrated heat and dumping it into the hot air outdoors. To dispose of the collected heat, your air conditioner’s outdoor condenser coil has to move lots of air. If the coil is placed near plants and other objects, the air conditioner unit easily gets dirty and it becomes hard for the outdoor coil’s fan to move since it requires much air for efficiency and good performance. This increases your electricity cost and may possibly shorten the life of the air conditioner’s outdoor condensing unit. To prevent this from happening, it is necessary to clean the condenser coil with an air conditioning coil cleaner. Of course, an air conditioning coil cleaner is not the only thing you require to carry out such a task. There are some steps to follow. Read through to know how.
Before using your air conditioning coil cleaner to clean your condenser coil, make sure the place where your condensing unit is located is free from dirt. Remove plants and other objects that may be causing the dirt. They should be 3 feet away from the unit. There should never be any visible build up of dirt around your condenser coil. You also have to make sure that the air’s upward path is unrestricted for at least five feet, particularly when the air is leaving the unit. If the outdoor air conditioning unit is installed under a deck or a trellis and some other structures are built above it, either move the structures by yourself or get the service of an air-conditioning contractor to help you move the outdoor air conditioning unit.
Most air conditioner condenser coils are loaded with dust and pollen, even though you do not see it. The longest you can get away from cleaning your condenser is 2 years, but still, it depends mainly on how much the air conditioner operates during the summer. If the cooling season in your area is 4 months or more, it is advisable that you clean your condenser annually. To start, turn off the unit’s power and remove any grass and lint visible from the louvers and/or fins with a whisk broom or old hairbrush. Use rubber gloves then spray your biodegradable air conditioning coil cleaner into the coil. Wait for five to ten minutes and use a gentle water spray to flush away the air conditioning coil cleaner.
If the aluminium fins outside the outdoor coil have leaves, dirt, or lint, it’s high time that you clean the coil. An old hairbrush is very good for brushing the surface lint and dirt off the fins. Brush towards the same direction of the slots between the fins to make the bristles go in between the fins. It is better if you first remove the guard grill protecting the coil. Do not forget to wear a dust mask when doing this to avoid breathing in the lint and dust. After brushing out the dirt, spray a heavy duty air conditioning coil cleaner into the coils. Let it sit for five minutes. Finish by removing the surface dirt using an old hairbrush, then spraying the coil with an air conditioning coil cleaner and rinsing the coil with a gentle spray of water.
Cleaning an air conditioner condenser coils is easy; however, if the coil is stuck with too much dirt, call a professional to clean it.