Dirty coils won’t interchange heat correctly and will reduce the competence of an air conditioner. Simply put– dirty coils in an AC system will waste energy. If my coils were always dirty, I’d end up outlying way more money on my electric bill!
One thing that I do every year is wash my coils using an AC coil cleaner. AC coil cleaners are specially formulated to remove the gunk and grime from AC coils and uphold the lifespan of an air conditioner.
What Is an AC Condenser Coil?
The AC condenser, a metal coil situated outside your home, changes refrigerant gas into liquid form. As the gas cools to a liquid, it relieves heat outside. To help, a high-powered fan permits air over a condensing coil. Once cooled, the liquid refrigerant moves, with the help of the compressor, through the AC system to collect heat from inside.
How Long Do AC Coils Last?
The AC coils should last the life of your system, or anywhere from 10 to 20 years.
What Can Cause A Condenser Coil to Leak?
Leakages within defective tubes and seals are common motives for condenser failure. The component’s tubes can break, get stabbed, or become brittle and break apart. The seals can wear and break down after heavy use. While these parts can fail as the result of an influence, they classically fail due to regular, continuing wear.
Do Home Warranties Cover AC Coils?
Home warranties frequently cover AC coils but not always the labor you need to substitute them. Check your insurance before signing a professional.
AC Condenser Coil & AC System Clarified
The AC condenser lives outdoors in your home that plays a significant role in heat transfer. It changes the refrigerant gasses into liquid form with the help of the compressor. The procedure cools the refrigerant, freeing all the heat is collected from inside the home. All AC system parts work together flawlessly to make this complex machine function.
- The compressor forces the refrigerant into a gas, pushing it along the system's cooling loop.
- The condenser changes it to a liquid. During this process it cools, giving up its stored heat.
- The evaporator engrosses the heat from inside the house as the liquid “evaporates” into a gas in the evaporator coil.
- It then moves back outside the home to the condenser to recap the process.
- A heat pump simply works on the contrary. It takes heat from the outside of the home and handovers it inside with the same process.
Part of your routine HVAC conservation should comprise checking and dusting your AC coils as wanted. AC coils are prone to collecting dirt and grime, and regular housework may be wanted, mainly for condenser coils that are unprotected to the outside.
Below are some universal steps that you can take to clean your AC coils.
Power off AC unit
The first step is to turn off control to your AC unit. Turning off power guarantees that the AC unit is de-energized and won’t electrocute you when cleaning the coils.
It is also prudent to wait for a few minutes after turning off the power to permit stored current to dissipate from the AC unit’s interior electrical machinery.
Gain access to AC coil
The second step is to gain entree to the AC unit’s coil so you can unsoil it. Depending on the make and model of your AC unit, you may need to eliminate screws and panels to expose the AC coil.
Clean AC coil
The third step is to unsoil the AC coil. There are a few unlike ways that you can clean AC coils:
- Setback out dust from the coil utilizing compressed air
- Slurp out dust from the coil with a vacuum cleaner
- Spray the coil down with a water hose
- Use an AC Coil dusting solution
If you are shelling compressed air into your coils, be sure that you are shooting the dust OUT of the coil, not IN the coil — you don’t want the dust going deeper into the coil!
For duller coils, sucking the dust out may not be sufficient, and you will need to spray the coil down with a water hose to clean off filth and stain.
For the dirtiest coils, an AC coil dusting solution is suggested to clean off dogged built-up grime. Using a coil cleaning brush is optional to scrape off the remainder.
AC Coil Cleaning Brush
This fin and coil cleaning brush are easy enough to slide into coils– but it's also stiff sufficient to pickle off grime when used with a coil cleaner.
In any case, be sure that you formulate the surrounding area for whatever cleaning technique you choose.
For example, if you are going to be spraying down your AC coil with water, be sure that the area around the AC unit is okay with receiving a little wet.
If you are cleaning a coil that is inside, you should reflect setting up a plastic tarp beneath the AC unit to catch the liquid runoff.
What you can do and when to hire a pro
Odds are that if you’ve mistreated a spring checkup, your air conditioner isn’t cooling closely as well as it could. A year’s worth of dirt and wreckage clogging the chilling fins, a low coolant level, a dirty blower fan filter, and several other simple glitches can knowingly reduce the competence of your a/c condenser and wear it out faster.
You can’t do all; only a pro can check the coolant level. But you can simply hold most of the dull cleaning chores and save the extra $120 that it would cost to have a pro do them.
All the steps are humble and straightforward and will take you only a few hours total. You don’t need any singular skills, tools, or knowledge. If you aren’t acquainted with air conditioners and heaters/blowers, don’t fear. We’ll walk you over the basics. You may have a dissimilar type of central air conditioner than we show here—a heat pump system, for example, or a unit riding straight in the attic. However, you can still carry out most upkeep procedures we show here because each system will have a condenser outside and an evaporator inside. Use the owner’s manual for your specific model to help direct around any changes from the one we show in our photos. And call in a pro every two or three years to check electrical parts and the coolant level.
Tip: Call for service before the first heatwave, when the pros become flooded with reparation calls.
