Air Conditioning Repair Made Simple

What can homeowners do to keep their air conditioning system running great? We are going to go over simple, yet very effective ways you can make your air conditioning system run more efficient and make sure it last as long as possible. These steps will make sure your not wasting electricity when you do not have to. Take caution because some of there AC maintenance tips will include delicate cleaning of air conditioning parts. Make sure you are paying attention to what you are doing, it is easy to break something that was running fine before you “Cleaned” it.What can homeowners do to keep their air conditioning system running great? We are going to go over simple, yet very effective ways you can make your air conditioning system run more efficient and make sure it last as long as possible. These steps will make sure your not wasting electricity when you do not have to. Take caution because some of there AC maintenance tips will include delicate cleaning of air conditioning parts. Make sure you are paying attention to what you are doing, it is easy to break something that was running fine before you “Cleaned” it.

Clean, Clean & Clean Your Home AC Unit

The thing is your home or business AC unit moves a lot of air. Inside it moves air and outside it moves air. The inside unit is protected by you changing your filter every month. The outside unit is not so lucky. The outside unit needs to be cleaned by external forces at least once a year. I have seed some AC units on the rooftop that don’t get much dirt, other than that you will need to get your unit cleaned every year for optimal performance. The other thing that needs cleaning is your drain line. Everything that your indoor air filter catches has the potential of going down your drain line and clogging it up. On top of that whatever goes down your AC drain line can have the possibility of growing microorganisms like algae or mold or mildew. When your drain line gets stopped up you are looking at 10 – 15 gallons of water being made everyday. If your not set up properly this water can take out a large section of your home or office. We encourage people to make sure their drain line is not clogged and if it is clear it as soon as possible.

Cleaning The Indoor AC

The indoor AC unit cleaning is usually very easy. It involves you changing your filter every month to prevent anyone from having to clean it. With this simple instruction said you will have to make sure you actually do this. In homes you have purchased that this was not done prior, like it should have been, you will have to do much more to get the indoor unit cleaned. This indoor cleaning varies from install type to location in the building, but it will more that likely have to be performed by a licensed experienced technician. If your not careful messing with the indoor coil it may be damaged and start leaking either water or freon. Either would be bad for the long life of the coil. So take from this to change out your air filter on the indoor unit at least once a month for a one inch thick filter. 4+ inch thick filters can last for 3 – 6 months depending on usage. The summertime when the unit runs more in Mckinney TX, is when you will only get about 3 months out of it. When the winter rolls around in the Texas area we are using the AC unit less and can get more like 6 months out of the filter.

Cleaning The Outside AC

The outside unit is designed to be cleaned every year, at least most are. With this in mind we need to remember that the aluminum fins on the outside unit are delicate and cannot take a lot of water pressure. So that means pressure washer is out for sure under all circumstances. With that said some water pressure from the regular water nozzle will be too much. Watch as you spray the fins and make sure they are not bending. A chemical detergent or condenser coil cleaner will help reduce the amount of water pressure needed in order to remove the dirt. When you look at your AC unit at the house. It will almost always have the surface area of the coil that needs to be cleaned vertical. That means all of the sides that look like air can pass through will be cleanable. This is where the air passes to cool off the freon inside the copper tubes behind that aluminum fins. These fins will more than likely be behind a hail guard type of metal. This metal will have slots in them which will require you to get very low and look up to see past them. This prevents hail from bending the aluminum fins on the air conditioning unit. This is the only area needing cleaning, usually. If you have a few leaves in the bottom of the unit this is ok. We don’t want to see 4 inches of leaves but an inch or two is fine. Wash your condenser coils until they are very clean it may take you anywhere from 10 – 20 minutes to clean them off. This should be done on almost all residential AC units, every year.