by Cooper Climate Control
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During the hot months, your air conditioner accounts for a bigger percentage of your energy bills than anything else. Fortunately, there are many ways that you can lower these costs – some are really easy, like remembering to change your filters every month; some are a little more involved, like scheduling seasonal air conditioner maintenance and inspection; some are very simple: just clean off your air conditioner coils!
How to Clean Air Conditioner Coils
Cleaning air conditioner coils is not only easy, it’s also kind of fun. Just take a garden hose and blast off all the accumulated dust and debris from the outdoor condenser until it’s sparkling clean! Remember, your air conditioner outdoor condenser designed to withstand heavy rains and wind, so spraying it with the hose won’t damage it in the least – go crazy and make sure you get it as clean as possible.
In addition to spraying your outdoor condenser down roughly once a month (more if you live in an area with a lot of dust or pollen), you’ll want to find a non-acid, non-alkaline based cleaner and use it to rub the coil down once a year. For this you’ll have to shut off the AC, remove the cover from the outdoor condenser and wipe the whole thing down with a towel. Foaming cleaners work great for this kind of task.
Why Clean Air Conditioner Coils are Important
Why all the fuss about having clean air conditioner coils? Think about this – as you may know, air conditioners don’t technically “cool” rooms. What they do instead is take the heat out of the air, then blow the heat-less air back into the room (there’s a cocktail party fact for you).
In order for this to happen, air has to move across the AC coil where the heat is sucked out by the refrigerant. Needless to say, if the coils are dirty they’re going to be less effective at pulling the heat out of the air, causing at best your air conditioner to be less efficient and at worst severe damage to your unit as large amounts of heat get stuck in the outdoor condenser.
Clean Air Conditioner Coils are No Substitute for Air Conditioner Inspection
Having clean air conditioner coils is extremely important, but when it comes down to it, there is no better way to make sure your air conditioner is in good working order than by having a professional air conditioner inspection at the start of every season. In fact, you can essentially think of clean air conditioner coils being a prerequisite for seasonal air conditioner maintenance – trust us, if you have clean air conditioner coils it will make the air conditioner inspection process go much, much more smoothly.
If you have dirty air-conditioning coils, give your outdoor condenser a good spray down to knock out all that extra dust and debris. Then call Cooper Climate Control, your heating & cooling specialists for a full Valley-Metro air conditioning inspection!
