22Mar
Cleaning Air Conditioners Why and How
Americans love to control the
temperature Be it winter or summer
According to Statista.com, the United States imported 5.4 million air conditioners in 2018. Further, the total number of air conditioners in the country exceeds the number of people living in it.
These facts give you an idea of how much Americans love to control the temperature of the spaces they live in. Be it winter or summer, all we want is to stay comfortable, in our homes and the hotel rooms we choose. However, the most difficult part of having an air conditioner is maintaining it.
Americans love to control the
temperature Be it winter or summer
Regular cleaning is required to ensure the unit does not emanate foul odor, cools and heats a room smoothly and runs for a long time.
While the task of cleaning an air conditioner looks tedious and time-consuming, a few tips can guide you in doing a good job of it. This article will help you understand how an air conditioner works and how to clean it.
The basic job of the air conditioner is to throw out the heat inside a room and bring in cool air and vice versa. This is done with the help of two parts, outdoor and indoor, and five main components.
- Fan
- Evaporator coil that cools the air
- Compressor or an electric pump
- Condenser coil that throws the heat out
- Expansion valve
The fan in the inside unit blows air through the chilled evaporator coil, sending cool air into your room. Meanwhile outside, the compressor, condenser coil, and another fan push out the hot air. The expansion valve regulates the amount of refrigerant, a chemical that cools the air, moving between the evaporator and condenser coils.
Now that the operation is clear, let’s get to the cleaning part. For cleaning purposes, the parts you need to focus on are the fans, the filter, the compressor, and the condenser coil.
Caution: Be sure to cut off the power supply to the AC before you venture to clean it.
Vacuum the Fans:
Open the case of the air conditioner unit. Keep in mind the location of the bolts according to its size. Vacuum the dust on the blower fan and wipe it with a rag. For harder dirt use a solution of half cup bleach in one gallon of warm water. The bleach should remove any mold formations too.
Replace the Filter:
The best thing to do is to replace the filter with a new one. In some systems, filters are visibly located and in others, they are usually in the front or on top of the blower fan. Whichever the case remove the filter. The tricky part is to pick the right replacement filter for your unit. Be sure to get the right-sized filter.
Wash the Compressor:
This part is where you need to be careful and thorough. The compressor has fins or very fine grill-like metal sheets closely bound that are sharp and often collect a lot of dirt. Compressor fins are located on the outdoor portion of the system. Vacuum the visible crud from the fins. Then using an AC coil cleaner and a nylon bristle brush clean the harder dirt. An important step is to straighten out the bent fins. Fin combs are available and do the job pretty quickly. Place the fin comb according to the spacing of the coils and pull up the comb to straighten the fins. Don’t forget to wear leather gloves to prevent getting nasty cuts.
Wash the Condenser Coil:
The air conditioner’s condenser is contained in the outdoor unit. Although the whole unit is called the condenser unit, it actually contains multiple components, including the condenser tubes and fins, the compressor, a fan and copper tubing, as well as valves and switches. The coils are more often than not located on the outside. First, brush out the dirt with a coil brush. Then straighten the coils using a fin comb and wash it up using the coil cleaner.
End Note:
AGH Supply offers over 500 hotel supplies products – from tissues, electronics, platform bed base, towels, bed linen, cleaning supplies, to hardware. Keeping in mind that quality always comes first, we offer easy to operate, thoughtfully designed and multi-seasonal GREE air conditioning units, both in 26″ Through-the-Wall and 42″ ETAC-II variants. Please feel free to contact us for any queries.
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