Like any other home appliance, your air conditioner is bound to become dirty after some time. In fact, it accumulates dirt faster than other equipment because it deals with air, which is a primary carrier of dust, microorganisms, and other contaminants present in your building. A well-maintained air conditioner improves not just your home’s energy efficiency but your indoor air quality as well.
Consequences of a Dirty Air Conditioner
A lot of home and business owners take their air conditioner for granted because they are unaware of the bad effects of leaving it dirty. To them, as long as their unit is producing cool air or creates a motorised sound when turned on, there’s no need to panic or do anything. They only take action when it’s already too late or when the dirt in the unit has already created irreversible damage. Below are some of the potential consequences why Air Conditioning Cleaning Sunshine Coast is important.
Mechanical Failure
A thin layer of dust may not pose a threat to your air conditioner, but if you let this layer thicken, it can add a significant weight to the fan blades, causing it to run slower. As the fan blades’ ability to spin becomes compromised, so does the performance of other components connected to them. With so much resistance going on, the inside of your air conditioner wears down faster than expected. It might also damage some parts, which could cause the whole system to break down
Higher Bills
Too much dust trapped in the filter could block the passage of air, which in turn reduces the supply of cool air into your home. This means your air conditioner will have to work harder to compensate for the energy loss, consequently increasing your monthly power consumption.
Discomfort
If indoor air feels warmer that it should be, there must be something wrong with your air conditioner. Although this may happen when your air conditioner is low on refrigerant, it is not the most common cause of the problem. Your next best guess would be the filter is chock full of dust and grime that it’s getting harder and harder for cool air to be released into your house. This problem may not only result in a musty and dusty feeling whenever the air conditioner is running, but the trapped cool air may also freeze some of the unit’s components, rendering them dysfunctional in the long haul.
Health Problems
The problems you might encounter with a dirty air conditioner could be worse if you have a duct system. This is because it is where some of the nastiest stuff in your home that eventually gets mixed up with the very air you and your family breathe are hiding. By cleaning your air conditioning system regularly, and that includes the duct system, you can remove dead mice, animal manure, and other materials that carry deadly bacteria and allergens before they start decomposing and dispersing into your home through the vents.
Dirty air conditioning filter and ductwork are among the major causes of various respiratory illnesses characterised by frequent coughing and sore throat, congestion and wheezing, and asthma attacks. Some bacteria that can breed in dirt and grime can be lethal when inhaled by anyone with a weak immune system.
How to Clean an Air Conditioner
Now that you have a good sense of the importance of keeping your air conditioner clean, it’s time to learn how to actually do it. Although you can simply leave this task to a professional technician like Port City Air Conditioning, it pays to know the brass tacks of it yourself. After all, it’s not that complicated, except when you are dealing with huge amounts of dirt that have already reached some delicate components. Here’s a simple procedure to follow on cleaning your air conditioner.
Know what type of air conditioner you have
First things first. Keep in mind that although most of the steps are the same for all types of air conditioner, there are some steps that are specific to each type. For instance, if you have a ducted residential air conditioning system, the cleaning goes deep into the ductwork. (https://loscoches.com/) It’s even trickier if you have a ducted commercial air conditioning system because its ductwork is much bigger and covers a larger area.
Power down
Don’t start cleaning unless you’re sure no electricity is running through your air conditioner. Unplug it or turn off its circuit breaker.
Clean the fins and coils
Whether your air conditioner is a split system or a ducted system, it usually comes with an indoor unit. Even though the structure of a ducted system’s indoor unit is different from that of a split system, both have an output section containing the fins and coils, and this is where cleaning usually starts because it’s buried inside the equipment. Remove the rear exhaust panel to access the fins and coils. Vacuum them thoroughly to get rid of as much dust as possible.
Unclog the drain
At the bottom of the air conditioner lies the drain channels whose primary function is to collect condensate. Over time, the dirt that comes with the water it collects may build up and clog the channels. Free the drain of excess water and clean out any clogs with a pipe cleaner.
Clean the filter
Before you put back the filter and the grille, make sure to scour them properly. The filter can be vacuumed or rinsed with warm sudsy water but make sure to dry it properly before assembly. If it’s already three months old and rinsing it can no longer take care of the dust build-up, consider replacing it with a new one.
Once everything is clean, put everything back together and try running the unit to see if anything’s changed. These DIY aircon cleaning tips are just basic. If you encounter a complex issue before or after you even peer into your air conditioner’s inner parts, calling a technician to do the job is a much safer option. Get in touch with Port City Air Conditioning for all your air conditioner maintenance needs.