How are you a tech? The way he placed the fan could cause the blades to bend and lead to excessive vibration. It's usually best to disconnect the fan or if it the older rheem/rudd units you can flip the fan to where the blades are facing upwards when you remove the top plate.
@@jesussavesanus9790 your name suggests you are a troll. also where the person placed the fan has no connection to the cleaning process, and you can easily just place the fan in a position that would prevent it from becoming damaged.
On my Carrier unit the whole top is on a hinge and I just loosen it up an flip it into the upright position and out of the way. The outer frame moves up with the fan cage!
Thanks for this great video. My A/C company last year came out to do an annual service. They said I needed a Deep Clean of the condenser. It looked more like your unit, not your friends. But I said ok. They charged me $235. I watched him do it. He sprayed on the chemical on the Outside, waited 10 minutes then sprayed it down with the hose. I said to myself "I got ripped off, never again". I got that same cleaner from Home Depot and I am going to clean it myself, but the right way from the inside out. I even use my shop vac to clean out the pipe that the water drips out of. The only thing I can't do is go up in my attic to clean the coils. Thanks for the great video. I am a 73 young woman and I can do it!
RU-vid is great. Here I thought "the coils" were some mystical entity inside that box that required professional (expensive) care. A hose and a can of cleaner? Yes, please!
There are 2 sets of coils. The coils being cleaned in this video are the condenser coils and is relatively easy to DIY. The “mystical” coils you’ve heard about are the evaporator coils located above the blower and requires more intricate details to clean. The evaporator coils usually stay cleaner if you regularly change your filter. It’s still a good idea to get them cleaned every so often though.
Great video ! I had a lot of debris in the inside bottom. Thinking about putting a piece of window screen over the top during the Winter so all those leaves don't get in there.
I recommend using an air compressor to blow out all the debris from inside out. I also used a shop vac to vacuum the outside before I sprayed the coil cleaner. Makes a huge difference
Yep I clean all my units twice a year. I live in the desert so twice is nice. I have two split-units and one main house unit, so my day is done after doing three of these units. one is on the roof.
Nice tutorial. Very informative and to the point. I actually REALLY appreciate that. Going to subscribe because I can use more no-nonsense advice in my life for sure.
Hope this isn't a dumb question, but does this video apply to heat pump condenser as well? My heat pump unit looks just like the one in your video. Thank you for a great instructional video!
Hi James - Any heat exchanger with coils like the ones in this video should be able to be cleaned using the process I showed. Of course: you should check the owner's manual etc for your specific system in case there are any special specific steps/considerations. Good luck!
Great question! I don't recommend the maintenance programs. It has been my experience that they are overpriced, and don't actually save you much of any money in the long run. The specifics of these programs will vary from company to company, but the common approach many in my area take is to charge you an annual fee of something around $100, for which you'll get a single visit from a technician to do "annual maintenance". This maintenance usually includes changing the air filter in your system, and probably cleaning the condenser and evaporator coil. All 3 of these items are very simple DIY jobs which can be done very, very inexpensively. The main reason companies offer this annual service plan is to get someone out there to try to find any reason to upsell you on something - anything. My neighbor's father retired from one such company, and it was no secret with him: His job was to convince the homeowner that their system needed something. Didn't matter what, but he was not supposed to leave any of these annual maintenance calls without something extra on the books. Today's systems are quite reliable, and last a long time if you do the basics yourself like keeping the filters changed every 3 months, and cleaning the condenser and evap coils. I'm happy to call a technician when something is actually broken (blower motor fails, freon leak, etc) but I'll do the basic upkeep myself.
Now does it matter how you clean the coils. For example you sprayed in the inside and washed inside out. Can you spray from the outside and wash from the outside? Just wondering
Hi Raul - it only really matters because most of the debris that clogs up these fins does so by sticking to the outside of the unit. If you spray it from the outside, you will push all that junk through the fins, and some of it will get stuck. It’s better to clean from the inside out.
The only Issue I have is by the end your not sweating profusely and bleeding from a couple places you never realized got scraped. :) Excellent Video, thanks.
Oh that’s definitely me too, always come out with some body part bleeding, lol. It’s like impossible to avoid, especially the sweating part, that usually starts before the actual cleaning of the coils 🤣 now I know what I have to look forward to today. Ohhh, and the mosquitos too, uugghh.
This video is so great! The editing and pacing is perfect. I did not have to skip around or change the playback speed to get through unimportant info. I usually don't leave comments, but I wanted to let you know that I am about this video.
This is a great tutorial. I'm a brand new homeowner and I don't know if our A/C had ever been cleaned. Looked 5x worse than the example shown at 1:44, and was barely blowing any air inside our house. Used a combo of scrubbing bubbles and dish soap, and seems to be working a lot better now! Also want to note, there were about 100 spiders in our unit so I'm feeling very courageous after accomplishing that.
Um,, the outside condensing unit doesn't effect CFM on the inside. That sounds more like your evaporator coil. Be very careful when cleaning the evaporator coil, DO NOT USE CONDENSING COIL CLEANER on an evaporator coil, and that cleaner can eat up the evaporator material. They have a spray on no spray off required cleaner for the evaporator that works great on the inside on the furnace. One thing you always want to do to save time, product/materials which = $$, is take a brush and CAREFULLY remove the heavy sweater off the front of the coil. They make special brushes for this, but it's basically just a small, hand held nylon bristled brush. Just use very light pressure and watch to make sure you're not damaging the fins! Once you have the heavy stuff off, your time and materials will be much more efficiently utilized.
Be sure to also change your indoor filter as well, you do not want to use one that is really dense as it restricts the amount of air flow which is not good...
I did this back in the Spring of this year and was amazed at the debris that I washed out of my condenser's coils. It made about a $30 a month difference in my cooling bill. Amazing! Thanks for the info and tutorial.
Thank you so much for this. I was able to confidently clean mine today when a company previously tried not only to tell me they would do it for 2k, but encouraged me to REPLACE MY ENTIRE SYSTEM over it being dirty for a lovely 20k. This is not a joke. I'm glad I had a feeling something was off and remembered I'm a capable badass and could probably do it on my own, then went to youtube and found this. I was FLABBERGASTED to see what was VERY poorly explained to me was so simple to do on my own. Certainly doesn't require an entire system replacement. Yepp, I'm a young woman if you were wondering. 🙃
Thank you for this video! My AC quit yesterday, so I let it cool down and it started back up again. Today, I cleaned the coils and put a new filter in. It seems to be running better. Thanks again, excellent video!
HVAC in Alabama here. Good video. We use a stronger foaming cleaner but the mere spraying through the coil fins with water will help a lot. I would add that when there is a lot of debris on the outside, brush or blow off as much of that as possible before applying the coil cleaner. As stated in the video, be sure to spray straight through the fins because even water can bend them. I've spent MANY hours straightening coil fins. The flashlight test is a great idea.
thanks for the extra tips. I am about to tackle an old unit that is caked in dirt. I appreciate this video and your extra information. I wonder if I should brush/blow off the dirt, then run water from the inside then do the spray foam?
@@hildyr1052 get multiple quotes and compare, most companies do free quotes for system installs. Stay away from Lennox they have been having issues with their coils.
Just did mine today. There was a thick layer of dirt on it, and I figured, why not try my utility brush first to get rid of as much of that as possible. It was gentle enough to remove 98% of the layer without damaging the coils. I got the A/C Saver foam from Home Depot. I was disappointed-it barely foamed and just did a stream, so I put it on about 3 times. What foaming cleanser do you use, or is it something only available to HVAC workers?
Thank you so much for this! This was a great tutorial! Thoroughly explained each step, gave us the proper warnings, and showed each step in the process. You got yourself a new subscriber!
Great video! I work in HVAC/R distribution, Johnstone Supply, and this was a very easy to learn video, think I’ll clean my Trane this Saturday, thanks for the reminder! LOL
I’m a retired single woman into diy. This year I spent over 400 for service to 2 Trane units. The tech recommended I clean the units more often. So here I am. I really like the power tools. Sometimes they get away from me 😖. I already learned how to flush my water heater. That was a big mess but done. 🤪
Some of that cleaner is nasty stuff. Gotta take precaution with splashes and eyes. I use a mixture of 1 cup white vinegar and 3 cups water. Let it set awhile then hose off.
I really appreciate this video. Good man!! My system was failing every five minutes until I followed these instructions. I'm back at 65 degrees inside with 98 outside. Thank you, Blessings!!
I currently live in the first house I've ever bought. I've been here for 7 years. I didn't know this was a thing. I am going to clean mine out this week. The AZ heat causes the AC unit to run just about 24/7
The other things to be maintained are the Filters inside the home, if theyre dirty/old then air flow will be restricted. And also the condensate lines/pipes which can also cause issues if they get blocked over time, but thats something that should be researched or left to an HVAC Tech to handle.
You should clean your condenser coils at least once a year. The process literally takes less than 15 minutes start to finish, and really does help improve the efficiency of your system.
I call BS on that. I cleaned mine yesterday and it took HOURS to get it completely washed it. My unit has two rows of coils which had to be partially separated to ensure getting all the cottonwood fuz and crap removed from between them and then there was the fine sand trapped in there. I used two gallons of properly diluted coil cleaner and God only knows haw many gallons of water to flush it all out. Oh and by the way that gray box with conduits next to your condenser is called a Disconnect, not a breaker. Some disconnects have breakers but the one you have is just a simple disconnect.
@@caretoc7142 I'm using this for a guide for me a female ! Yeah I'm pretty sure mine needs cleaned out. I was good untill he said take this part off ? Then put your cleaner on. Well my CAC had to be cleaned last year only inside was dirty. So with that being said I think maybe the ice on coils is coming from my unit being in the same room as my dryer. I'm sure the lent build up doesn't help so guess I'll try inside first / after I check out the outside first. Thank you for your incredible cleaning details. Pray please I get this done. Being alone is good for the most part. But when things like this happen 😁yeah ! It's all up to me ! Have a great day.
@@kissmyhonkydonkey5678 I think hes speaking of MOST systems, not yours specifically. Fuck off with that negativity on a video trying to help people out. I did exactly what he did in the video and my AC unit worked 10x better afterwards. Sorry you got the first prototype ac condenser from 1932
Very helpful. I wasn’t aware this needed to be done annually. I’ve been in my house for four years and it’s never been done. So, I will be doing that this week!
@@AmplifyDIY I just purchased my house and the line comming off the unit is freezing/Frosting over I've got a new filter in my furnace could lack of air flow due to dirty fins cause that?
Thanks! Another great video! This was easier than I thought. I had the exact same fuse box to remove power. I had quite a bit of water pool in the unit so vacuumed it out with a shop vac and let everything dry an hour or so before replacing the fuse. AC working like a champ!
Lot of sad sack losers in this world, I guess the thumbs down were because they didn’t like your hair style. Thanks for a very informative video. God bless.
I watched your Water Heater video first (because the HOA advised everyone to flush the tanks, which I had never done before) and learned a lot from that. Many videos later, here I am, cleaning out my AC unit's coils! Haha, I think I may have missed the day of school that they gave the manual on how to do preventative maintenance on all of these appliances. Thank you again for making such concise, easy-to-follow videos. Your manner of speaking makes me feel like a friend is next to me giving me pointers on what to do. I'll keep an eye on your channel for more things I should be doing around the house.
Hi Bobby - no, you don't need to let it dry. Keep in mind that these are designed to be out in the elements, so they are able to withstand rain, snow, etc. I do try not to get the fan motor completely soaked, but everything inside the condenser enclosure can withstand water just fine.
Great video, thanks you! And may I also add that the levels on your background music are PERFECT. A really nice touch that I've seen a lot of other video makers get wrong.
I have a question about the rinsing process. When you're done rinsing, is it ok for the water to be setting inside the unit before you turn the a/c back on? How wet can it be?
Yes, a little water inside is fine. Remember that these are designed to sit outside in the rain. Just make sure that the drain holes at the bottom are not blocked and you don’t have a ton of water pooling inside. Good luck!
Why do some condenser units have a warning from the manufacturer not to clean the coils with anything except water. Are HVAC companies damaging the coating on the coil fins by using their special acid treatment?
My AC unit was WAY beyond needing a cleaning. Excellent video. I wish I knew that was a thing (and was as easy as it was) before I wasted energy over the last couple summers! 🤦♂️
This is good advice. I would get slack on cleaning mine, ---I would often skip years when I was working and too busy making a living. Now that I'm retired, I plan to clean it every year . AC units are too expensive to neglect.
Keeping the area around the condenser clean cuts down on the debris that re-enters the coil. After washing go back a few days later and remove the debris on the ground that came out of the condenser coil during the cleaning.
Great video. Thanks! looking forward to following your steps and getting my HVAC in tiptop shape. Just had a technician from an HVAC company come out and told me I needed to clean it and the cost is $425. So happy to buy the coil cleaner linked in your comments for 14 bucks and save myself some cash. :-)
That price is insane. We have a local company that does the flush as part of their yearly "tune-up" for $90. Yeah, it's still cheaper to do it yourself, but nowhere near the price you were quoted.
Studying hvacr diagnosis for most of my life, I have learned that dirty coils are the cause of numerous problems and catastrophic failures. I’ve also learned that most people don’t get that.
I couldn't agree more! "An ounce of prevention.....". As for my water heater, I've always had city water but I installed a water softener anyway, mostly because my glassware was coming out of the dishwasher sort of milky-looking. Anyway, as the water was still considered "hard" at 10-12 grains of hardness, I'm glad I did, even though my neighbors thought I was crazy, but....I don't need to drain the water heater anywhere near as often as I once did.
lol, you're cute if you think your friend's condenser is 'filthy'. his was, at best, a little dirty. you work in HVAC and you'll see dozens of units a week. your units are fine. but it IS smart to clean it before it becomes actually filthy. people will ignore their unit for 5 plus years, the leaves have turned into mulch. and sometimes you'll see plants growing inside it. THAT is filthy. hornet's nests, dirt divers, webs, wet insulation, corroded fins. you'll see a lot of that if you ignore your unit when it's 'filthy'.
You inspired me. I did this last week, and the A/C air has felt much cooler since then. I can only imagine this means I'll use less energy, as the A/C will hopefully need to run for shorter durations to cool the house equally. Incidentally, I believe it had been 15 years since my A/C was cleaned. Wasn't too terribly dirty, surprisingly.
Nice work! Yes, your system will most definitely use less energy now that it has been cleaned. How carefully do you track your energy use? Do you happen to have a thermostat that can show you historical runtimes for your system? I'd love to see a before and after with actual numbers.
@@AmplifyDIY I have a Nest, so it should be there. But I'm reluctant to put too much stock in the numbers given daily temperature variance has been pretty high of late. But heck, I'll look at the data and make insane conclusions anyway!
I have a honeywell, and it emails me monthly reports each month that compare that month's usage (i.e., actual A/C runtime per day) to the prior year's... complete with average daily temperatures etc. Armed with a bit of data, it should be relatively easy to determine if your system is running any more efficiently after the cleaning. Still, any conclusions will mostly be for the "gee-whiz" file, I suspect.
@@AmplifyDIY Welp, as expected. I cleaned it on August 17. Temps were slightly lower the following week, but usage remained the same (or increased): thesmithfam.org/temp/ac_usage.png (left axis is usage in seconds, right access is high outside air temp for the day in F)
@@HeyItsMeDave Really interesting data! As I look at the graph, it looks like the week previous to when you cleaned your condenser the AC ran more at lower temperatures. For instance, look at Aug 8 - the high for the day was around 80F, but the AC ran as long as it did on Aug 24, when the high was over 90F. Similar result for Aug 11. Out of curiosity: What year was your house built? Do you happen to know how well your attic is insulated?
Watch Video with my twin sister and we cleaned her unit. Was dirty no doubt. Hopefully it solves her AC issues - at least if she has to call AC repair her unit will be C L E A N!! Easy to understand Video put her mind at ease and gave us confidence and got it ✔ done so Thank You for your video...
With my AC unit, it had not been cleaned for years by the prior owners. The leaves and debris had broken down into a a few inches of soil. It is difficult to be too critical with it being a 1979 Lennox that had been running whisper quiet for the last 12 years. At some point, I have to believe the compressor was replaced at some point. It is a Copeland scroll, I believe.
Thank you for the easy tutorial I have to get myself up on my roof and I was pretty worried about how I would clean that thing out but it looks to be a lot easier than I thought it would be so thank you for the good tutorial
I just cleaned my air conditioner evaporator coils as in your helpful video on RU-vid. My home is staying cooler during the hot summer. This has saved my family $24-$30 per month, with keeping my dryer vent/dryer clean, refrigerator condenser coils clean and changing my furnace air filter. Thanks for teaching me these important home maintenance tasks to show friends, neighbors, and coworkers my natural abilities of dryer vent cleaning and appliance repair knowledge. Some neighbors, and friends have said, you really know your stuff about dryer fires/prevention and appliance repair knowledge. Thanks for all your helpful videos on RU-vid.
Nice video, the dryer duct work cleaning video brought me here. Going to be looking for larger attachment pieces for air duct work, not just dryer ducts too. Great videos. To the point, no silly nonsense, calm, helpful, and carefully informative
He did a VERY GOOD JOB of explaining the cleaning process step by step. I'm a new homeowner and just be looking at this, I can do myself......thanks...
Ours is way worse than your friends. We’ve had it 15 years now, and it finally quit on us. I opened the panels, and I didn’t even know there was a metal grate till I touched it and half a centimetre of this fur came off. I thought my husband was the know it all handy man, but it looks like I might have to learn a few diy skills too.
I just had a service call on my AC Unit, the fan quit running, the service technician came out and looked at the condenser coil and found that it was quite dirty (plugged up) with some of the early spring tree and pollen debris. The electric starter coil that operates the condenser was out of operating range and had to be replaced, it was due to the plugged up Condenser Coil, which caused the unit to work harder than it should. It took the technician about an hour to hose down the Unit, and more time to change the electric starter coil and add more of the New Freon. If you want to save some money and avoid the inconvenience of having an AC Breakdown on a hot, hot, hot day and night, hose down your AC unit and change the air filter on the inside of the house. Keep in mind that these technicians are very busy during the AC season, and it may be a day or two for them to respond to you service call.
Our unit was blowing hot air back in the 80s and watched the tech do exactly this from the inside out and that's all that was wrong with it... it started blowing cool again. Been doing ever since, not sure if the spray is neccessary though?
Hi Part 1 - any sort of mild detergent will just help the cleaning a) go faster and b) be more thorough. Some people just use plain water, but I like using a foaming cleanser. The foam really does a good job of clearing out all the dirt. Thanks for watching!
I am a commercial HVAC tech. Their is no good way to straighten coil fins. All methods suck. Another thing, I would spray off all loose debris before spraying the cleaner on.
I thought there was an HVAC tool that will straighten out bent fins.....wouldn't a shop vac work very well for removing loose debris? I think I can clean my own a/c units from now on, its not exactly rocket science and especially since an HVAC company quoted me $150 to clean my two units here in west TN.
Love the tutorial. Im not sure why it has any thumbs down? Everything was easily explained and did not have to replay any part to try to understand the process. Thank you so much for making sense of everything.
Thanks for the vid. Some of the others are spraying the Cleaner from the outside, and one even dirtier than this one did not even mention the cleaner step.
Hi Frank - no, you can start the system back up even with a little bit of water still inside and on the coils. Remember that these are designed to run in rain, snow, etc, and can deal with some water just fine. Great question!
on most residential systems, its really not necessary to take the system apart unless there is a lot of debris that needs to be removed the bottom. These coils are thin enough that a good stream of water will push all the dirt right through the coil. I don't even use coil cleaner all of the time if its just a light cleaning. I only clean inside out if the coil has been neglected or if its a commercial system with a thicker or split row coil,
I got a technician and he said he needed to clean the coil for $105 before putting the freezon in (another $70). Immediate after they clean coil they measured the difference in pressure. I saw he was exchanging eyes with his coworker like "see?". At that moment I knew what I had paid was more for a lesson, not for a repair. They even laughed when they gave me the bill.
