Air con units that are poorly or not maintained.

[thornaby]

Having just gave one of my units a major strip down and clean I thought it might be useful to highlight the need to clean these things out regularly and thoroughly. My kitchen unit was not working as expected. Its around three years old, I have cleaned the filters , fan blades and evaporate fins before as best as I could. Unsure how to remove the cover that stubbornly did not want to come away I backed away. This time however I did remove the front cover and was horrified at how dirty the fins, fan blades and drip tray were., Removed all these things that were very dirty and gunged up. Thank goodness for my dear wife's toothbrush for cleaning the fins. These things can get very dirty and must be a health hazard. If you are reasonably competent, information for this work is readily available on YouTube, if not get get someone in but make sure they clean the filters, evaporator completely with the full outer cover removed, the drip dray and a through cleaning of the fan that is removed from the unit.

[frontalman]

Make sure you wash your wife's toothbrush thoroughly before returning it to her. I use Sally's to clean the lavatory, but sometimes forget to tell her.

[helendj]

There is a cleaner you can get in the supermarkets specifically for cleaning air cons,worth getting

[thornaby]

Hi Heledji, you are correct in saying that there are spray cleaners, but looking at the evaporator coils, the way they curve around to the top of the unit I know these cleaners will have limited effect, I think there is is no substitute for a thorough strip down, my drip tray although working was very dirty and most certainly dangerous to health. Please understand the dangerous of a dirty unit blowing air into to the room .

[Keithcaley]

I recommend using a vacuum cleaner and possibly a compressed air spray to dislodge any hard-to-reach fluff and dust.

Besides cleaning the drip tray, ensure that the drain hole and pipe are clear by poking a piece of flexible wire down the hole!

As thornaby says, cleaning sprays are not very effective.

[Soner]

Had my aircon cleaned by a company from Alanici, very efficient, wrapped them up in polythene then jet washed them, collecting water in a bucket.

[thornaby]

Hi Keith, I bought a small compressor (Chinese junk regretting the quality British one I never brought over from the UK), for the sole purpose of blowing out the crap as the vacuuming has little effect. The breather/ filler plastic fittiing snapped off when I tried removing it to fill the thing with the supplied oil. Rather than try and explain the problem at the shop I decided to resolve it myself when I needed it on the next clean only to find that the screw threads were not BSP ( the standard that is used around all off the civilised world) but NPT the American standard, now waiting for a conversion fitting from the UK. Having said that my unit was that wet and slimely I think blowing it out would have created a massive mess. Again, having said that perhaps more frequent maintenance vacuuming or a blow out wout have been sufficient . But to everyone these thing need regular maintenance done properly!

[Hammerhead]

Ibo has just done my units,very good and clean and good price

[thornaby]

Hi Michelle , good to know you are happy, but what I would ask is do you underst what needs to be done and how effectively that was done. Don't mean to sound negative but spending years in the supervision of maintenance procedures I know only full well there is maintenance and there is "maintenance ".

[Hammerhead]

I watched him and he stripped it right down he had all the necessary parts and tools and he was honest

[thornaby]

Job well done Michelle, far to often we let people crack on without understanding or checking on the work we are paying them to do!

[thornaby]

"Parts", would not be required Michelle this should just be a thorough cleaning job, but if you zre happy than so am I!