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What West Texas dust does to an air conditioner.
The same unit, before and after a proper coil cleaning — and why the difference shows up on the hottest afternoon of the year.
Drag the slider across the coil.
Left: packed with dust, grass and seed fluff. Right: washed from the inside out.
Both photographs show the same coil from the same position. Illustrative of typical results; every coil is different.
A clogged coil fails on the worst day.
- It can't shed heat
- The outdoor coil is where the heat from inside your house or building is dumped. Dust blankets it, and less heat leaves.
- Pressures climb
- With nowhere for the heat to go, refrigerant pressures and temperatures rise, and cooling capacity drops.
- The compressor strains
- It works harder and hotter for longer — the most expensive part in the system, doing the most work.
- It trips on the hottest day
- On a 100-degree afternoon a dirty coil can push the system into its high-pressure safety, and it shuts off exactly when you need it.
Inside out, not outside in.
- Power off at the disconnect, top and fan lifted off.
- Coil cleaner applied, then rinsed from the inside out at low pressure, so dirt leaves the way it came in.
- Bent fins combed straight.
- Fan, motor and electrical checked before it goes back together; pressures read once it's running.
Once a year — and after the bad days.
Every spring
Before the first long hot spell, as part of a cooling tune-up.
After a dust storm
A big blow can pack a coil in an afternoon.
Near dirt and fields
Units by a caliche road, a field, a mesquite line or construction clog faster.
Rooftops collect more than you'd think.
A rooftop unit sits in the wind all year, often beside a parking lot or a construction site. On a building with several units, coil cleaning is the cheapest thing on the maintenance list and one of the most useful.
Between visits, a gentle rinse helps.
With the power off, rinse the outside of the coil gently with a garden hose. Never a pressure washer — it flattens the fins — and don't open the unit. Leave the inside-out cleaning to us.
Book a spring coil cleaning.
For a house or a roof full of units.