Back To The Family Handyman
From 
Del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
StumbleUpon
TwitThis
About This Project
Few routine chores will pay off more handsomely, both in comfort and in dollars saved, than a simple air-conditioner cleaning. You can bet that a year’s worth of dirt and debris has clogged the cooling fins and lowered the unit’s efficiency. A dirty air conditioner may even stop cooling altogether. Several contractors we spoke with estimated that more than 90 percent of air-conditioner failures were the result of the owner’s failing to clean them!
In this article, we’ll show you how to clean and maintain your central air conditioner to keep it running efficiently. We won’t demonstrate the maintenance steps for a window-mounted model here.
Most central air conditioners have two basic parts: an outdoor unit (compressor/condenser) that sits next to your home and an indoor unit (evaporator) that’s located in a central duct near your furnace. If you have a heat pump instead of a furnace, the indoor unit will be in the air handler. Use the same maintenance steps we show here. If your furnace looks different from the one in Fig. A, or you have a heat pump, use the owner’s manual to find your way around it. The basic parts will be the same.
Central Air Conditioning System
Refrigerant in the copper tubes absorbs heat at the evaporator coil inside, cools indoor air and then releases heat at the condenser coil outdoors.The most important maintenance steps are fairly simple, but if this is the first time you’ve cleaned the unit, allow about a half day to carefully work through the steps. If you’re not up to the task, call a pro (look under “Air Conditioning Contractors” in your Yellow Pages). Cleaning and servicing a central air conditioner costs $100 to $250.
Advertisement 
Your Comments
See all
...
Post your comment