Every year about this time I take all the sheet metal off the outside condensing unit and give the condenser coils a thorough cleaning. Every year when i do it the outside of the coils are covered with crap in just 1 years time. I'm thinking about wrapping the outside of the unit with some filter material from a roll. Something like this. https://www.airfilterhub.com/collec...environet-hvac-furnace?variant=39252902183006 I would change it several times during the year as needed. Would there be any down side to doing this? It is a 2008 4 Ton Ruud R22 unit. The unit looks similar to this with the vents on 3 sides.
Getting it clean is no problem. Stripping all the sheet metal off and and back on and doing it correctly is a several hour job and just a pain. I'm trying to avoid doing it more than once a year. This would go on the outside of the unit, not directly up against the coils and would be easy to see when it needs to be changed, It would be less of a restriction than all the crud that builds up on the coil.
I would think a roll of window screen repair material would be better than the filter material as it wouldn't matter if it got wet from rain. And in theory as soon as the vacuum of the fan is stopped any debris will just fall away. I'm not a technician, but I have slept at a holiday inn (a long time ago).
If its getting that much crud, its not being cleaned often enough. Its your unit to do as you wish but I wouldn't recommend a filter. (Been in the HVAC business for 25 years)
Sorry but I have to disagree. It is necessary to strip the sheet metal off. Otherwise all the gunk collects at the bottom between the sheet metal and the coil The unit sits in a corner and 2 sides are difficult to get the screws out of the bottom of the unit. Yes I know restricting the airflow is hard on the compressor and causes high head pressures. Are you a HVAC tech that works on them every day? That is who I would like to hear from. We filter the air going to the evaporator. It just makes sense to filter the air going to the condenser coil to keep it cleaner than I know it will get in 6 months time with no filter at all. this is 1/2 inch thick filter material that you can probably see light through. Maybe you would like to come over and clean my unit the correct way and I'll time you since I guess I am inept at doing it. I do it myself because I know the people you typically pay to do it do it the half ass way of just taking the fan off.
Good idea. I'll think about that. And yea it gets dirty that fast. I even go so far as to shut off the A/C when I mow the back yard to avoid all that dust getting pulled into it. 1/2 of the unit is under the eave of the house so it is somewhat shielded from rain.
Forgot to add at one time I looked into these:
https://coolnsave.com/
due to our unit faces west and gets pummeled by the sun in the evening when there's a higher demand for cooling, but never jumped on trying it. It might help in between cleanings.
https://coolnsave.com/
due to our unit faces west and gets pummeled by the sun in the evening when there's a higher demand for cooling, but never jumped on trying it. It might help in between cleanings.
