Any HVAC Techs Here?

[saddlebum]

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.

Terrible idea

 

[saddlebum]

@Letfreedomring nailed it I have used window screen wrapped around the outside unit and held in place with strong magnets.
Way too simple.

Then debris does not fall off though but cottonwood can be brushed away with your hands and it balls up in your hands like a ball of cotton.

Add that to your favorite dip bait.

You can make a cloth/tarp sun shade or a lattice one pretty easily to keep the sun off the unit and that absolutely does work.

Not over the unit so much unless it is 4 feet over it.

Now a large shade will also shade that side of that rock house.

the louvers on the hail guards and the angle and number of fins and spacing on the coil are all design to move the correct amount of air at the correct speed to transfer heat the most efficiently, anything you put over them or even close to them is a BAD idea

 

[swampratt]

the louvers on the hail guards and the angle and number of fins and spacing on the coil are all design to move the correct amount of air at the correct speed to transfer heat the most efficiently, anything you put over them or even close to them is a BAD idea

Might be a bad idea in some instances like where you are not dealing with 4 dogs and cottonwood.
But a weekly clogged unit could be even worse.

Buddies unit is way undersized and has been in service since 1984.
1500 sq ft home and a 2.5 ton 1984 unit. It did not take much debris to turn that house into a hot bed.
250-300 a month electric bill. (It's a rental)
Window screen and weekly to biweekly wiping it down kept the bill under 200 in the hot summer months.
He had one of the "creek" cottonwood trees leaning over his back fence.
It is city maintenance but we ended up cutting that one down. Like OKC will even notice a tree or 2 missing.
They barely maintain the creek.

 

[saddlebum]

Might be a bad idea in some instances like where you are not dealing with 4 dogs and cottonwood.
But a weekly clogged unit could be even worse.

Buddies unit is way undersized and has been in service since 1984.
1500 sq ft home and a 2.5 ton 1984 unit. It did not take much debris to turn that house into a hot bed.
250-300 a month electric bill. (It's a rental)
Window screen and weekly to biweekly wiping it down kept the bill under 200 in the hot summer months.
He had one of the "creek" cottonwood trees leaning over his back fence.
It is city maintenance but we ended up cutting that one down. Like OKC will even notice a tree or 2 missing.
They barely maintain the creek.

I'm sure you know more than the engineers that designed it, It's always a bad Idea
btw . 2.5 ton is not undersized for 1500 sqft

 

[gl55]

Mr. Glock is closer to correct

And if I took his advice on cleaning the unit his way I would have 12 inches of gunk built up at the bottom of the coils between the coils and the sheet metal since 2008. There is only one way to clean the type of unit I have correctly.

 

[elwoodtrix]

Go ahead and lock this one up! OP answered his own question.

 

[saddlebum]

And if I took his advice on cleaning the unit his way I would have 12 inches of gunk built up at the bottom of the coils between the coils and the sheet metal since 2008. There is only one way to clean the type of unit I have correctly.

wrong, all you are doing is wearing out the screw holes so the panels rattle you can wash it out then wash all the stuff out of the bottom through the louvers. it's your unit and your money do what you want but you are wrong

 

[TwoForFlinching]

Window screen will not restrict it as much as coils covered in debris.
It only takes 2 minutes to clean that screen so weekly is no issue.

We have dozens of tall cottonwoods lining the creek 100 yards away and buddies house backs up to the creek and his coils were clogged in a week when it snowed cottonwood.

Definitely seen it on his electrical usage. And in how much the unit stayed on and how much better it cooled the house.

If window screen hinders the flow it was not noticed on his unit.

I do this too with window screen and magnets, at least until my neighbors cottonwoods quit snowing. Never had an issue with it in 7 years. When cottonwood season ends, I generally take the unit apart and deep clean as a July 4th ritual.

 

[saddlebum]

Haaaaaa! Keep on being you! I imagine you’re the type of guy that takes his boots, socks, jeans and underwear off when he goes to take a ****! LOL!

probably takes the fenders off his truck to change the oil

 

[elwoodtrix]

his idea=1
against his idea=10

You are all wrong