What's up everyone? Welcome back to The Durbin Compound! If you haven't met me already,
my name is Devin Durbin. So today on the channel, I'm going to show you guys how to clean your AC unit.
It is vital for you going into the summer season that you need to clean your condenser
and keep it clear of all debris. It's cottonwood season. Your AC condenser is pulling in a lot of crap
into the coils. I'm going to show you exactly how to clean them...after a word from our sponsor.
All right, now we're out here at the AC condenser. I wanted to show you guys exactly what I'm talking
about with cottonwood. You can see how it's starting to stack up, and all this dirt starting
to stack up in the condenser coil. So, if you don't know anything about your AC condenser,
the air has to flow in, and the fan pulls it up through, behind. So, it's constantly pulling stuff
into the fins. And you need to keep the fins clean and cool, or clean, so that they stay cool and they
can properly, you know, flow the air through them. So, what you're going to need for this project
is some coil cleaner. I picked up this non-acid coil cleaner from my local plumbing supplier.
Now, keep in mind, this stuff is very, very alkaline. It will burn you in a hurry. This is made
with potassium hydroxide, so you do not want to fool around with this stuff. You need to mix it
to the proper dilution rate. You always need to have gloves on and safety glasses because
just in case this stuff over-sprays on you, you want to immediately wash it off. So, I also have
a little pump sprayer. This is a little 10 gallon jobbie from Lowe's that I picked up.
And, of course, the nozzle for your hose. So, first things first, is you want to turn the power off to the unit,
or basically turn the thermostat off. If you're blowing this coil cleaner in and the fan turns on,
it's going to blow it all over you. It's going to mist it up in the air. So don't be a fool!
Turn it off and do it the right way! So, there are tons of different products. I used to use New Brite,
but they didn't have that at the plumbing supplier. I went ahead and got this.
It's essentially the same product. They come in aerosols. This gallon will last you a long time.
I'm going to probably mix it since my unit is not that dirty. I'm probably going to mix it at about 4:1.
So it's on the...right there on the line between moderate cleaning and heavy duty cleaning 4:1.
So, for this I'm going to put in a quart and then add the rest of it to a gallon.
Piece of cake! So that way I can get four cleanings out of this gallon. You guys get what I'm saying.
They make it in aerosol. They make it in...you can do it in a spray bottle. It doesn't matter,
but here you're going to watch me as I clean the condenser. You do not want to do this in direct sunlight.
You want a little bit of shade because you don't want the product drying on the paint.
You don't want it to eat away at your paint or bleach your unit. So, there are some trouble spots here
where stuff's starting to build up and some spiders are making some stuff.
So I'm going to get this cleaned out before the really, really hot months in the summer. So let's do it!
All right guys, you saw how I did that. I started from the bottom and worked my way up. Now you'll start
to see the foaming cleaner start foaming out. And what it does is, it foams and it draws the
dirt out of the coils. So, you let it work for three to four minutes and then you rinse it off.
So, I'm doing one side at a time. Since this is a larger unit, I want to make sure that I'm not letting it
dwell too much on this side or this side. I want to do it here. I'm going to finish cleaning this
and then I'm going to move on to the other side. So, three to four minutes. Let it work. Let it do its thing.
You'll see it start to foam everywhere. And then you can wash it off. So, just be very thorough
in washing it off. Make sure you get everything washed out. I'm going to do a time-lapse through it.
Just take the nozzle. You can use it on jet or whatever you want and just really, really rinse
those fins out. And you'll be able to tell when the water is blowing straight through the coils
and where it's not. You'll be able to hear it hit the inside of the condenser where the compressor
and fan are. You'll be able to hear it hit. If you don't, then dwell a little bit on there.
You'll see the dirt as it rinses out. So, I'm going to let this dwell and then we're going to rinse it off.
All right guys, see? So when rinsing it off, I stayed nice and close to it. Make sure I rinse it off.
Now you can see straight through the coils. See how clean those are? That's exactly what
you want to be like. So, remember if you have a condenser that's right here by the yard and
you're blowing yard clippings up on this every time, you really make it hard for your unit.
You definitely stress your compressor because it's trying harder to cool the air. So make sure you
keep your condenser cooled out, or cleaned out. And make sure it cools the way it needs to
in the winter and summer.
All right guys! So that was a simple do-it-yourself thing that you need to keep up with--a good
preventative maintenance measure to make sure that your AC unit is running at its
optimal operating condition. So keep those coils clear. Have a nice, cool summer. And we'll see you
guys in the next one. Don't forget...to give me a thumbs up. Or a thumbs down. Whatever you're into!