Automotive Air Conditioning Information Forum (Archives)

Provided by www.ACkits.com

We've updated our forums!
Click here to visit the new forum

Archive Home

Search Auto AC Forum Archives

Home/Office A/C cleaning

pettaw on Thu July 10, 2008 7:59 AM User is offline

Model: Wall Mounted Split
Refrigerant Type: R410a
Country of Origin: United Kingdom

Hi guys, after calling out the A/C techies several times to diagnosis weak cooling on one of our office A/Cs I decided to take a look at it myself. First off it seemed to be making lots of noise and not moving much air around, so I switched it off and looked inside the evap fan. Blimey it was absolutely filthy.
Pic:


Anyway, I managed to get through to Fujistu who explained to me how to get the fan assembly out and stripped and cleaned it up. along with the drain pan which was also clogged. The A/C now blows freezing cold but on occasions smells musty.

Looking at the evap it looks as though it could do with a good clean and deodourize. Do you guys know of any good products that would work well on a simple split unit? Bear in mind I can get directly at the evap coil. Would DWD be a good product to use or would you recommend something else?

Edited: Thu July 10, 2008 at 8:05 AM by pettaw

Karl Hofmann on Thu July 10, 2008 9:07 AM User is offlineView users profile

As a good strong cleaner I use Virginia Acti-Kleen, mixed with water in a garden sprayer, this shifts the crud and gunge, then I follow up with a good dose of Frionett Germ... This is an anti bacterial spray and deodoriser and is the best that I have ever used, the can is quite expensive but it does last a long time. Both are available from Refrigeration Parts Wholesalers in the UK

If your unit has been on service contract, then it's condition is unforgivable.. High wall units can be tricky to clean but not impossible.. I recently visited a dispensary whos wall mount had never been serviced, the fan was clogged solid... In the end we concluded that the most cost effective solution was to replace the unit, bearing in mind its age.

-------------------------
Never knock on deaths door... Ring the doorbell and run away, death really hates that!

NickD on Thu July 10, 2008 10:11 AM User is offline

That's about what the bottom of my son's frostless refrigerator looked like, guess I never told him it has to be cleaned at least once a month. Ran much quieter and found a snap in piece of plastic that wasn't fully snapped in that was making that noise. That air circuit is always a mess.

HECAT on Thu July 10, 2008 10:39 AM User is offline

Hydrogen Peroxide is fairly inexpensive and works very well as an anti-bacterial to kill (not mask) the source of the odors.

-------------------------



HECAT: www.hecatinc.com You support the Forum when you consider www.ackits.com for your a/c parts.

FLUSHING TECHNICAL PAPER vs2.pdf 

pettaw on Thu July 10, 2008 1:24 PM User is offline

Thanks guys, I've found a supplier of the Frionett Germ (Hotfrost) but I can't find any listings for the Virginia Acti-Kleen. Cos I don't normally do this work I've no idea where to find a refrigeration parts wholesaler in my area (Wembley) Sorry for being dopey.

I don't know whether the units were on a formal service contract or not, but I do know that the same bodies used to come probably twice a year to 'service' the A/C, which consisted of basically opening up the front cover, removing and cleaning the filters and spraying the evap coils with some sort of spray stuff from a garden sprayer. Took about 5 minutes per room.

The last time we called them out I pointed out to them the fan problem, trouble is it was a new guy who wasn't familiar with the units or how to strip them down so after a good poke around and trying to get at the fan he gave up and sprayed it as much as he could and managed to shift enough dirt for the A/C to work again, but it was still filthy as you can see. I don't blame him personally, he'd only been at the company about 2 weeks, had all his qualifications but had never been trained on the Fujistu units so didn't realise the fan came out like that. Thank goodness I managed to get through to a fairly friendly tech support guy at Fujistu who explained to me roughly how to drop the fan assembly out.

It looks pretty well stuffed inside the unit until you start dismantling and then tbh it drops out from under the evap quite easily. It took me about half an hour the first unit I did it on and 20 minutes the next time. We've got 4 units the same age and they're all going the same way but that one was by far the worst. I thought that the filters and the damp coil would have caught all the crud, but obviously it still made its way through to the fan.

The evap on the worst unit is starting to show signs of corrosion in areas (luckily nowhere near the actual tubing) and looks a bit manky really. I hope that a good strong clean will restore it

Karl Hofmann on Thu July 10, 2008 2:38 PM User is offlineView users profile

The Frionett 2 from Hotfrost will do the same job as the Acti- Kleen, I don't use it myself because it smells funny.

If they had serviced the units correctly, then the fan would never have gotten that build up on it, but customers are only interested in the bottom line, so a service is clean the filters, a quick spray and wipe the case down.. And they only send the numpties to do the servicing.. It is rare that I am awarded a service contract on any equipment that is not installed by me because my first service on old equipment involves a full strip down and scrape out, and that costs. Once you are on top of the job, then servicing is easy

Does the condensate flow by gravity or is it pumped? If so, then the condensate pump may well be full of crud too.

-------------------------
Never knock on deaths door... Ring the doorbell and run away, death really hates that!

Edited: Thu July 10, 2008 at 2:41 PM by Karl Hofmann

pettaw on Thu July 10, 2008 4:05 PM User is offline

We're on the lookout for a proper techie who is prepared to come out a couple of times a year and service the units properly. We've been with that old firm with 20 years, and it was them that installed the units in the first place, but they're not getting anymore servicing work, which wasn't cheap btw. Ha, in fact last year we had them install another three split unit system which is why these questions surfaced.....Andrew why is your aircon so much colder than mine?

Some of the units are installed on outside walls and so the condensates are gravity based, but three of them are on inside walls with pumped condensate. Dread to think what I find in those babies when I get round to opening them up. Well, one of them anyway, one is brand new and the other one hardly gets used so the fan etc was clean as far as I could see with my torch shining into the grill.

Funny you should mention the condensate pump being full of crud too. When I first started working there. There was a problem with one of the units with a condensate pump, which would drip water sometimes. We called the techs out about 3 times and eventually they traced the problem to a 'failed' pump and replaced it. I wonder if it was simply sludged up and failed due to inadequate servicing. The fan in that one isn't as badly crudded up but is pretty dirty so that one will be next on my hitlist.

The second unit I stripped I found the condensate tray literally almost overflowing with water. Why? Because the condensate hose had a huge kink in it where it hadn't been installed straight plus of course it was very sludged up. I think I managed to put that right, but will have a check tomorrow cos it will have been a week since I put it back together so its been running a bit now and had chance to gather some moisture, although with the cold weather it won't have been used all that much. I used a steam cleaner to shift the yuck from that one, even though it wasn't as filthy as the one in the picture because I'd scrubbed for ages and still couldn't shift 100% of the dirt. I'll probably have to come back to the first one with the steam cleaner in due course. I was quite careful cos I didn't know whether the temperature would destroy the impellor but it seemed to be fine with it luckily.

Edit: Also, I've been googling around and come across this stuff, Condencide. All kinds of fancy BS marks and says it has a new bactericide QX-60? Have you any experience with this stuff or is it just snake oil?


Edited: Thu July 10, 2008 at 4:27 PM by pettaw

Karl Hofmann on Thu July 10, 2008 4:46 PM User is offlineView users profile

Pettaw,

I'd be delighted to carry out a survey and tender a price for servicing your units if you are not too far away, I'm in Crewe, Cheshire. If you are too far away, then you could find a good aircon guy on the refrigeration engineer forum ....http://www.refrigeration-engineer.com/forums/

I have never used Condencide but it would appear that it is for use in food preparation areas where contamination with regular coil cleaners could make folk quite ill... Many coil cleaners are rather caustic and not pleasant materials at all... Even Acti-Klean will take the skin off your hands and disolve tarmac.. So I guess that the BS testing is to confirm that it is safe to use where food may be prepared... This also suggests that it doesn't actually clean anything either

-------------------------
Never knock on deaths door... Ring the doorbell and run away, death really hates that!

pettaw on Thu July 10, 2008 5:01 PM User is offline

Haha we're in Romford so a little far away for you I'm afraid. Thanks for the tip on the forum. Will check that out.

Karl Hofmann on Thu July 10, 2008 5:21 PM User is offlineView users profile

Romford???.... Thats very nearly France..

Good luck, I hope you find a decent service engineer... There are some really good guys who I'm sure that can help you there.

-------------------------
Never knock on deaths door... Ring the doorbell and run away, death really hates that!

NickD on Fri July 11, 2008 10:33 AM User is offline

On occasion, I have used soap and water and kind of fun to spray the office workers with a garden hose. Makes having to clean up a filthy mess fun.

Whenever I do work like this, feel a lot more like a janitor than an experienced technician, even as an engineer, we live in a dirty world and maybe it was meant to be. Thinking about converting my lush carpeted floors to mud so I just have to rake it once in a great while. Cleaning is endless.

Back to Off Topic Chat

We've updated our forums!
Click here to visit the new forum

Archive Home

Copyright © 2016 Arizona Mobile Air Inc.