Imagine, you are sitting home enjoying your holidays when you notice that your central aircon unit is no working properly. What will be your reaction to the situation?

Best guesses you will immediately call your aircon servicing company for a cleanup. But have you ever thought of doing it yourself?

No one is saying that you should not take professional help, but knowing a bit about aircon cleaning isn’t a bad thing either.

So get ready and let’s see the steps to clean your air conditioners:

Gather The Accessories

Visit a hardware store or contact an aircon servicing company to gather the essential equipment you will need for cleaning the unit. You will need some soft brushes, mild cleaning sprays, soft wipes, fin-comb, small vacuum cleaners, and air conditioner dirtbags. If you are using the filters for more than a few months and suspect its wearing, do get filters too.

Once you have all the things, turn off the main power supply and get down to work. Start with the indoor unit.

Cleaning Indoor Unit

  • Shut the power supply and dismantle the aircon indoor unit. You will find all the instruction to disassemble the housing in the user manual that comes with it. If you have lost the manual, search for your aircon model on the internet. There are a lot of video and articles that will help you.
  • The first thing you will see after opening the unit will be the filter. Take out this filter and vacuum the inside part of the housing.
  • Now remove the condenser pipe and check it for algae, if there is clogging use a solution of 1 part bleach and 16 part water to clean the tube. You can also use a high power pump to run pressurized water into the pipe.
  • The indoor unit will also have a drainage pipeline, pull its end out of the housing and clean it with the soft brush or pipe cleaner.
  • After you are sure that all the lines are clean, hook them back and move on to the filter. If it is in working condition clean it and place it back, else replace it with a newer one.
  • Assemble all the components on the place and move on to the outside unit.

Cleaning Outdoor Unit

  • If your outdoor unit has a separate power supply, turn it off before dismantling the system.
  • Level the vegetation and obstacles around the condenser and then use a vacuum along with a brush to clean its fins.
  • Now unscrew the housing and remove the blower fans. Just be careful, there are multiple components connected to the fan.
  • Once all the electronic and mechanical components are secure, fill the housing with water. The fluid will flow through the vents washing away all the dirt inside them.
  • Before reassembling the units, oil the motor with aircon lube and straighten all the bend fins with the fin-comb.

The Final Words

Your aircon is clean and ready, but it will need some time to adjust. Therefore, it is best if you leave the system ideal for a few hours or run in the no-cool mode for sometimes before switching to normal function.

Just remember one thing, these cleaning tips are for necessary cleaning, don’t skip professional cleanup because of it.