AC evaporator clogged fins

Citizen of Dreams · 2004-07-01T18:22:30+00:00

My Carrier central AC has been working well... until my landlordcalled a technician for a "preventive maintenance". Immediately after that"maintenance" - which involved cleaning the evaporator fins with somedetergent - the AC stopped cooling the house. For instance, it was coolsummer night, 75F outside. The AC is running for several hours straight. Thetemperature in the house is... 80F. After my complaint, the technician came back, measured theexhaust temperature and left saying that everything was OK. So I had tostart my own troubleshooting. I discovered that the exhaust temperature wasindeed normal (between 58F and 62F), but the airflow was very weak. I openedthe AC and looked at the evaporator coil. The coil was clean and shinyoutside, but it was not passing any air. Somewhere deep between the fins itwas entirely clogged with very hard layer of cemented dirt (which I couldhardly pokethrough with a piece of metal wire). So I "poked" the dirt through on about 1/6 of the evaporator'sarea. That has greatly improved the airflow, so now my AC cools the house -although not as good as it did before the "preventive maintenance". Theproblem is, I cannot reach to "poke through" the rest of the evaporatorcoil. Is there any other way to clean the dirt between the fins? Somechemicals maybe? As I said, the layer of dirt is very dense as if it hascemented together. Another question - is it the technician's fault? Has hedisturbed the dust with his detergent and made it clog the fins? Or didsomething else happen? Any ideas would be appreciated. With best regards, CitizenOfDreams.

Jul 01, 2004 24 Replies

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Citizen of Dreams 22 years ago

This conversation seems to be getting hot... can somebody turn the AC on? :-)

I suspect that might have happened during the "preventive maintenance". Although, as you said, we cannot know for sure what was the condition of the coil before the failure and what exactly happened.

I let the coil warm up before the cleaning, so the "hard layer" is not ice. It is definitely some form of dirt.

That would be interesting to see. Did pressure washing itself do physical damage to the coil?

Anyway, I have nearly 1/4 of the evaporator cleaned now. The AC is operating satisfactory - although I'm sure that my power is a little higher than it should be. I think I will stop at this point and see what happens. Thanks for all the opinions.

With best regards, CitizenOfDreams.

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Tekkie 22 years ago

Michael S. Trachtenberg posted for all of us....

Hahahahahaha DisasterDave musta worked on this, what a putz.

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Michael S. Trachtenberg 22 years ago

Have to admit at least one website agrees with him on the evaporator:

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Only time I've heard of this being done is as a temporary fix for dirty sock syndrome.

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m Ransley 22 years ago

Ok thats ONE not totaly wrong out of one hundred,. But new foaming cleaners probably do just as good., at half the price. And he is now spouting off on using Castrol Tire cleaner which wont kill mold and may most likely damage Aluminum that is unsealed as AC coils are. The ::: " Dave Index" ::: still 2 out of 100

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American Mechanical 22 years ago

Nope,

There is no room for power washing. With good cleaners (not made by Castrol) it is easy to clean with a water hose. That site also recommends bleach in the evaporator drain pan. I read through some of the site and it has some good consumer information, but there are a few things I'd not jump right on as fact.

- Robert

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