Once a year just prior to the April/May heat onslaught........

I clean the dust filters monthly and have a contractor do a deep clean-complete disassembly, every 3-4 months. Pretty amazing the amount of dirt/sludge that gets on the evaporator and fan, especially the fan. The one time I tried to stretch the interval out to 6 months the drain got clogged from all the debris, started leaking on the floor. The unit runs approx 12 hrs a day. The thing to think about is not so much the dry dust but the mold that's forming on the evaporator and fan.

Cleaned? First we check its BMI to see if it deserves to be cleaned in the first place - Mama don't wan no diabetic legged a/c coming round' here!

 

ok - once a year and it is cleaned by my maid's nephew who seems like a conscientious and capable young man - - if he kills me, she would lose a customer... and I roll the dice from there... 

On 9/20/2024 at 11:13 AM, scubascuba3 said:

Mine is 6 months old, so kinda due a clean but I'm slightly nervous about getting it cleaned. A well known company put gas in unnecessarily and on a later clean managed to cause a fault, so they are out for sure, can others be trusted?

In Pattaya

Do it yourself...  no need for a technician to clean out the dust

4 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

The outside compressor  gets pretty dirty too if you look closely, do you clean that?

Spray them with a low pressure hose when cleaning the walkways. 

On 9/20/2024 at 11:52 AM, BKKKevin said:

Have them all done annually... Complete spray clean and gas topup.

If done properly you should never need a gas up. And if you do you should have leak located and repaired.

 

I had AC in my bedroom for 19 years back in Oz and NEVER needed a gas up. I changed it for an inverter type and the old one  went into shed and worked ok, although rarely, without a top up.

35 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

Do it yourself...  no need for a technician to clean out the dust

You clean the outside compressor?

6 hours ago, novacova said:

Haven’t cleaned this for at least three years…

using a pre filter stays clean.

It's the fan that gets cloacked

1 hour ago, DD86 said:

It's the fan that gets cloacked

Which fan? There are 2, a barrel fan in the indoor unit and a standard bladed fan in the outdoor unit. The outside fins (condenser) can get very dirty especially here in Chiang Mai and needs cleaning yearly. 

 

See my next post.

The outdoor unit often gets neglected.

 

This video shows how dirty the outdoor unit fins get here in Chiang Mai. It was professionally cleaned one year prior.

12 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

You clean the outside compressor?

Yes

Once per year. Clean the filters as needed...usually every 2-3 months.

I've booked in a clean for next week, fingers crossed they don't break something or try the gas scam

I pull out screens every two, three weeks and give them a rinse.

Every six months I have guy come out and clean and check 500 baht.

Guy been using 18 years, also purchased from same guy.

 

Related to how often you get it cleaned, if you do it yourself (in part), do you use any AC cleaning spray or something like that?

Or maybe soap to clean the filter?

 

Until now I remove the (nylon?) filter screens and clean them with water.

In my kitchen I also have to use soap because they are a little greasy.

 

How about you?

On 9/21/2024 at 6:28 PM, Dazinoz said:

Which fan? There are 2, a barrel fan in the indoor unit and a standard bladed fan in the outdoor unit. The outside fins (condenser) can get very dirty especially here in Chiang Mai and needs cleaning yearly. 

 

See my next post.

Never had my outdoor fans cleaned. The ac guys don't even bring an extendable ladder.

It's the indoor fan; like your simple floor fan the blades collect alot of fatty dirt. The performance will decrease as well.

1 hour ago, DD86 said:

Never had my outdoor fans cleaned. The ac guys don't even bring an extendable ladder.

It's the indoor fan; like your simple floor fan the blades collect alot of fatty dirt. The performance will decrease as well.

Maybe terminology but the fan in the indoor unit is a barrel or axial fan (and probably other terminology as well) with a lot of closely spaced fans which do get dirty. The out door fan is a large, usually a four bladed fan which collects a little dust. Its the condenser fins in the outdoor unit that get very dirty and degrades performance as can be seen in the video I posted.

 

So many posts on threads on here I read people neglect the outdoor unit cleaning and if my video doesn't convince people then nothing will. 

1 minute ago, Dazinoz said:

So many posts on threads on here I read people neglect the outdoor unit cleaning and if my video doesn't convince people then nothing will. 

Do you clean the radiator and radiator fan in your car?

Probably not. And probably it is dirty.

But does it matter if the radiator fan or the outdoor AC fans are dirty? Not really, as long as the air still flows through it and the heat exchange works.

 

Dirt and dust in the indoor units are a much bigger problem. Because with a dirty indoor fan you will have dirty air which you breath. That is the big difference.

 

 

 

 

2 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

But does it matter if the radiator fan or the outdoor AC fans are dirty? Not really, as long as the air still flows through it and the heat exchange works.

Well I must have imagined that my AC was not working well and had to drop temp setting lower and lower. Thought maybe low on refrigerant. Got someone to come check, a husband and wife team, checked refrigerant levels and ok. So cleaned indoor and outdoor fins. Lady called me out and showed me how dirty outdoor fins were. 

 

Amazing how well it worked after that. But, according to you, I must have been imagining it because it doesn't really affect it..

 

 

1 hour ago, Dazinoz said:

Well I must have imagined that my AC was not working well and had to drop temp setting lower and lower. Thought maybe low on refrigerant. Got someone to come check, a husband and wife team, checked refrigerant levels and ok. So cleaned indoor and outdoor fins. Lady called me out and showed me how dirty outdoor fins were. 

 

Amazing how well it worked after that. But, according to you, I must have been imagining it because it doesn't really affect it..

 

I wrote:

1 hour ago, OneMoreFarang said:

But does it matter if the radiator fan or the outdoor AC fans are dirty? Not really, as long as the air still flows through it and the heat exchange works.

 

Summary: A little bit dirty outside does not matter. A lot dirty outside matters.

Indoor even a little dirty is problematic, because we breath the dirty air.

 

 

 

3 hours ago, Dazinoz said:

Maybe terminology but the fan in the indoor unit is a barrel or axial fan (and probably other terminology as well) with a lot of closely spaced fans which do get dirty. The out door fan is a large, usually a four bladed fan which collects a little dust. Its the condenser fins in the outdoor unit that get very dirty and degrades performance as can be seen in the video I posted.

 

So many posts on threads on here I read people neglect the outdoor unit cleaning and if my video doesn't convince people then nothing will. 

So, it is a FAN. Thanks for the lesson.

1 hour ago, DD86 said:

So, it is a FAN. Thanks for the lesson.

Welcome. Any thing to help out.

I posted this on the Daiken thread but better here:

 

I just tried the self clean function on the TCL AC and didn't seem to work, maybe it's for certain models only. Should have come up with CL on the display and lasted for 30 minutes, instead showed AC and lasted 5 minutes.

 

I just pulled the two filters out and washed under the shower, easy enough. Not much dust etc after 6 months. I've decided to go for the yearly professional clean