My A/c Unit Is Overdue For A Service

[GoodHeart]

I'm pretty certain my apartment A/C units are filled up with and spewing out molds, mildews and dust mites. I've made inquires with my building management about getting the filters changed and/or cleaned, but they claim there are no filters on the units and cleaning isn't neccessary. I find that hard to swallow.

I've poked around the units themselves and can't see anything that looks like a filter, however. Does that mean I'm wrong and mgmt is right? I'll let you be the judge....

Maybe someone here is familiar with the brand- Uni-Master- of A/C units that we have installed in the building. Part of the trouble may also be that mgmt. wants to use their own in-house boys for all the servicing. I told them I'm willing to pay for a professional firm to come out and check them out and clean the A/C units up, but mgmt. left it hanging with an 'our guys will look into it'.

So I then tried searching the Net and the Thai Yellow Pages but both came up blanks....

Well, in that case, it's time to turn to Thai Visa Forum for help.

Does anyone recognize these units and know of a service organization that could clean them up? My apartment has two external units and two internal [see below] that appear to be identical.

If anyone can help I would really appreciate it!

Edited December 24, 2005 by GoodHeart

[sierra01]

There should be filter/s behind the grills of the indoor unit, usually just lift the front cover and the filters unclip. The high tech untils have more advanced filtration systems but again are cleanable.

[Tywais]

The outside unit, heat exchanger top picture, will not have removeable filters but if you look at the other side you will see what looks like a radiator grill. This should be cleaned with high pressure water periodically. If dirty you lose a lot of efficiency in the heat transfer process.

The internal unit, bottom picture, should have removeable filters that can be washed. From the picture they are probably on the bottom back of the unit and will need to remove a panel to get access to them. Hard to believe they would not have a filter because it circulates the room air across the cooling coils.

[lopburi3]

This appears to be ceiling mounted and there should be openings where air is drawn in on the underside of it that open to reveal filters (if they have not been discarded). The filters should be cleaned at least monthly, or when appear dirty. If running without the filters units should be professionally cleaned and then filters installed as all the gunk and dust will be covering the fins is not only making a lovely place for nasties to grow but reducing the cooling performance greatly. It should be taken apart and plastic parts washed and cooling system washed in place with grease cutting solvent and high pressure water to remove all the dirt (and there will be a lot). When they do that they should also wash out the outside unit.

Even with good filter procedures a yearly cleaning is a good idea. We are only taking 4-500 baht.

[RBWilson]

Try to call Khun Somkid 09-525-4700; a small, independent AC service - dependable for me so far.

[bangkapiboy]

In Bangkok this costs 500B-600B nowadays. It is recommended every 6 months to do a cleaning. Just stop in to any a/c shop and schedule.

[Buff-horns]

you can imagine how many units in BKK are properly serviced , not many i suspect.

most will be gunked up rendering them practically useless .

[GoodHeart]

Eureka! I found them! And they were just filthy as I imagined them to be! But, oh my didn't they clean up nice, and quite easily too. And what a refreshing difference the cleaning has made to my indoor air-quality. Thank you all for your help!

Reading all of your posts and suggestions gave me a new perspective to snoop around and I found them right away, once I opened up the vent panel on the underside of the indoor unit. They're attached to the inside of the drop down vent panels and come out and go back in quite easily. Here is a pic of two vent panels in the open position with the filter removed from the left side. And another with the 'before' and 'after' shots. Quite a difference, eh?

I'm afraid the outside cleaning- as suggested by tywais- will be quite difficult to do well, however, due to the units sitting on a metal shelf bracket a scant six inches away from the wall. I think then, I'll take the advise of RBWilson and call his referral: Khun Somkid. Since, as far as I know our mgmt. has no pressure washer anyway. So to get a properly outfitted tradesman to give it his best shot would be well worth the cost and effort.

Again, thank you all very much for your insights and suggestions! And Merry Xmas!

Edited December 25, 2005 by GoodHeart

[Heng]

We use CC 4. Chokchai Four Air and Service. 02 933 2590. They service a few dozen of our A/C units (mostly Saijo Denkis and Mitsubishi units, but a few "no name" units as well), and only about half of them were from them originally. Word of warning though, once in awhile you'll get a crew (we do refills and cleanings about once a year, once a year and a half) that tries to cheat you out of coolant (they'll say your units are empty or running really low... you get around this by watching them measure the coolant or if you have employees, getting them to oversee this... recommended for those hard to reach compressors). I guess they think they deserve a bonus for balancing on a third floor ledge with no net... but I don't think so. Most of the crews are honest, just 1-2 crews in particular with bad seeds.