Air con fan cleaning - best method?

[Guderian]

Over the years I've seen two different ways that people will clean your air con fan units. The most common method seems to be to strip the unit down and remove everything that can be removed, take it all outside and wash it down with a pressure washer, and then reassemble it. The drawback to this method is that there always seems to be a lot of grinding and grating and bending and creaking of the components, and I imagine that it isn't very good for the fan and may well shorten its life. I have four Daikin units in my house and they are all the same to clean, the noises make me feel rather nervous.

The second method is less invasive. They simply remove the outer bits and pieces to get access and then use a low pressure washer in situ to clean the internal parts. The dirty water is directed by an arrangement of waterproof sheeting either into a bucket in the room or else straight out of a window. This method seems much gentler and kinder on the fan unit than the first one. The drawback is that in my experience the unit doesn't seem to blow nearly as cool afterwards as when the whole fan unit it stripped down and cleaned. It may just be my imagination, I'm not certain to be honest, but that's my feeling.

Does anyone else have a view on this matter? Am I right in thinking that physically stripping the unit down every 6 months isn't good for it? I don't know why the manufacturers don't make them easier to take apart since it's a necessity for cleaning. Has anybody else tried both methods and if so do you feel that one produces a better end-result in terms of coolness than the other? I need to get my units cleaned again in a month so I'd appreciate any thoughts or experiences.

(P.S. I'm only talking about cleaning the fan unit inside the house here, both companies use the same basic method of cleaning the compressor outdoors.)