Lone Star Cooling and Heating
Get help with Coil Cleaning
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Call (325) 219-0005Cleaning the indoor and outdoor coils of an air conditioner or heat pump, where built-up dirt blocks airflow and slows the transfer of heat, and straightening bent fins so air passes through freely again.
01Coil cleaning
One coil sits indoors and one outdoors, and each shows dirt in its own way.
Dust, grass, seed fluff and grime collect on the face of the outdoor coil until air can barely pass through the fins. The system then struggles to release heat, runs longer and works the compressor harder. Cleaning opens the coil back up.
A dirty indoor coil behaves like a second, clogged filter. It chokes the blower, cuts the heat the coil can absorb, and in cooling season can lead to ice. Once the filter is ruled out, the coil is a common next suspect.
The indoor coil is wet whenever the system cools, and dust stuck to a damp coil can grow mold or bacteria that the moving air carries into rooms. Cleaning the coil and its drain pan removes the growth and the film it lives on.
Hail, lawn equipment, pets or a hard jet of water can fold the thin metal fins over, blocking air as surely as dirt does. A fin comb straightens them back into line where they are not too badly crushed.
02Two coils
Each coil does half of the same job. They get dirty from different sources and are cleaned in different ways.
It sits in the open and pulls in whatever the air carries: dust, leaves, grass and seed fluff. With the power off at the disconnect, a technician applies a coil cleaner and rinses with low-pressure water, working from inside the cabinet outward so dirt is pushed back out the way it came rather than deeper into the fins.
It sits in a closed cabinet next to the furnace or air handler, so the dirt that reaches it is whatever slipped past the filter. Where it can be reached, it is cleaned in place with a cleaner suited to indoor use, and its drain pan and line are cleared as well, since loosened grime washes into them.
Coil Cleaning
Serving Abilene, TX.
03What dirt does
A coil is a heat exchanger with a very large surface. Anything coating that surface slows the exchange.
Indoors, the coil absorbs heat from the air the blower pushes through it. A dirty coil passes less air and takes less heat from what does get through, so rooms cool slowly, the air stays more humid, and the coil can grow cold enough to freeze. Outdoors, a coated coil holds heat in, which raises the pressure the compressor pumps against and the electricity it uses to do so.
Neither problem announces itself. The system still runs and still cools, only for longer each day, and the extra strain falls on its most costly part. That is why cleaning the coils belongs in routine upkeep rather than being saved for the day cooling fails.
04What changes it
Two coils that look equally dirty can take very different work to clean well.
Some indoor coils sit behind a removable panel, and others are sealed into the ductwork. Reaching a sealed coil can mean opening and resealing an access point or lifting the coil out, which adds time to the job.
Traditional coils have copper tubes threaded through aluminum fins, while many newer coils are built entirely from flat aluminum channels. The newer kind is more easily harmed by harsh cleaners and strong water pressure, so it is cleaned more gently.
Lightly bent fins are combed straight so air can pass evenly again. Fins flattened across a wide area may not come back fully, and a badly damaged coil limits what cleaning alone can recover.
05Questions
It depends on the surroundings more than the calendar. Outdoor coils near trees, fields, busy roads or a dryer vent foul faster, and indoor coils stay cleaner when the filter fits well and is changed on time. A technician can judge both at a routine service visit.
A filter catches most dust but not all of it, and gaps around a filter that fits poorly let unfiltered air straight through. Because the coil is wet while it cools, the fine dust that does reach it sticks instead of passing on.
Yes, and it matters in both seasons. In summer that coil releases heat, and in winter it gathers heat from the outside air, so a dirty coil weakens heating as well as cooling. A clogged coil can also frost over more readily in cold weather.
What the system is doing, when it started, what the thermostat is set to and what it reads, and whether the outdoor unit is running. The age of the equipment and a photo of its label help a technician arrive prepared.
Lone Star Cooling and Heating
Call Lone Star Cooling and Heating, have us call you, or describe the issue.
Prefer to talk?
Call (325) 219-0005