wa8yxm wrote:
...If your hands are as big as mine remove Fan...
Now you can clean the condenser by whatever method.
Also both a water wash or a Compressed air wash (After initial brush off) may help.
At least on ours, I can take a garden hose up to the roof and rinse the coils, using a deflector to send the water into the drain pain and not down into the cold air discharge area. Cutting board, license plate, etc.
About that Fan... My routine cleanings, and I've done it about annually, never included the outdoor fan or indoor blower wheel. I've actually found very little dirt or debris on the outdoor (Condenser) coil. Then we had Fan Motor Trouble and that called for pulling the Motor with Blower coming with it. A little hard to see, but that black plastic squirrel cage was FOULED! Probably with oily cooking vapor residue plus dust. So get in there and clean it if you can. At least if your A/C went years without that part of the cleaning being done. The blades are hard to get to so I copied what I've done with home HVAC blowers - Outdoors with Pressure Washer. Amazing amount of Black Goo came out.
I change Filters often. Simply cut a 20x20 home HVAC filter into four strips. Our non-ducted Mach 15 uses two filter strips and I leave my home made ones a little large. The edges show, but I know all the intake air is going through the filter. Not sure that was true before.
Recently, I found a new wrinkle in the A/C shutting down story. Since we camp in summer in FL and usually under full sun, A/C is a critical life support system. If it quits, we have to go home. So, I've got some tools and meters (amps and DVOM with capacitance) on board, along with a Spare Capacitors. We keep a DROK A/C voltmeter plugged in right where we can check it. Voltage was OK, Filters and Coils were Clean, and A/C compressor was shutting down on temperature.
I'd always thought a Capacitor was Good or Bad, Go or No Go, Capacitance in Spec on Meter or Not. The Compressor Run Capacitor tested Good on the Fluke Meter, but I decided to swap the spare in just because I had it. The compressor sounds better, like it used to, again, and has not cut out. Unexpected but true.
So I'd say, find out the values of the capacitors for Compressor Run, Fan Run, and Hard Start if equipped. Even if you don't plan on changing them yourself (which is easy, just turn Power off at Breaker then short across capacitor terminals with insulated tool in case it's still charged), you'll have spares on board for somebody who wants to help but doesn't happen to have the right parts. Available on Amazon for way less than appliance parts stores. I have maybe $40 tied up in spare capacitors.
