How many times have you heard the phrase, dirt is cheap? Well, even though that might be true in some aspects, it isn’t true in everything. Dirt is far from cheap when it comes to the condenser coils on your air conditioning system. There are two coils on your HVAC unit: an evaporator coil (indoor coil) and a condenser coil (outdoor coil).
What Exactly Are Condenser Coils?
Condenser coils are one of the main components of your HVAC system that make sure your unit is reliable, effective, cost-efficient and operational for the long-term. It is located in your condensing unit outside of your home. The system itself works by a process of continually converting gas into a liquid. Thanks to a refrigerant material being used in the tubing, all of the hot air that is inside of your home is going to travel outside and into the condenser coils where the hot air is removed from your home.
Since there is a lot of air transfer needed for your unit, you want to make sure the condenser coil is as clean as possible. When your coils are clean, the fan can easily do its job and take care of all the hot air inside of your home in no time.
Condenser Coils Are Vital to Your Cooling System
Air is pushed across the coil unit inside of the home where the heat is absorbed in the refrigerant housed inside of the coil. It is then circulated through all of the tubing and into the outside coil. The fan in the unit will help to get rid of the hot air inside of your home and send it outside across the condenser coil. Essentially, the air conditioner removes the heat from your home. It doesn’t actually cool all of the air inside of it.
Common Issues Caused by a Dirty Condenser Coil
Dirty condenser coils can cause a number of problems.
• The energy-efficiency of the unit is going to drop significantly.
• Your air conditioner won’t be able to cool your home like it once did. The amount of energy the unit consumes is going to increase significantly, while the effectiveness of the cooling is going to decline far quicker than you might realize.
• Your air conditioning unit isn’t going to last as long as it normally would when you have a dirty coil. Manufacturers are under the assumption that you are going to clean your coil and maintain the unit properly when they predict how many years the unit is going to last.
• Your cooling efficiency is going to drop by more than 30 percent. Once that happens, your unit is only going to be running at 60-70 percent effectiveness. It doesn’t take much dirt to reduce the effectiveness of the unit.
