On Friday, September 26, 2014 9:46:21 AM UTC-4, Stormin Mormon wrote:
On 9/26/2014 9:06 AM, trader_4 wrote:



It's been a few years since I worked on mine, and I guess you're

right that they have a panel that comes off, so I'm wrong about them

being sealed. But even with the panel

off, I don't see how you're going to clean much on a typical

modern coil. Here's a pic of a typical Rheem, similar to what I have:



https://www.theacoutlet.com/RCFLHM48...FVQV7AodoHoACg





With the cover off, you aren't going to clean much of it. You have

no access at all to the side of the coils that receive the incoming

air. With no access from above, I guess you might get your arm in there,

to try to clean two faces of the coils and you have very limited access

to just a part of one other face. That means you can maybe clean 2 1/2

sides out of 6 sides of the coils. And you can't get to the sides that

receive the incoming air at all, where presumably most of the dirt would be.





Ideally, the system has a good air filter, and dust

isn't an issue. But, in the real world people pull

the filters out and let the system run unprotected.

It's often necessary to pump out the refrigerant,

and cut the coil out. Wet clean it with chemicals

and put it back. Bit of work, for sure


Well, that's kind of where I was coming from. It may not be
"sealed", but to get at it to really clean it, isn't typically
possible by just removing a panel. I'll bet only a small percentage
of the evap coils out there are ever cleaned.

I agree with the part about the filter. When I replaced mine
after 28 years, the coils were still clean. And all I'd used in
that one were the cheap 1" thick filters. Of course it also depends
on the environment. If you have a dirty, dusty house, 3 dogs, etc,
then the incoming air is probably a lot dirtier.