Home Repair (alt.home.repair) For all homeowners and DIYers with many experienced tradesmen. Solve your toughest home fix-it problems.

Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #1   Report Post  
CMF
 
Posts: n/a
Default Hvac question, do I clean the evaporator if I have access to it?

As you can tell from the question, I am not an HVAC person, but I recently
discovered a rather significant cold air loss in my attic due to a shoddy
job of evaporator replacement a few years ago. No telling how much money I
have thrown down the drain cooling my attic!

Anyway, I'm up there doing some cleanup and a little sheet metal work to
seal this beast off again, and I wonder if I should do anything to clean the
evaporator while I am in there? right now, I can't tell how dirty it is if
any because it was kind of frosty, but I have turned the unit off and will
go check shortly.

If I do clean it, what should I use? Personally I'm guessing that I should
leave it alone, but want to hear from experts. And I know I should hire a
professional to do this, but I'm not completely inept, however I am
completely broke.

--
Maury French

Wylie, TX
"I cannot teach my kids ethics if I do not
practice them myself"


  #2   Report Post  
jim
 
Posts: n/a
Default Hvac question, do I clean the evaporator if I have access to it?

CMF wrote:

As you can tell from the question, I am not an HVAC person, but I recently
discovered a rather significant cold air loss in my attic due to a shoddy
job of evaporator replacement a few years ago. No telling how much money I
have thrown down the drain cooling my attic!

Anyway, I'm up there doing some cleanup and a little sheet metal work to
seal this beast off again, and I wonder if I should do anything to clean the
evaporator while I am in there? right now, I can't tell how dirty it is if
any because it was kind of frosty, but I have turned the unit off and will
go check shortly.

If I do clean it, what should I use? Personally I'm guessing that I should
leave it alone, but want to hear from experts. And I know I should hire a
professional to do this, but I'm not completely inept, however I am
completely broke.

--
Maury French

Wylie, TX
"I cannot teach my kids ethics if I do not
practice them myself"

how about a mixture of bleach and water, spray it on and let it sit and
then hose it off.... that ought to get off any mold that formed on it...
  #3   Report Post  
jim
 
Posts: n/a
Default Hvac question, do I clean the evaporator if I have access to it?

CMF wrote:

As you can tell from the question, I am not an HVAC person, but I recently
discovered a rather significant cold air loss in my attic due to a shoddy
job of evaporator replacement a few years ago. No telling how much money I
have thrown down the drain cooling my attic!

Anyway, I'm up there doing some cleanup and a little sheet metal work to
seal this beast off again, and I wonder if I should do anything to clean the
evaporator while I am in there? right now, I can't tell how dirty it is if
any because it was kind of frosty, but I have turned the unit off and will
go check shortly.

If I do clean it, what should I use? Personally I'm guessing that I should
leave it alone, but want to hear from experts. And I know I should hire a
professional to do this, but I'm not completely inept, however I am
completely broke.

--
Maury French

Wylie, TX
"I cannot teach my kids ethics if I do not
practice them myself"

disconnet the fixture from the power supply and make sure you got power
to it.. then take the back cover off the box in the light fixture(its
gonna be plastic) and there is a small fuse in it... go to radio shack
and get a replacement for it(about four in a pack for $2.50) and replace
it.. it probably blew with the power outage.. mine did.... real cheap
fix. and then you have 3 fuses left over for other things that might go
bad if you can find them when needed....
  #4   Report Post  
D-
 
Posts: n/a
Default Hvac question, do I clean the evaporator if I have access toit?

CMF wrote:

I recently discovered a rather significant cold air loss in my attic due to a shoddy
job of evaporator replacement a few years ago. No telling how much money I
have thrown down the drain cooling my attic!

I'm up there doing some cleanup and a little sheet metal work to
seal this beast off again, I wonder if I should do anything to clean the
evaporator while I am in there? I can't tell how dirty it is because
it was kind of frosty, but I have turned the unit off and will go check shortly.

If I do clean it, what should I use? Want to hear from experts, and know I should hire a
professional to do this, I'm not completely inept, however I am completely broke.


The evaporator coil should not have frost on it! It is DIRTY and/or LOW
airflow heat load on it!
All of the lint and scum will be on the air intake side of the coil.
Check to see of the blower wheel blades are dirty!
Use a good evaporator coil cleaning fluid.
Take the blower out and clean the blower too. -D

--
Get the Cooling Capacity and Efficiency you Paid for -
http://www.udarrell.com/air-conditio...city-seer.html


  #5   Report Post  
Eric
 
Posts: n/a
Default Hvac question, do I clean the evaporator if I have access to it?

jim wrote:

CMF wrote:

As you can tell from the question, I am not an HVAC person, but I
recently discovered a rather significant cold air loss in my attic due to
a shoddy job of evaporator replacement a few years ago. No telling how
much money I have thrown down the drain cooling my attic!

Anyway, I'm up there doing some cleanup and a little sheet metal work to
seal this beast off again, and I wonder if I should do anything to clean
the evaporator while I am in there? right now, I can't tell how dirty it
is if any because it was kind of frosty, but I have turned the unit off
and will go check shortly.

If I do clean it, what should I use? Personally I'm guessing that I
should leave it alone, but want to hear from experts. And I know I should
hire a professional to do this, but I'm not completely inept, however I
am completely broke.

--
Maury French

Wylie, TX
"I cannot teach my kids ethics if I do not
practice them myself"

how about a mixture of bleach and water, spray it on and let it sit and
then hose it off.... that ought to get off any mold that formed on it..

..
If there is any chance of a leak you DO NOT want to bring bleach near it.
bleach can combine with various chemicals and produce some lethal gases
in a flash!
Stay away from bleach, really!

Vacumn the thing out as best you can, get a moderate brush and brush
it inline with the fins unless they are the tinfoil things that look
like Christmas tree dressings. in that case, just vacumn what you can and
maybe try reversing the vacumn to a blower and blowing the rest off if
possible, But normally, just a wipe with a damp cloth will pick up a lot of
junk.
Beyond that, you need a professional to do it. they have the tools and
experience. Hire a different guy than the last one, as he apparently does
poor work.
Eric B.


  #6   Report Post  
Stormin Mormon
 
Posts: n/a
Default Hvac question, do I clean the evaporator if I have access to it?

The coils are supplied by a couple copper tubes which contain high pressure
freon. be real gentle with these, if they snap, you lose all the freon, and
have to pay to have it hooked back up and recharged.

--

Christopher A. Young
Learn more about Jesus
www.lds.org
www.mormons.org
..
..

"CMF" wrote in message
...
As you can tell from the question, I am not an HVAC person, but I recently
discovered a rather significant cold air loss in my attic due to a shoddy
job of evaporator replacement a few years ago. No telling how much money I
have thrown down the drain cooling my attic!

Anyway, I'm up there doing some cleanup and a little sheet metal work to
seal this beast off again, and I wonder if I should do anything to clean the
evaporator while I am in there? right now, I can't tell how dirty it is if
any because it was kind of frosty, but I have turned the unit off and will
go check shortly.

If I do clean it, what should I use? Personally I'm guessing that I should
leave it alone, but want to hear from experts. And I know I should hire a
professional to do this, but I'm not completely inept, however I am
completely broke.

--
Maury French

Wylie, TX
"I cannot teach my kids ethics if I do not
practice them myself"



  #7   Report Post  
CBHvac
 
Posts: n/a
Default Hvac question, do I clean the evaporator if I have access to it?


"CMF" wrote in message
...
As you can tell from the question, I am not an HVAC person, but I recently
discovered a rather significant cold air loss in my attic due to a shoddy
job of evaporator replacement a few years ago. No telling how much money I
have thrown down the drain cooling my attic!


Sorry to hear that..happens all the time.


Anyway, I'm up there doing some cleanup and a little sheet metal work to
seal this beast off again, and I wonder if I should do anything to clean

the
evaporator while I am in there? right now, I can't tell how dirty it is if
any because it was kind of frosty, but I have turned the unit off and will
go check shortly.


Frost? As in ice formation? That COULD be due to several things..most
common, low charge, and second most common...low air flow over the coil.
If you are sealing the case, and its not covered in hair, mold and dust, and
it still ices over, you need to get a tech out and have him charge the unit
NOT by pressure, but by superheat method, and find the leak, if he can.


If I do clean it, what should I use? Personally I'm guessing that I should
leave it alone, but want to hear from experts. And I know I should hire a
professional to do this, but I'm not completely inept, however I am
completely broke.


IF you have the coil open, and it needs to be cleaned, two things to
remember...bleach is the single worst thing that you can put on that coil.
DO NOT use it, and there are several ways to clean the coil....a vac is NOT
one of them. IF you have a large buildup of crud on it, you need to get it
off with a fin comb...this may take a while, but in the long term, as far as
NOT creating damage, its well worth it.
Then, if you can get access to a foaming cleaner from a supply center, (some
wont sell to homeowners that are not licenced) that is designed for the task
at hand, then you can follow the directions to a T on the back and clean the
coil. Most are a spray on, walk away cleaner, that will foam, push out the
crud, and the condensate will wash the coil off.
Of course, it IS best to get a pro to do it, and that way, if any damage
happens, its not up to you to pay for the repair...



--
Maury French

Wylie, TX
"I cannot teach my kids ethics if I do not
practice them myself"




  #8   Report Post  
CMF
 
Posts: n/a
Default Hvac question, do I clean the evaporator if I have access to it?


"kjpro" ( kjpro @ starband . com ) see-my-sig-for-e-mail wrote in message
t...
"jim" wrote in message ...
disconnet the fixture from the power supply and make sure you got power
to it.. then take the back cover off the box in the light fixture(its
gonna be plastic) and there is a small fuse in it... go to radio shack
and get a replacement for it(about four in a pack for $2.50) and replace
it.. it probably blew with the power outage.. mine did.... real cheap
fix. and then you have 3 fuses left over for other things that might go
bad if you can find them when needed....


wtf does fuses have to do with the OP problem with a dirty coil??


Mr. kjpro,

This is quite interesting. I see your replies to jim here, but I never saw
these particular responses from jim, both of which I assume were not meant
for me. Can your newsgroup server/reader be giving you headaches? That
asked, did anyone else get these messages from Jim?

Actually, it kind of stole my thunder. I was going to come back with a
thanks for your responses, but I used a pressure washer post and see who
bit.....


Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules

Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
this ought to get everybody fired up.... mel Woodworking 56 March 29th 04 04:53 PM
Question To you HVAC folks Gunner Metalworking 23 January 12th 04 01:15 PM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 05:58 AM.

Powered by vBulletin® Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 DIYbanter.
The comments are property of their posters.
 

About Us

"It's about DIY & home improvement"