How often do you clean your "A" coil? Never? Every few years?

On Tuesday, October 1, 2019 at 1:17:18 PM UTC-4, Davej wrote:
How often do you clean your "A" coil? Never? Every few years?

Never. I have yet to see one installed on a residential central AC
where it has a means of access. Everyone I've seen, it's either
in it's own sheet metal casing that sits on top of the furnace or it's
inside a sheet metal plenum that's part of the duct work. Neither
has ever had an access panel to get to the coils. I suppose you could
cut the sheet metal and make access, as long as you know the orientation
and stay away from the coils. Why they don't make the new encased,
insulated evaporators with a removable panel, IDK. But I've seen a
few, eg Rheen, Lennox, and no access panel.

When I replaced the 25 year old system here, the coils were still clean,
looked fine. And that was with just one of those cheap 1' thick fiberglass,
minimal filter. New system has a 5" thick MERV, so I'm not worried.

On 10/1/2019 1:17 PM, Davej wrote:
How often do you clean your "A" coil? Never? Every few years?


If you have a filter holder that doesn't let unfiltered air get by and you don't have a house full of smokers, you should never have to clean the A coil.

In article ,
says...

When I replaced the 25 year old system here, the coils were still clean,
looked fine. And that was with just one of those cheap 1' thick fiberglass,
minimal filter. New system has a 5" thick MERV, so I'm not worried.




While some repair work was done on my 10 year old system the repairman
cleaned the outside and inside coils. He said the inside unit did not
need it but as it was included with the job he was going to do it.

I use the inexpensive inch thick filters and change them once a month or
if I am not in a store with them, I have used some 3 month filters.

My Train unit does have panels that are relative easy to remove to do
the cleaning.

trader_4 wrote:

Why they don't make the new encased,
insulated evaporators with a removable panel, IDK. But I've seen a
few, eg Rheen, Lennox, and no access panel.

When I replaced the 25 year old system here, the coils were still clean,
looked fine. And that was with just one of those cheap 1' thick fiberglass,
minimal filter. New system has a 5" thick MERV, so I'm not worried.

You've answered your own question: the only time you'd need to clean it would be
if soot had been drawn into the system. And if that's the case, you've got
larger problems.

On 10/1/19 1:17 PM, Davej wrote:
How often do you clean your "A" coil? Never? Every few years?


The way the R410A micro-channel systems are springing leaks, you'll have to remove and replace the system before the coils get dirty. /sarcasm

On Tue, 1 Oct 2019 15:58:12 -0400, devnull wrote:

On 10/1/19 1:17 PM, Davej wrote:
How often do you clean your "A" coil? Never? Every few years?


The way the R410A micro-channel systems are springing leaks, you'll have to remove and replace the system before the coils get dirty. /sarcasm

Naah, they just shoot a tube of stop leak in it and tell you it is
better than new.

On Tuesday, October 1, 2019 at 12:43:33 PM UTC-5, trader_4 wrote:
On Tuesday, October 1, 2019 at 1:17:18 PM UTC-4, Davej wrote:
How often do you clean your "A" coil? Never? Every few years?

Never. I have yet to see one installed on a residential central
AC where it has a means of access. Everyone I've seen, it's either
in it's own sheet metal casing that sits on top of the furnace or
it's inside a sheet metal plenum that's part of the duct work.
Neither has ever had an access panel to get to the coils. I
suppose you could cut the sheet metal and make access, as long as
you know the orientation and stay away from the coils. [...]

My concern is that the "A" coil is a moist surface. The thing could
become coated with mold and who would know? I think it is absurd
the way they are installed with zero access. Certainly an access
scheme could be fabricated.

On 10/2/2019 12:01 PM, Davej wrote:
On Tuesday, October 1, 2019 at 12:43:33 PM UTC-5, trader_4 wrote:
On Tuesday, October 1, 2019 at 1:17:18 PM UTC-4, Davej wrote:
How often do you clean your "A" coil? Never? Every few years?
Never. I have yet to see one installed on a residential central
AC where it has a means of access. Everyone I've seen, it's either
in it's own sheet metal casing that sits on top of the furnace or
it's inside a sheet metal plenum that's part of the duct work.
Neither has ever had an access panel to get to the coils. I
suppose you could cut the sheet metal and make access, as long as
you know the orientation and stay away from the coils. [...]
My concern is that the "A" coil is a moist surface. The thing could
become coated with mold and who would know? I think it is absurd
the way they are installed with zero access. Certainly an access
scheme could be fabricated.


During AC season, if you set the thermostat to "Fan On", it's very unlikely that mold will form on the A-coil.

On Wednesday, October 2, 2019 at 12:01:23 PM UTC-4, Davej wrote:
On Tuesday, October 1, 2019 at 12:43:33 PM UTC-5, trader_4 wrote:
On Tuesday, October 1, 2019 at 1:17:18 PM UTC-4, Davej wrote:
How often do you clean your "A" coil? Never? Every few years?

Never. I have yet to see one installed on a residential central
AC where it has a means of access. Everyone I've seen, it's either
in it's own sheet metal casing that sits on top of the furnace or
it's inside a sheet metal plenum that's part of the duct work.
Neither has ever had an access panel to get to the coils. I
suppose you could cut the sheet metal and make access, as long as
you know the orientation and stay away from the coils. [...]

My concern is that the "A" coil is a moist surface. The thing could
become coated with mold and who would know? I think it is absurd
the way they are installed with zero access. Certainly an access
scheme could be fabricated.

Well, all I can tell you is that 25 years, no mold on the old, never cleaned one. Maybe the combination of it either being near freezing or hot inhibits mold.