Here at Airandwaterchoices.com we cannot stress the importance of servicing Air Conditioning enough.  Servicing should not be classed as a luxury, but a necessity.

An air conditioner’s filters, coils, and fins require regular maintenance for the unit to function effectively and efficiently throughout its years of service. Neglecting necessary maintenance ensures a steady decline in air conditioning performance while energy use steadily increases costing you more.  Worse still, a badly maintained system can lead to bad air with spores of fungi and other bacteria being blown in to the air and breathed in by users.

Air Conditioner Filters 
The most important maintenance task that will ensure the efficiency of your air conditioner is to routinely clean its filters. Clogged, dirty filters block normal airflow and reduce a system’s efficiency significantly. With normal airflow obstructed, air that bypasses the filter may carry dirt directly into the evaporator coil and impair the coil’s heat-absorbing capacity. Keeping your filters clean (or replacing when they get really bad)  can lower your air conditioner’s energy consumption by 5% to 15%.

Cleaning filters

Changing these in a wall Split system is very easy and something most people can undertake at home. The instructions can be found in the user manual or watch this video from LG that explains it well.

For Ducted air conditioners where air enters rooms via vents high up on the walls the filter can be found in the indoor unit which can be found usually in the false ceiling in a bathroom.  If you have more than one bathroom but one has a tiled false ceiling, or even a service hatch, that is where the indoor unit it.  Move a few tiles/open the hatch and look for the large silver indoor unit.  Find the back of it and the filters can be pulled/slid out, washed in hot water, dried and replaced.

Filters may need more frequent attention if the air conditioner is in constant use, is subjected to dusty conditions, or you have fur-bearing pets in the house.

Servicing

Although cleaning filters helps over time a lot of dust does get through filters and blocks the fan coil inside (the vertical metal blades behind the filter that looks a little like a car radiator). In addition, the drain tray and pipe that takes condensed water out can become built up with congealed dust and water and bacteria. As the air is blown out of the vents some of that water can be whipped up and eventually spores of fungi, dust and bacteria build up.

Naturally as air is passing over this the air can become a real heath hazard.  Cleaning beyond the filters should be performed by a proper servicing company who should remove the cover, inspect electrics, use specialist bacteria killing sprays, power hose the fan coil, clean the drain pipe and the fan/air exit.  A full list of what our servicing includes is HERE.

Take a look at these photos.  It shows a split system that is 8 years old but serviced 2 years ago by another company.

We cleaned the system with our arsenal of tools and below is the difference.  Note how much cooler the system is operating after cleaning!  This saves you money because the room will get to the desired temperature quicker.