“A little dirt never hurt anyone.” We’ve all heard this phrase (usually applied to kids trying to get as dirty as possible while playing) but this idea doesn’t apply to your evaporator coil. An air conditioner’s evaporator coil actually needs to stay as clean as possible in order to provide reliable and effective cooling. If this coil gets dirty on the other hand it can cause a variety of problems that require air conditioner repairs in Portland.
If you have a moment and you’re curious as to why this is such a big problem for your home comfort, we’ve provided more information below. Our hope is that this information leaves you better equipped to prevent a dirty evaporator coil issue or, when one pops up, to be able to handle it more quickly.
What’s So Bad About Dirt on Your Evaporator Coil?
The short answer to this is that dirt on your AC unit’s evaporator coil is going to seriously hinder your home comfort. But let us give you a bit more detail.
The way that your AC works is that it cycles refrigerant through your evaporator coil allowing it to absorb heat from the indoor air that is blown over the coil. If, however, that coil has a layer of dirt and debris coating it, this process will become a lot harder if not impossible. That dirt layer will stop the refrigerant from absorbing heat, which means that it can’t create cool air first, and will instead put a large amount of stress on our system second.
The Damage Dirt Can Cause
So what are the issues that stem from that dirty build-up on your coil? There is more than just a reduction of cool air that will result from this AC issue. If your evaporator coil can’t absorb heat, it is going to just cool the air around it continuously. This will lead to the coil icing over which makes it even harder for your AC to cool your home and can lead to serious damage to the coil and other parts of your system. In fact, if you don’t catch it soon enough, this problem can lead to an early AC replacement.
Preventing a Dirty Coil
You may be wondering if there is any way to prevent this issue from occurring in the first place. Thankfully there are some tips to prevent a dirty evaporator coil from developing. For one thing, you will want to regularly change out your AC air filter to reduce the chances that it will get clogged with dirt and start letting that debris into your system instead. For another thing, you will want to schedule your AC maintenance each year to allow a technician to clear away any small amounts of dust and dirt that may have settled on the coil already to prevent real build-up from developing.
Whether it is a dirty evaporator coil or a broken fan blade, you can trust the technicians at The Clean Air Act to get your repairs taken care of.
Please call Sydni, our Office Extraordinaire, to schedule your next appointment! We will take care of you from there! Contact us today.