If crud builds up in the squirrel cage fan of ductless units it can be easily blown out using an air nozzle and a pancake compressor. At least it worked on one of my units. The air pressure regulator was tuned back to 75psi.
The fan can first be held stationary and the air blown over it to loosen. Then allow it to spin freely which throws out the stuff, being careful to not allow it to over rev/spin. What amounts to “over spin” is a judgment call. Compressed air on a finned unit can create some serious RPMs. The stuff that comes out could probably be contained with fine netting. The inside coil then needs be air blown in reverse, and a vacuum used to clean up. When finished it looked clean. Took 15 minutes max.
As an equipment owner I’ve been looking for a way here to keep this stuff from building up on the indoor unit fans. I keep filters clean which helps. Any thoughts?
I’ve asked in the past about cleaning and maintenance on these mini-splits because I have 5 outdoor and 7 indoor units installed since 2010. The maintenance cost to clean the units needs to be considered as operating cost.
Fan cleaning that may be required in certain environments in AC season will be a significant part of that expense because it is necessary for a tech to disassemble the unit and pull the fan out. One tech even said that it would be necessary to remove the indoor head and recharge the unit in order to clean the fan. It can be cleaned more efficiently.
BTW this site logs you out quickly. Suggest when you compose that you do copy save first rather than waste time recomposing.
The fan can first be held stationary and the air blown over it to loosen. Then allow it to spin freely which throws out the stuff, being careful to not allow it to over rev/spin. What amounts to “over spin” is a judgment call. Compressed air on a finned unit can create some serious RPMs. The stuff that comes out could probably be contained with fine netting. The inside coil then needs be air blown in reverse, and a vacuum used to clean up. When finished it looked clean. Took 15 minutes max.
As an equipment owner I’ve been looking for a way here to keep this stuff from building up on the indoor unit fans. I keep filters clean which helps. Any thoughts?
I’ve asked in the past about cleaning and maintenance on these mini-splits because I have 5 outdoor and 7 indoor units installed since 2010. The maintenance cost to clean the units needs to be considered as operating cost.
Fan cleaning that may be required in certain environments in AC season will be a significant part of that expense because it is necessary for a tech to disassemble the unit and pull the fan out. One tech even said that it would be necessary to remove the indoor head and recharge the unit in order to clean the fan. It can be cleaned more efficiently.
BTW this site logs you out quickly. Suggest when you compose that you do copy save first rather than waste time recomposing.
