Annual maintenance as we all know will prolong the life of the system. When preformed correctly anyway. When I make a service call and im on a roof I like to always make an effort to walk around to all of the condensing unit for a quick visual inspection. A lot of the time all of the units get cleaned at least once a year if not more. Im relatively new to the trade but with being new I still have noticed a pattern. It just always seems like condenser coils that are cleaned regularly are either in really good condition or looks terrible and the ones that look bad feel like an over sized heat gun. I've only been able to come to one conclusion. The chemicals being used.
I remember my first HVAC job and when the guy that was training me pulled out that dark brown cleaner when we were cleaning a condenser coil for a yearly maintenance. When he mixed it about 4:1 and sprayed it on it looked like a high school chemistry class experiment leaving a nice shiny coil. I immediately thought that can't be good for the coil. I asked the guy if that was bad on the coil and started asking questions. His answer for the reason he used it was "It's just the way we have always done it". So with the power of the internet I began my research. First to find the SDS sheet of that product. Found that the main chemicals were Sodium Hydroxide(NaOH) at 50% and Potassium Hydroxide(KOH) at 45%. With a pH range of 11.6-13. Both chemicals with water have a chemical reaction with aluminium(Al). It seems to me that the way the cleaner and other heavy alkaline based cleaners "clean" is the cleaner has chemical reaction removing the dark grey aluminium oxide layer along with some of the Al that the dirt/grease is attached to.
It would only make sense to me that if you use these type of cleaners on Al coils like that every year or more that it would slowly "eat away" the Al and slowly thin out the fins causing the coil to not transfer heat as efficiently. Also making the fins weaker causing them to fold and stick together from the air being drawn across it. Making the coil look in bad shape. I always thought just because the unit is working, charge is right, and the coil is clean doesn't mean its working as efficiently as it should be.
Does this seem right? If so do these cleaners have a use for certain circumstances? What is everyone's opinion about this? What cleaners are everyone's go-to's giving the application? I went to my local supply house looking for Viper HD cleaner and I would always get talked to like I'm dumb for wanting a certain cleaner and not using the heavy foaming cleaners they had on the shelves.
I remember my first HVAC job and when the guy that was training me pulled out that dark brown cleaner when we were cleaning a condenser coil for a yearly maintenance. When he mixed it about 4:1 and sprayed it on it looked like a high school chemistry class experiment leaving a nice shiny coil. I immediately thought that can't be good for the coil. I asked the guy if that was bad on the coil and started asking questions. His answer for the reason he used it was "It's just the way we have always done it". So with the power of the internet I began my research. First to find the SDS sheet of that product. Found that the main chemicals were Sodium Hydroxide(NaOH) at 50% and Potassium Hydroxide(KOH) at 45%. With a pH range of 11.6-13. Both chemicals with water have a chemical reaction with aluminium(Al). It seems to me that the way the cleaner and other heavy alkaline based cleaners "clean" is the cleaner has chemical reaction removing the dark grey aluminium oxide layer along with some of the Al that the dirt/grease is attached to.
It would only make sense to me that if you use these type of cleaners on Al coils like that every year or more that it would slowly "eat away" the Al and slowly thin out the fins causing the coil to not transfer heat as efficiently. Also making the fins weaker causing them to fold and stick together from the air being drawn across it. Making the coil look in bad shape. I always thought just because the unit is working, charge is right, and the coil is clean doesn't mean its working as efficiently as it should be.
Does this seem right? If so do these cleaners have a use for certain circumstances? What is everyone's opinion about this? What cleaners are everyone's go-to's giving the application? I went to my local supply house looking for Viper HD cleaner and I would always get talked to like I'm dumb for wanting a certain cleaner and not using the heavy foaming cleaners they had on the shelves.
