Some like to suffer

[Dave O 15]

Okay senario is that it is late in the day. Customer calls and says that an electrician came out to fix air conditioning. Says that it is dirty and needs P/Wing, but they don't do that. Meanwhile this people are roasting. So I get called and call back. She says can you come out right away. Yes but first is it ground level in wall or roof top. Ground level. Okay and water access. No there isn't, okay well we will haul some water there. The minimum starts at 150.00 for a service man to come out. Oh no way click. Hmmm must not have been that hot. Oh yeah I'll call this guy who will come out for 30.00. Hmmm That's nice of him. Sorry we couldn't help you goodday. I think it pissed her off because I would,t send a truck to an office building 45 minutes away, hauling water in rushhour traffic for 30.00. , and that I was so nice on the phone. You could probably buy a new one for the price she payed the electrician, and the P/Wer to come out. Electrician and service men or women are not cheap.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

And the unit needed to be cleaned right away... so they could fix it or what? I don't see the need to rush washing the A/C unit...I see the need to fix the airconditioner.

What am I missing?

Beth

[Dave O 15]

The electrician told them all it needed was a cleaning and they needed right then and there. They were roasting I quess. So they payed the electrician for nothing. Yet wouldn't want to pay for someone to haul water to a place where none was available for pretty much nothing.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

But....if the air conditioner didn't work, it couldn't have been because the unit was dirty...unless they buried it in dirt...this is too odd.

Beth

[Pams Pressure & Clean 64]

Beth,

Air conditioning condensers sometimes get clogged with dirt, pollen, gunk, goo, and all types of stuff.

When this happens, the A/C system overheats/overpressurizes and generally will go into a thermal overload shutdown to protect itself. Because the unit will no longer turn on is the most logical reason the electrican was called out...(Either that or the nice lady on the phone just figured "it doesn't work...call an electrician"...No comment on why one would call an electrician instead of an HVAC tech...)

Cleaning the condenser and resetting the system will restore proper operation, all else being equal and good.

[Beth n Rod 1,279]

Learned something new today! Thanks Cujo! :)

Still seems odd that the HVAC dude was not prepared to clean it somehow. People who work on PC's use cans of air for example...they don't call in a maid to vacuum the keys out.

Beth

[Dave O 15]

Sorry Beth I thought I put that in there about the dirt. Still have not been to bed yet. Going on 34 hours LOL

[mikew 14]

My HVAC guys used a garden hose to clean my outside A/C units. The cooling fins were clogged with dirt, pine bark, etc... He recommend rinsing the unit once per year. That must have been some serious buildup....

Mike

[PLD 14]

Remember, they called an electrician. He has probably never heard of coil cleaner, nor has any idea how to use it... Probably just assumed that bad buildup + small thin spaces = high pressure cleaning.

As someone said before, why not call an HVAC tech? I fix my own AC about 90% of the time, but when I am stumped I don't just guess which component an order one. I call an HVAC professional...

[Jon 533]

We used to have our AC serviced two a year and each time the AC guy cleaned everything inside, rinsed the filter with low pressure garden hose and a very mild spray nozzle, not a pressure washing nozzle but something like what you water plants with but lower.

An Electrician should not have been called out, an AC company should have been.

Now for you guys n gals that clean AC with pressure washers does it pay enough to spend an hour messing with electrical stuff?

[Dave O 15]

John

You hit the nail on the head. That's what I wondered is why the didn't call a HVAC person to come out. Then I thought about it this way.

Hot day HVAC= Big Money, because you know they are busy.

Electrician not that busy=less money

PowerwasherMe=big money busy,late in day,rush hour,haul water because of no outlet,

Powerwashersomeoneelse=little cookie and bad for industry again. Helping customers to confirm their thinking that we all do this stuff cheeply.

Personally if it was me out their = I'm hot go into bathroom get bucket fill go out there clean myself with brush. Or hey boss me going home too hot LOL

[Able Hands 14]

Please don't ever approach a condesning unit with a PW, unless you are using the black low pressure nozzle, and even then make sure you are perpendicular to the fins.

I realize this is a really old post but!

I did commercial A/C and refrigeration for 5 years ending about 7 years ago. Frankly it was the second worst job of my working life (first being roofing). In HVAC-R the only thing worse than doing spring start-ups (coil cleaning) all day is doing fall start-ups (burner/combustion cleaning).

It is RRRRRREEEEEEAAAAAAALLLLLLLYYYYYYYYY easy to flatten the fins on a condensor with only garden hose pressure, let alone 4000PSI. Never done it, but at 4000PSI I would bet you could break the refrigeration lines on an old unit.

Now, speaking from experience, you've never had a headache with the EPA until you blow about 100lbs of refrigerant into the atmosphere because of an accident with the property owner standing over your shoulder watching.

If you think a house/deck can get dirty, you should see the crap inside a condesnor coil on top of McDonalds, Burger King, or the like. It would likely make you puke!

As with power washing, get the right chemicals for the job. Do it right, or leave it to the pros.

JMHO

Matt