With summer coming on you want to make sure your air conditioning is performing properly. This will save energy and cut down on repair costs. The first thing you want to do on the exterior is make sure that your compressor is clean. And the first thing you want to do for safety purposes is make sure that the power to the unit is cut off. Most of you will have a switch out here or sometimes it will be a plug that you pull out that will disconnect the circuit so that you can safely work on this unit. The compressor is really very simple and what you need to do is remove the top by unloosening the screws all around the edge and then carefully lifting the grill of the fan altogether out and setting it off to the side, being careful not to crimp the wires.

Down inside the unit you’ll see where you have accumulated leaves over the past year. You want to get all those out. You can a ShopVac or whatnot- just make sure that you’ve got all the- weeds can sometimes grow into there and the leaves and all that- all that debris needs to come out. because they’re clearly not good for the system.

The next thing you want to do is clean the fins- the cooling fins- on the outside. All the compressors have these. And its important for the air to move through these clearly and cleanly so that it cools the air properly. So what you want to do is spray from the inside out all around so you can move the dirt from the inside out. it will blast the dirt out and clean all of these quite well.

Also you want to make sure that the concrete pad on which your unit sits is clean of debris and weeds because these are only going to get sucked into the unit. You clearly don’t want vines growing into it.

So those are the basic steps to cleaning your exterior compressor for your air conditioning. And if you do this regularly especially before the summer months, you’ll reduce your energy costs and your repair bills.