Are Leaves In My Air Conditioner Bad?

Winter in Los Angeles may mean temperatures of 80 degrees outside, but homeowners still have some common winter maintenance issues to contend with. Leaves and debris falling or being blown into your air conditioner are hard to avoid. The central fan of your condenser sucks in dust, dead leaves, grass and seed pods. That all becomes a wet mess inside your outdoor condenser that blocks airflow, strains the whole system and reduces the unit’s cooling ability. If left to fester dirt may become moldy or harden around the more fragile components of your air conditioning equipment. The result is a less efficient home cooling system, higher energy bills and a more wear and tear on your AC unit.

There are a number of solutions available. Some homeowners opt for a nice professionally made cover that slips easily over your AC condenser, protecting it from the elements. These covers are easily purchased online or you can buy one from any Los Angeles Air Conditioning Contractor who comes to your home to perform your maintenance on your HVAC system. The only downside of these vinyl condenser covers is that sometimes in Los Angeles we get an unseasonably hot day in the middle of winter and people turn on their central AC, forgetting that the unit is covered. Yikes! You can imagine the kind of strain this would cause to the fan motor.  

You may have a different type of central air conditioner than we show here—a heat pump system, for example, or a unit mounted horizontally in the attic. Regardless, each system will have a condenser outside and an evaporator inside. The outdoor condenser looks like this. Hopefully yours is way cleaner though!

Fins are fine metallic blades that surround the unit and those condenser fins have to be cleaned as part of your system maintenance. If the debris is fairly new it can be washed off with your garden hose. An important tip, if you are doing this yourself: Don't spray too hard. The fins are easily bent so keep the water pressure low. If you wait until the leaves become hardened and caked-on, a more advanced cleaning solution is necessary. I found an environmentally friendly chemical coil cleaner that works really well and doesn't pose a danger to four legged family members ;)

 

I am in the business of installing and maintaining heating and cooling systems. I strongly encourage  regularly scheduled professional maintenance because I have seen equipment last longer than you can imagine when properly maintained. In fact, just last week I serviced a central heating and cooling system that my company installed 30 years ago for a customer in Sherman Oaks. It was working so perfectly that I offered to warranty the unit myself for another 5 years. That's how strongly I believe in HVAC system maintenance including cleaning away those pesky leaves!

Tip: Call for service before the first heat wave, when Air Conditioning companies in Los Angeles become swamped with repair calls!