Cleaning a Wall-Mounted Air Conditioner in 3 Steps

To optimize the performance of your wall-mounted air conditioner, it’s important to clean it at least once a year, and before its period of heavy use – that is, the summer season. If you have pets, you’ll undoubtedly need to maintain it regularly to remove the hair that often gets lodged in the filter of the device. Here are the 5 steps for cleaning a wall-mounted air conditioner before the warm season:

Before starting your wall-mounted air conditioner cleaning job, always take the precaution of checking that it is in the off position and disconnect it from the power supply.

Remove the casing from your wall-mounted air conditioner

To start cleaning your device, you must first remove its casing to be able to access the evaporator coil, which is the most important part to clean. To do this, equip yourself with a cleaning product specially designed for refrigerator or wall-mounted air conditioner coils, which you can find in large specialty stores. This product will probably be a chemical that you will have to handle with care and especially with gloves. It will also need to be a powerful antibacterial product that will prevent the formation of mould or bacteria in the long term. Finish this step with the complete rinsing of the coil with clear water to remove any excess dirt. The mould and bacteria that accumulate within this type of device are very hazardous to human health and are responsible for poor indoor air quality, which can cause asthma, various respiratory illnesses, lung infections, and even lung cancers.

Clean the interior unit

Using a sufficiently powerful vacuum cleaner, begin by vacuuming the dirt inside the unit, then scrub the surface with a damp sponge soaked in soapy water and wrung out well, then dry everything with a soft, clean cloth. The filter must always be perfectly dry before being replaced in the interior unit of the wall-mounted air conditioner. This cleaning of the interior unit should ideally be carried out every two weeks for the duration of its daily operation to reduce the accumulation of dust on its walls and filter. If you don’t clean the interior unit often enough during the warm season, you risk losing significant air flow, which will reduce the efficiency of the machine and increase the energy consumption and noise of the device. If you don’t think you’ll remember to clean the filter of your wall-mounted air conditioner regularly enough, you can opt for a device equipped with an indicator that will notify you of the right time to clean it.

Clean the condenser

While cleaning the inside of a wall-mounted air conditioner might seem like the most essential step, it’s also necessary to regularly clean the condenser, which is located in the exterior part of the device, in order to keep your device in good working order. To do this, move a cloth dampened in soapy water and thoroughly wrung out along the entire exterior surface of the unit, then wipe the whole thing with a soft, dry cloth that won’t risk creating scratches. Then, make sure that the exterior coil is also clean or wipe it with a damp cloth to get rid of all the accumulated dust and dirt.

If your wall-mounted air conditioner is very dirty but still in working order and the task seems difficult, you can always call on a professional cleaning company, which will take care of making it like new again while being careful not to damage it.