Dirty A/C evaporator coil in apartment


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Old 08-24-17, 01:29 PM
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Dirty A/C evaporator coil in apartment

Hello everyone,

I am not even sure how to title this thread because I am so concerned. Ok, from the beginning:

I have lived in the same apartment for the last 3 years. I moved in with my girlfriend who has lived in this same apartment for the last 7 years. I have told her time and again that there is something wrong with the unit that provides the central air and heat to her apartment, but she just thinks I am insane. I tell her all the time that I see things fly out of the ducts and when I cook I have watching stuff fall into the food I was preparing because there is a duct right about the stove. There are 2 adults and 2 teens that live in the apartment and all experience the same types of things in regards to our health and so that makes me concerned about what we may be eating if I dont catch the fall from the duct as it occurs and I am concerned about what I am breathing in.

All I know is that for the last 3 years the ground maintenance over the apartment complex has never been in the apartment to clean the air ducts or perform routine annual maintenance on the unit. Then, after I asked her, she said they have not been in her apartment to do that type of work at all. So, basically this air/heating unit has not had any type of service performed on it in 7 years total. I have pictures that I took last night and then about 30 minutes ago.

I told her I was going to try and get information about this situation from someone who knew if whats going on is right or wrong and whether or not there is a health concern with the way the inside part of this heating/cooling unit looks.
Please help! Anyone who knows anything regarding this matter, please leave your ideas or suggestions for me cause I don't know what else to do. Here are the recent pics I have taken.
 
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  #2  
Old 08-24-17, 01:55 PM
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Is that a bunch of krud on the coils? Are filters used regularly?

At a min it looks like a good cleaning is needed.

Probably dust/dirt/hair etc that has been collecting!
 
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Old 08-24-17, 02:51 PM
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The filter is changed once a month. We have to go and get it from the office so sometimes we may be a day or two late but not anything extensive. I have had concerns about this for some time and so when doing some research I have read that filters don't require changing monthly but more like every 3 months.
Another question I have is, what is that exactly that is coming from the run off tubes and going into the floor drain? Those tubes are connected to the bottom of the case holding the coils.
 
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Old 08-24-17, 03:07 PM
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That would be condensate water. Coil needs to be cleaned, health hazard no.
 
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Old 08-24-17, 04:55 PM
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Welcome to the forums.
I changed the title for you.

Is this a rental apartment or do they own it ?

They would not maintain the system at all if they owned the unit,
If they rent... they'd have to bribe the maintenance guy to come.

Compared to what I've seen..... that coils is fairly clean.
 
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Old 08-24-17, 05:26 PM
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Get a bottle of coil cleaner, follow the instruction clean both sides of the coil, use a very soft brush to help, do not damage the coil fin, rinse with clean water at end. The filter in your photo is the cheapest type (1 dollar a piece), you may want to install a better filter, try to spend $4 or $5 dollars for the filter, it should last 3 months.
 
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Old 08-24-17, 06:44 PM
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Pete,
Thank you for the information, I at least can take some of this off of my mind and sleep better knowing i'm not breathing in foreign objects, mold and so forth while I am sleeping.
I have just one more question. Shouldn't there be maintenance performed and shouldn't the ducts be cleaned out every once in awhile? I still don't know what it is that flies out of the ducts when the air and or heat is on but I have lived in other apartments where this was situation was not present. While growing up none of these issues happened with my mom and dads heating/cooling system, that is part of what lead me to be concerned. I have never encountered this type of situation before or seen coils do this. Maybe where I grew up in upstate NY the air quality is better then where I live now in Kansas lol.
 
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Old 08-24-17, 06:51 PM
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Skaggs, thank you for easing my mind I am happy to know there is no health concerns to worry about with this coil.

Clocert, Beings that I pay monthly rent I am not sure I can take the coil out to clean it. It might be a violation of the rental agreement that I am required to abide by. As far as the filter, I have no idea the price they pay for them but I would imagine it is the cheapest on the market simply because of the rental properties that is owned and the amount of filters that need to be handed out every month. % more dollars wouldn't kill me to pay for a better filtration of my home but in the same breath, they get a thousand plus out of me per month for this place, (and I figured out the total per month per property and it is 100,000 give or take a few thousand that is raked in per month on their end. multiply that by 4 and it makes me feel like i shouldn't be the one to be paying the four extra bucks. Just my opinion. Thank you for your help as well.
 
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Old 08-25-17, 01:14 AM
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Coils do not come out would have to cleaned in place, I would not touch them except for light cleaning, apt could say you damaged them.
 
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Old 08-25-17, 06:10 AM
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I would try and get in there with a soft brush on a vacuum an get as much of the debris off the coil as possible then get a can of evaporator cleaner from a big box store and spray the coil,follow the instructions on the can.
Get a better filter,check with management if you like before doing this if you like.
Geo
 
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Old 08-25-17, 08:28 AM
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sleep better knowing i'm not breathing in foreign objects, mold and so forth
Well, it's probably not the best of stuff to be in the air.

Cleaning coils is not a normal maintenance item, honestly over the years I dont recall having done that more than once and that was just because I had the duct removed because I was adding insulation. Usually getting to the coils requires some level of disassembly or panel removal.
 
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Old 08-29-17, 11:38 PM
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Back in the days of SEARS HOME SERVICES, they come out to work on a still active warranty window unit. ordered a mother board,and showed me how to plug it in.Being I had already moved the unit outside for easier working on .THIS IS TIPS OFFERED ==Use a kitchen oven spray cleaner "easy off" on the coils then rinse he used the garden hose, plus he cleaned the second larger unit also.ALL FOR NO CHARGE BECAUSE ONE WAS UNDER WARRANTY in your case I would first make sure those drain lines flows freely , gently vacuum as much you can ...use the spray cleaner but use a spray bottle to rinse. BUT I THEN WONDER IF THIS IS A TRUE HEALTH HAZARD This may cause trouble with building management
 

Last edited by willywhy; 08-29-17 at 11:49 PM. Reason: proofreading
 

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