Yet another air conditioning question

[bigfug]

My neighbor has three big cottonwoods on the fence line. Wonderfull shade trees, but murder on ac coils. This past Spring, I bought some aluminum window screen and magnets from HomeDepot, trimmed to fit, and stuck that thing around the unit. Now I just take the screen off, spray it clean, wash the dirt out of the unit, and put it all back on. Makes a tough job much easier.

I may make a frame to go around the AC unit and do something similar with the window screen. Can you post a pic of how yours looks?

 

[davek]

One of the many terrible things that fire ants like to do is inhabit electrical boxes. A friend of mine near Ft. Worth opened up a junction box outside his house and thousands of them came boiling out of there.
If the fire ants make it up this far North I'm outta here.

 

[MacFromOK]

Fire ants in electrical equipment is a common problem. Apparently they're drawn to the 60Hz hum. :/

 

[John6185]

I noticed even though I don't have, nor seen cottonwoods near our property, that when I was blowing grass etc off the walk near my A/C unit, that it was covered in cotton. Hit it with my blower, and it look like I murdered a teddy bear.

Wrap the condenser with bulk fiberglass screen that you can get at Ace Hardware and elsewhere and when it has debris on the screen, hose it off. Works for me, I've been using a screen on my ac condenser for a couple of decades so far and haven't had to take the thing apart for cleaning since-inside is clean as a whistle.

 

[saddlebum]

Wrap the condenser with bulk fiberglass screen that you can get at Ace Hardware and elsewhere and when it has debris on the screen, hose it off. Works for me, I've been using a screen on my ac condenser for a couple of decades so far and haven't had to take the thing apart for cleaning since-inside is clean as a whistle.

Do not do this^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

[TwoForFlinching]

I may make a frame to go around the AC unit and do something similar with the window screen. Can you post a pic of how yours looks?

Looks like window screen around a unit. Magnets holt it on.

 

[dennishoddy]

One of the many terrible things that fire ants like to do is inhabit electrical boxes. A friend of mine near Ft. Worth opened up a junction box outside his house and thousands of them came boiling out of there.
If the fire ants make it up this far North I'm outta here.

Absolutely. My water well quit a couple months ago. During troubleshooting I found an ant between one of the contacts of the pressure switch.

 

[saddlebum]

The condenser is designed so a certain amount of air passes across the coils at a certain rate of speed when you put screens etc around it you create turbulence that changes the design air flow. Just wash it out once in a while and don't put ANYTHING within 12" of the coils.( that's 3x ya'lls pecker length for you guys that don't own a tape measure)

 

[Gunbuffer]

imo.
capacitors dont need to be bulged to be trash, and dont ever buy one unless it has a made in USA on it.
thanks to my wifes penchant for 62degree houses, we go thru em like candy

 

[John6185]

Do not do this^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Saddle, some company manufacturers these screens for condensers. I tend to agree with you but if they make these screens they aren't going to accept any liability or they wouldn't make them-so they must do the job intended. I've used one for a couple of decades w/o any problems.