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Get a bit of window screening and make a removable lint screen to place in front of the condenser once you've replaced the fan blade. I've had customers with similar screens in cotton wood areas. The screen makes it easy to clean, just pull off the screen and rinse.

On cooler days they stay in reverse........ Seems like it would be awful hard on the motor to change rotation once running. I think it has 12 fans and I've had to replace 3 in it's first 8 years of operation. I wouldn't call that reliabe. It only runs 6 months of the year.

Originally Posted by upnort

The condenser fans run both ways on one of the chillers I work on. They start off one way then as the head pressure goes up, they reverse rotation. First time I worked on it I was like WTF....

LOL, that would be a trip.

makes sense though. I'm assuming running in "reverse" at startup is to help build head faster since the fanblade isn't going to move as much air?

The condenser fans run both ways on one of the chillers I work on. They start off one way then as the head pressure goes up, they reverse rotation. First time I worked on it I was like WTF....

is the lint screen in the dryer itself still there and being cleaned regularly? Won't elim. all the lint but would help....lots of times that screen is AWOL

but with dryer lint....this is a fine particulate and i fail to see how this solution changes anything except the direction the coil gets impacted from.....best of luck and please let us know.

Bard tech support told me to go for it. Already done and running a little bit better.
I may need to change the motor as well. But well see how that goes. Ill change it when/if I know I need to. Not just because I THINK ill have too.

Reversing the air flow is the least hassle solution. Its just the least common one also. There isn't a law of physiscs that says which way it has to blow. It can be done either way. Unfortunately I need it to go the opposite direction that the manufacturer chose because of it location.

agreed...and you can hang close on a line to dry.....hehehe...just saying.

Originally Posted by icoolfla

plus baurd wall hung units are often found on manufactured homes or villa style homes with no attic crawl space. the relay sounds great to me but has the down side of cutting the air off when using another appliance that drastically increases heat load....did he mention that it was struggling to meat demand....of course i would just tell my wife to do laundry at 1:am.......hehehe...yah right....and she would just tell me to kiss her ...well you know....would work but i just dont understand why you would want to fight this to begin with , and if you insist then yes, use the hose like you have OCD.

yup. I say move one or the other.

plus baurd wall hung units are often found on manufactured homes or villa style homes with no attic crawl space. the relay sounds great to me but has the down side of cutting the air off when using another appliance that drastically increases heat load....did he mention that it was struggling to meat demand....of course i would just tell my wife to do laundry at 1:am.......hehehe...yah right....and she would just tell me to kiss her ...well you know....would work but i just dont understand why you would want to fight this to begin with , and if you insist then yes, use the hose like you have OCD.

Originally Posted by tbirdtbird

what happened to this idea?
"or wire in a relay to shut off the condenser when the driers running. "

Mediocre at best. It will still plug up.

what happened to this idea?
"or wire in a relay to shut off the condenser when the driers running. "

Originally Posted by darctangent

400 PSI?

what's in that thing? green or pink?

either way that's bonkers.

One other option might be a lint-master-4000. I actually have one, but it is a rare item so I would have to have a lot of compensation to part with it. Mine is green, 14-16 inch fin spacing. I am not really looking to sell it, but I am open to hear offers.

400 PSI?

what's in that thing? green or pink?

either way that's bonkers.

Originally Posted by eric1589

i am a service technician and applied for professional membership a while ago. i guess you only induct new ones once a year or something. so thats why this isnt in the pro forum.


i have a Bard package unit that sits 4 inches away from my dryer outlet. this particular design unit draw condenser air in from the side and pushes it through the coil. needless to say, its now plugged with lint, and running 400+ head pressure.

the coil is deteriorating, just a little bit, from previous cleaners, but im going to have to clean it again. this time though, id like to change the fan blade and make it pull air through the coil, for several reasons.

1 this should reduce/prevent further lint ingestion
2 make future cleaning easier
3 hopefully operate better with a clean breathing coil.

i imagine the air pulls through the coil better then it pushes. i gather equipment manufacturers learned that one the hard way since most older units i remove push air through the evaporator and none of the new ones ive worked on do it that way anymore.

so, am i looking at any unforeseen problems before i buy some coil cleaner and a fan blade, and move air the opposite direction of the manufacturers intentions? im not worried about a SMALL drop in performance if there is one. the system cant meet demand as it is now. its not an old unit ether. its just a crap setup. right next to the dryer vent and getting south west sun shine all through the hottest parts of the day maybe ill take some picture of this winning setup and share them later on.

As to membership... it takes what it takes. I had to wait awhile myself.

You need a MINIMUM of 15 relevant posts to the trade (non DIY assistance) to help them decide. I believe Roboteq specifically forbade beer pong posting, FYI. I can tell you He is fond of sandwiches with liverwurst, if you get desperate.

Reversing condenser fan motor: That's just crazy enough that I might want to try it, but I would monitor the system carefully. Sorry, can't say how, but you might know already. remember, no DIY posts

Another option would be just hosing the condenser down once a week. No chemicals, other than H2O.

grab your gauges and pipe clamp and see what happens in the heat of the day, let it run and watch it, you would think as long as your matching the cfm across the coil direction shouldn't matter. but...wont the dryer lint still get in it. that stuff is fine and if the units the only thing moving air out there its still going to grab some wont it. ive seen a guy use snap lock on the out side of his home to move the vent 6 feet away or so. it looks horrible but its better then it was.

What is the model and serial number of the unit?

I've done this a few times on some Bard units to solve various issues. The reason (as far as I can tell) that they design it the way they do is sometimes there are multiple units placed side-by-side and you wouldn't want them to blow hot air at each other.

But...

In cases where you only have one unit you can get much better performance by reversing the airflow. As a matter of fact, that's one of the reasons I do it. I have many old units with moderately corroded coils running ~350psi on hot days and the same unit will typically drop to ~250-280psi by simply reversing the flow.

moving the dryer vent isnt an option. it comes out through the wall right between the unit and laundry room door. its also a flat roof over top of it, so no attic space to run it.

this unit is only about 6 years old and its now summer time so im not going to be changing the unit yet. if i did, it would be to a split system and require much more work. for now im just looking to reverse air flow trough the condenser coil so its no longer sucking the lint in. reversing air flow would actually dispel air out the side and push lint away from the unit.

later on down the road, id like to replace it with a more efficient split system, and move the condenser to the east side of the house, away from the dryer vent and in the shade most of the day.

so my question. does anyone see any serious problems with just changing the air flow direction? this is the simplest solution to get my unit cooling acceptably until i can do something more permanent.

I agree with others, move the dryer vent.

I would even opt to move the condensing unit before I would attempt to re engineer it's design.

Lots of coils run the air across the outside in the opposite direction to the way the refrigerant runs through the inside, might mess up the subcooling.

Move the vent, pipe it down the wall a bit if thats allowed, or wire in a relay to shut off the condenser when the driers running.