Its hard to un-stop a Trane

[ar_hvac_man]

10 yrs....no service. Full hour of spraying until the mud quit flowing:

[ryan1088]

I thought I might share what they told us at the Intellipak school in LaCrosse a few months about cleaning cottonwood and other heavy particulates off of those brush coils. One of he instructors said to take a propane torch to the heavy stuff and you can burn it off. We don't have. Lot of cottonwood trees around here so I haven't had a chance to try it.

[ldmth44]

I thought I might share what they told us at the Intellipak school in LaCrosse a few months about cleaning cottonwood and other heavy particulates off of those brush coils. One of he instructors said to take a propane torch to the heavy stuff and you can burn it off. We don't have. Lot of cottonwood trees around here so I haven't had a chance to try it.

That seems counterproductive as you will see how quick aluminum melts!!!

[FrostyBeer]

That seems counterproductive as you will see how quick aluminum melts!!!

There's a vid on youtube of someone using this method with a torch and it worked pretty good. Just keep that torch moving

[VTP99]

A good wire brush then hit it with the air compressor works every time.
Spine Fin Tube speaking.

[Six]

I thought I might share what they told us at the Intellipak school in LaCrosse a few months about cleaning cottonwood and other heavy particulates off of those brush coils. One of he instructors said to take a propane torch to the heavy stuff and you can burn it off. We don't have. Lot of cottonwood trees around here so I haven't had a chance to try it.

Believe it or not I've tried that and it works....

Not with cotton wood. A local Hotel has ( had ) their American Standard condensing units under their industrial dryer vents.

9 units of varying tonnage and the worst thing you could do was hit it with water.

They were white, like someone wrapped them with a T-Shirt

White linen COMPLETELY embedded and causing every one of the units to bypass at 380 psi plus.

I thought after trying everything " hey, cotton dryer linen is flammable ".

Wen't back the next day with a helper who stood fire watch with a water hose, stripped them down like the pic in the OP and took my MAP gas torch and hit the bottom of the coil.

Good thing he had the hose.


Extremely dry linen sediment goes up like a match but doesn't produce the heat necessary to melt aluminum.

[-80guru]

Maybe start from the top next time

[dsprice]

I've used my torch as well but only for extreme amounts of dog hair clogging the system. Worked fine with no issues. Not an every time practice...

Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk 2

[mark beiser]

I use a propane torch all the time to burn cottonwood seed, grass clippings, drier lint, etc., off spine fin condenser coils.
It does absolutely no harm to the coil, and makes cleaning a breeze.

BTW, the coil pictured isn't even that "bad", certainly not for 10 years of no maintenance.
"Bad" is when the layer is so thick that it is not visually identifiable as a condenser coil.
That looks like the average 1 year accumulation we get around here!
2 minutes with a propane torch, and 10 minutes with a Water Saber and I'd have it looking nearly as clean as new, without removing the side panels.

[jude_b23]

I use a propane torch all the time to burn cottonwood seed, grass clippings, drier lint, etc., off spine fin condenser coils.
It does absolutely no harm to the coil, and makes cleaning a breeze.

BTW, the coil pictured isn't even that "bad", certainly not for 10 years of no maintenance.
That looks like the average 1 year accumulation we get around here!

I've seen this much accumulation in a 3 month span...

[mark beiser]

I've seen this much accumulation in a 3 month span...

Yeah, and if the cottonwood tree is in their back yard, maybe just a few days!

Most of the cottonwood trees in my service area have died off or been removed, so I'm not running into the really shockingly packed up condenser coils nearly as often as I used to.

[ar_hvac_man]

Maybe start from the top next time

Duh?

[ar_hvac_man]

I use a propane torch all the time to burn cottonwood seed, grass clippings, drier lint, etc., off spine fin condenser coils.
It does absolutely no harm to the coil, and makes cleaning a breeze.

BTW, the coil pictured isn't even that "bad", certainly not for 10 years of no maintenance.
"Bad" is when the layer is so thick that it is not visually identifiable as a condenser coil.
That looks like the average 1 year accumulation we get around here!
2 minutes with a propane torch, and 10 minutes with a Water Saber and I'd have it looking nearly as clean as new, without removing the side panels.

Dirt doesnt burn well. This was all dirt, packed deeply