How to Clean and Protect Your Air Conditioner from Cottonwood

Hand cleaning air conditioner condenser coils

Homes in Indianapolis and beyond look forward to the warm weather brought by spring. After spending many months cooped up inside during the colder winter months, many families will jump at the first chance to spend some time outside in the warm weather. As spring arrives and the weather gets warmer, however, those within your home will likely deal with symptoms caused by seasonal allergies.

One of the main causes of seasonal allergies, cottonwood, can cause a variety of allergy symptoms. However, cottonwood can also cause serious and expensive problems with your home’s air conditioning system.

What is Cottonwood? 

Cottonwood is the little white tufts of cotton that have been floating through the air. They come from cottonwood trees. Notorious for causing allergy symptoms like sneezing, itchy eyes, and congestion, cottonwood can wreak havoc on your family if it manages to get into your air conditioner’s condenser coils. However, it can also cause issues to the AC system itself.

Unfortunately, one cottonwood tree can cause hundreds of dollars worth of damage to your air conditioning unit. Cottonwood produces small and fuzzy bits of cotton that fly around outside and can latch onto your air conditioner coils. They can easily be sucked into a condenser coil and cause reduced airflow across the coil. 

Over time, this will cause your air conditioner to become less energy efficient. It will have to work twice as hard as it normally would, causing you to pay more money for the same, or even less, cool air than you might usually have. These problems can build and could potentially even result in an overheated compressor, requiring you to have an expensive replacement installed.

How to Protect Your AC Unit

Don’t wait until your air conditioner is beyond the point of a simple repair. The easiest way to get rid of a cottonwood problem is to have your air conditioner professionally cleaned as soon as possible. You might think this is an easy task to handle yourself, but we strongly recommend the help of a professional. If you try to clean off the coil yourself, you might embed the cottonwood seeds deep into the coils and make the situation worse. 

Air Conditioning Cleaning Services

Certified HVAC technicians understand how every make and model works because they have received the proper training. Your air conditioning technician should be able to inspect your system, determine if cottonwood is causing any airflow problems, and properly clean out the cottonwood. 

Beyond being incredibly important to your home’s comfort during the warm weather, air conditioners are very expensive to replace if you try to fix the issue yourself and cause further damage. Trying to fix the issue yourself might end up damaging your machine beyond repair. To avoid causing irreparable damage, get in touch with a professional.

Contact Chapman for Air Conditioning Services

Don’t let the increased amount of cottonwood in the air ruin your air conditioner. Solve the problem by calling an HVAC service technician to properly clean your machine. They will make sure your coils are cleaned without doing more damage to your AC unit. Save yourself the time and money, and pick up the phone and call Chapman Heating and Air Conditioning at 317-943-8717 or schedule a service appointment online today!