The outdoor or condenser unit is an integral part of the AC unit. It dumps the hot air collected by an AC unit into the environment. You should know more about different types of condenser units so that you can make a better decision at the time of your AC installation.

Types of Condenser Units

There are three types of condensers according to their cooling method.

Air-Cooled Condensers

Air-cooled condensers are typically used with small capacity air conditioning units and mostly used in buildings where less space is supposed to get the air conditioning. The advantage of using this design is that one doesn’t need to do the water piping and to set up a water disposable system and they don’t need frequent maintenances as well. Since there is no water involved, you can save yourself from the scaling problems that can be caused by the hard water that often start to leak from the water-cooled condensers.

The trade off, however, is that you will have to refill the refrigerant more often because air conditioning units with air-cooled condensers use more refrigerant per ton and the compressors of condenser units also don’t have longer life.

Water-cooled Condensers

Many people use water-cooled condenser because it requires less power than an AC unit with air-cooled condenser. Water-cooled condensers come in different values of tons (the capability of an air conditioning unit to remove the amount of heat in an hour).

Evaporative Condensers

It is a combination of air and water-cooled condensers. It consists of a coil that is sprayed by water from above to get cooled and cool air enters from the bottom and circulates around the coil.

Why it is necessary to clean the Condenser Units (coils)?

All these different types of condenser units are fitted outside of the building and therefore they are more exposed to dirt and other debris. The condenser coils present in the condenser unit get clogged with these items and that can affect the efficiency of coil and that can ultimately change the performance of an air conditioning unit as a whole. Remember that outdoor or condenser units are as important as indoor (evaporator) unit and their performance should complement each other for better working of air conditioning unit as a whole.

If your air conditioning unit is not running to its capacity then you should check its condenser unit. Clean it yourself or ask for a professional repairing and cleaning service.

If you are going to do it yourself then first remove all the grass, weeds and lint from the condenser fins, then brush off the surface dirt with the help of brush. To clean the condenser coil properly, you should choose a good coil cleaner. Spray the cleaner into the coil and rinse it with tap water after 4 to 5 minutes. Avoid using a cleaner with stronger contents because it can cause the aluminum fins to bend.

If you notice that that fins in the condenser unit are already bent then it is better to call for AC repairing services to sort this issue.