People don’t talk about “fall cleaning” as much as “spring cleaning,” but everybody does fall cleaning anyway. It’s an excellent way for homeowners to prepare their houses for the long stretch in winter, when they’ll be spending much more time indoors. (Which is fine, as long as they remember the most important job they have: take their dogs for a walk! Personally, I love brisk winter walks. Not long winter walks, however.)
Part of fall cleaning—and perhaps the most important part—is cleaning the heat pump part of your HVAC system. This isn’t a job that you have to do yourself, however. You want our professionals to take care of it. Chris has put up a new video about professional heat pump maintenance that shows this cleaning in action. You’ll learn a great deal about what goes into maintaining a heat pump for the winter.
The Chemical Cleaning Process
Something you’ll notice in the video is that “cleaning” a heat pump doesn’t just mean our team grabs some sponges and suds. It’s true that there are some basic cleaning tasks involved, such as getting rid of spiders (ick!) and leaves from inside the unit. But take a look at the chemical cleaning process, which isn’t always necessary—but which makes a huge difference when it is. This is where you’ll be glad you have professionals like ours on the job!
Our technicians first use a garden hose to rinse the unit, and then they do an initial chemical cleaning. This takes care of dirt and most of the surface grime that can make a heat pump struggle. But it requires more chemical cleaning to get the job completely done. The coil in the heat pump is about an inch thick, and removing the debris from the fins requires the chemical foam to really clean out the coil. Once the full chemical cleaning is completed, air can easily flow through the outdoor unit and across the coils, letting the heat pump draw every bit of warmth from the air and move it into the house. It will also cost much less to operate after the cleaning.