Owners of other A/C systems with similar outside condenser units such as Trane, GE (General Electric), LG, Lennox, Amana, American Standard, Arco, Carrier, Goodman, Bryant, Luxaire, York, Kenmore, Frigidaire, Goldstar, Maytag, and Whirlpool may also find this guide to be useful.

Since "winter" in South Florida is coming to an end, I decided it was time to clean out the coils in the outdoor condenser unit of our Rheem air conditioning system before summer arrives.

The items needed to complete this procedure include a screw driver, a cleaning brush, a wet/dry shop vacuum, a garden hose, HVAC coil cleaner or dishwashing detergent, and a sprayer bottle.

Your system may instead be equipped with a common circuit breaker switch outside to locally disconnect power to the condenser.

(Just in case, I also flipped the inside air handler's circuit breaker to "off".)

Since there isn't much air flow in this area due to the sealed cover, it was the dirtiest section of our condenser.

The coils were clogged with a grey carpet of dust, dirt, pet hair, lint and other debris.

Try to avoid flattening or crushing any of the aluminum fins as this will reduce their efficiency.

(Make a mental note of which screws came from where. You don't want to insert a long screw in somewhere that originally had a short screw and risk puncturing the coils.)

Lift up the top cover of the condenser and carefully rest it somewhere safe or have someone hold it. Be sure to not stress the wires leading to the fan motor or any other connections.

Then I prepared a solution of dishwashing soap and water in an old sprayer bottle.

In the future, I plan on buying some HVAC coil cleaner spray which might do a better job of dissolving the stubborn grease, oil and debris.

The outer side of the coils on the condenser looked very clean, so I didn't bother removing the rest of the metal case protecting them.

Using higher pressure settings on your sprayer head or a pressure washer may flatten the coils and reduce the condenser's efficiency.

Thoroughly soak every area of the coils with water and repeat the process several times to ensure that most of the debris or dust is flushed out.

But I did pull the metal cover back and spray the outside coils as best I could.

The area I spent the most time cleaning was the coils on the capacitor/compressor side of the condenser that were completely caked with debris.

You can see the dramatic difference between before and after cleaning in Picture # 9 and Picture # 28.

The top of the case was secured with relatively short screws that can't puncture or damage the condenser coils.

Don't forget the one screw that holds the top of the case to the small metal box that houses the capacitor.

Then replace the smaller panel of the case that protects the compressor, capacitor, and one side of the coils.

This panel was held in place by two slightly longer flat head screws.

Finally, I switched the digital thermostat to "cool" and 70 degrees Fahrenheit to test they HVAC system.

I heard the fan and compressor outside turn on before cool air starting blowing out of the vents or "registers" inside the house.

If your system doesn't turn on, double check all the fuses, circuit blocks, breakers and the thermostat.

If you'd also like to clean the coils on your inside A/C unit, click here - HVAC Air Handler Coils Cleaning Guide.