3 tips to keep your air conditioner free from dust and pollen

Tiny pieces of dust and pollen naturally won't hurt anyone. However, you may be susceptible to illnesses if these accumulate and invade your car.

The risk even doubles if you or a usual passenger is highly sensitive to these elements. To help free your car from being invaded by pollen, dust and other potential allergens, we prepared some advice for you to follow.

Here are a few preventive tips from Philkotse.com, to keep your air conditioning system from being penetrated by allergy-triggering elements. It's best to make these a habit or at least schedule when and how often you can do them.

1. Keep pollen away from the car

Before most pollen and dust particles enter your car, they are most likely to land on your car first. If you park your car in an area with a lot of pollinating flowers, you can expect your car to have some attached to it.

Make sure you wash this off with clean water and a power wash to safely rinse the pollen off. Some would recommend wiping the pollen away but these tiny elements can actually scratch your car when rubbed against the surface.

If you park your car in an area with a lot of pollinating flowers, you can expect your car to have some attached to it

>>> Check out: 6 things you should remember when parking in an open space.

2. Keep dust from accumulating inside your car

Dust should always be addressed as soon as you notice it inside your vehicle. A few specks of dust may not be harmful to you. However, letting dust sit and mix with extra moisture in the air can result in the formulation of mold and this can just lead to several other problems. Clean out your car at least once a week and vacuum under the seats.

Don't forget to include the trunk and clean it thoroughly as well. You may be keeping your car interior clean but this will all be useless if you leave your trunk littered and dusty.

Dirt and dust will still make it's a way into the interior. If you leave the car with specs of dust, this will be sucked in and filtered by the air conditioning system which is a good thing.

However, the AC will run in a repetitive pattern of processes that will eventually release the air it sucked. After the AC cools down the air, it releases it back to the inside of the vehicle, regardless if it has dust, pollen, and other elements.

Clean out your car at least once a week and vacuum under the seats

3. Clean your car's air conditioner

Even with preventive measures applied, there will still be microscopic elements that can gather in your car's AC. Asides from keeping your vehicle away from dust, dirt and other allergens. You would also need to perform an occasional clean up of the unit to get rid of stored elements that can re-circulate in your car's air conditioner.

If your vehicle is an older version or a model released around the year 2000, it should be cleaned more frequently than younger cars.

The air filters in older models are less innovative and are therefore less effective in collecting the pollutants of the modern environment. To fully clean your car's air conditioner, follow the easy-step guide that we prepared for you.

You need to perform an occasional clean up of the unit to get rid of stored elements

>>> Read more: Automobile air conditioning system: Basic cleaning tips for Pinoy drivers.

Step 1

You will first need to dismantle your built-in air conditioner to make the unit accessible and easy to clean. However, you should first familiarize yourself with the parts that make up the AC. You can use your manual for this or you can kindly refer to the list of parts below:

• Compressor - This acts as the heart of the operation of your air conditioner. It mainly pressurizes the refrigerant which is in gas form. This results in the cool air that circulates in your car.
• Expansion Valve - This is where the unit changes the air from warm to cool. You can also alter the pressure from high to low.
• Accumulator - This is also known as the unit's "Receiver-Drier". This compresses the gas state of the refrigerant and prevents its liquid form from spoiling the compressor.
• Evaporator - This part is made of tubes with fins. This is where the air passes through as it also serves as a freeway for the refrigerant. The warm air that comes from the car travels here and goes straight to the evaporator where the refrigerant will then absorb the air.
• Condenser - The condenser usually lies at the front of your car. You should easily find it beside the radiator. Its main job is absorbing heat from the interior of the car and then release it outside.

Familiarize yourself with the parts that make up the AC

Step 2

After safely dismantling the whole unit, keep the parts in a flat, secure space so any small pieces like nuts and bolts won't roll away. You can now proceed to flush the system parts one by one. To properly flush the parts, take an aerosol air conditioner and spray it on one end of each hollow part, aiming to get the formula inside it.

Then, tilt it to the other end so the debris caught in the air conditioning formula can ooze out. Non-hollow parts can be sprayed and cleaned normally by being wiped with a clean cloth after. This successfully relieves the AC parts of debris that clogs and inhibits the proper function of the unit.

Step 3

Look for the ducts and inspect it. These appear to be large tubes that are attached to the evaporator tubes. The first thing you need to look for when inspecting this is signs of leaks and tears. If you find any, patch them up with some duct tape.

Look for the ducts and inspect it

Step 4

The accumulator sifts the air that gets into the car, so you can pretty much expect that this part will need some effort to be properly cleaned. If you don't know what an accumulator looks like, just look for the part that resembles a coffee can from your favorite cafe.

Step 5

If you find that the accumulator is too dirty and clogged with dust and possible bits of pollen, you can opt to buy a new one. Cleaning the old accumulator is feasible but if you're feeling lazy then a new accumulator can be bought at your closest auto supply store.

It's also easy to install and it's most likely to come with instructions. All you need to do is bolt it like how your old one used to be and reattach the hoses and other parts to it - it should then be good to go.