Arkansas HVACR NewsMagazine January 2025

HVACR NewsMagazine January 2025

Tech News

once you’re finished. Make sure to turn the power back on and test the unit too. Method 2: Remove the Front Cover Plate to Visually Inspect the Coil For this method, you can visually view the underside of the evaporator coil without using any special tools other than a stubby 1/4" or 5/16" ratchet/nut driver and a flashlight.

Here we can see that the back half of the coil is definitely clogged and will need to be cleaned.

To start, turn the power off to the system and remove the coil box cover. Next, on an A-coil, you will see a tin cover plate screwed to the coil segments. After removing the screws, either remove or pull back the cover plate to look inside. You can use a basic flashlight or a mirror along with a flashlight to visually inspect the coil. You can also use a phone with a light to take video or photos, but do not accidentally drop the phone inside!! Sometimes you cannot fully remove this cover plate because of the refrigerant tubing so a phone can be used to see the hard angles with its camera. Often, you can just insert it only partially so there is less chance of dropping it!

Another method to gain entry to the under side of the coil is to drill a hole into the side of the furnace cabinet. Just be sure that the drill bit does not penetrate too deeply and accidentally hit the heat exchanger or the refrigerant coil.

Make sure to put a plug in any holes in the furnace or reinstall the thermal limit switch