Cleaned the furnace blower

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I felt ambitious today, and decided to clean out the dusty quirrel-cage fan on the furnace blower while waiting for the A/C evaporator to dry after cleaning it. No point in sending lots of dust through a freshly-cleaned evaporator core, after all!

Here are some shots of the blower and motor before cleaning:





I removed the 4 screws that held the top of the blower housing on, loosened the setscrew on the fan, and took the fan out to give it a proper cleaning with the hose. I also hit it with some A/C coil cleaner I had on hand for cleaning the evaporator. The housing got cleaned while waiting for the fan to dry.

Pictures of after:





With all the work I've put into the HVAC system (sealed returns and now cleaned the evaporator and fan), it should work better this summer. I still have to clean the condenser unit, but I'm putting that off until right before A/C season rolls around.
 
Your blower looks like new. Believe it or not an ac mechanic showed me how to clean the squirrel cage with a garden hose! You don't even need a nozzle, just your thumb.

You will need a nozzle with straight stream for the condenser.
 
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My 44 years old furnace blower never had any cleaning since I bought the house 17 years ago, I think it didn't have any cleaning for at least 10-15 years before I bought the house.

All I ever did was change the filter once every 3-4 years, turn off-on pilot light every year.
 
Originally Posted By: jorton
Your blower looks like new. Believe it or not an ac mechanic showed me how to clean the squirrel cage with a garden hose! You don't even need a nozzle, just your thumb.

You will need a nozzle with straight stream for the condenser.


Yep, garden hose in the driveway after the surfactant I applied had a chance to loosen up the dust and dirt. I'm planning on using more HVAC-specific surfactant when cleaning the condenser. That thing is gross.

Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
My 44 years old furnace blower never had any cleaning since I bought the house 17 years ago, I think it didn't have any cleaning for at least 10-15 years before I bought the house.

All I ever did was change the filter once every 3-4 years, turn off-on pilot light every year.


This unit is 8 years old. The furnace itself wasn't sealed to the return ducting. Unfiltered air was bypassing the filter that whole time. That's likely why it looked so bad before cleaning. After, between having no dust on the fins and a clean evaporator, there's noticeably more airflow at the vents.
 
Even with a mediocre quality air filter w/ a decent seal, the squirrel cages get nasty.

I recently cleaned one of ours - we installed the units in '97 and never did anything other than replace filters and clean the drainpans and condensate lines about once a year. This year we had a leak in the evaporator coil and had to replace it - while it was apart I pulled the fan assembly out to gain access to the top of the coil assembly. I couldn't believe how nasty it was - I guess it gets pretty humid, the caked on mess was thick and nasty. After cleaning it, it spun up quicker and ran quieter - it apparently was slightly off balance due to the crud as well.

Being on the coast in south florida, we run the A/C 11 months out of the year. Through much of the summer it runs almost 24/7.
 
Originally Posted By: HTSS_TR
My 44 years old furnace blower never had any cleaning since I bought the house 17 years ago, I think it didn't have any cleaning for at least 10-15 years before I bought the house.

All I ever did was change the filter once every 3-4 years, turn off-on pilot light every year.


Which is why it looks like black death in all areas. Enjoy the filth.
 
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