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Viper hd cleaner3/31/2023 The purple ones can sometimes contain a dye that changes color when it reacts to scale. There are some acid cleaners that are dark purple as well, and they are generally used in descaling solutions for cooling towers. It can be either reddish-pink or neon pink, but both are acidic cleaners, not alkaline. The pink cleaner is always fascinating to me. When he took his socks off, his toenails had dissolved to a greenish-yellow goo! So please, be careful with this cleaner as well and pay attention to what it comes in contact with. It wasn’t until hours later that he had to remove his shoes because of the pain. I had a friend/coworker who accidentally spilled concentrated green cleaner on his tennis shoes at work (I know, he shouldn’t have been wearing tennis shoes in the first place), and he just left it there. While this cleaner is definitely milder than the blue or brown, it’s still an alkaline cleaner and can do damage to your skin if it makes contact. Many times, when used in the right dilution ratio, this cleaner is self-rinsing (which means the condensation off the evaporator coil will be enough to rinse the cleaner away, and the cleaner is safe for the drain pan/line). The green cleaner is typically the color code for the evaporator/indoor coil. In fact, if you have a coated coil, NEVER use high alkaline or acidic cleaners, as these will strip the coating away. A high concentration ratio can strip coil coating away and damage paint and wire insulation. No matter which coil cleaner you are using, ALWAYS read the label and select the appropriate mixing ratio for your application. Even if these cleaners are rinsed off the coil, sometimes the brief contact these cleaners have on the coil is enough to still do some damage to older coil fins. The liquid in the bottle is still highly corrosive and dangerous if not handled properly. However, that is in relation to the proper mixing ratio. Some labels may even tell you if the cleaner is non-corrosive. These high-alkaline cleaners are very corrosive if not rinsed off properly. In my personal experience, I’ve had only one occasion to use this cleaner, and it was for a coil I knew would not last too much longer anyway. This brown cleaner is another great solution for ultra-greasy applications and really impacted coils. Often labeled as “Extra Heavy Duty,” this brown cleaner is typically a more concentrated alkaline coil cleaner than the blue cleaner. I’ve been splashed in the eye with blue cleaner before, and it does not feel good at all! When handling any cleaners, be sure to wear gloves and protective eyewear. I’ve been in many circumstances where the coil was outside a restaurant and caked with grease where the only cleaners that could remove the muck were high-alkaline cleaners. The blue stuff is primarily used as a degreaser and coil brightener for the outdoor coil. It’s a high-alkaline cleaner that is extremely slippery in your hands if you ever get it on you. I’m not going to use brand names in this section of the article (I’ll discuss those later on), but we all know the blue cleaner. I understand as techs you don't always get to choose your cleaners so we are going to do a more general look at cleaners. It is the brand we use at Kalos and did well before they became a sponsor. We are MASSIVE fans of Refrigeration Technologies. I will also break down when and where each should be used and the safety practices to implement when using them. In this article, I want to highlight the main types of cleaners technicians use. It’s important to select the right one for your application and even more important to use safe practices when handling any cleaner. Many times, technicians chase what they think is a refrigerant charge problem, when really they have a cleanliness issue in the coils.Ĭoil cleaners can be found in a wide spectrum of acidity, alkalinity, colors, and strengths. Extremely dirty coils will negatively affect the performance and capacity of a system they can even lead to reduced airflow and serious component failure due to high or low pressure in the coils. One of the biggest parts of any maintenance is cleaning the evaporator and condenser coils. However, it is important to remember that the “shoulder seasons” provide an opportunity for us to perform vital maintenance on systems in order to keep them operational during the more extreme weather months. Some techs see this as a chore and don’t particularly enjoy the routines of checklist maintenance. Spring and fall are the seasons where all service technicians get turned into janitors.
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