We take the indoor head apart, pull the wheel, wash the coil through its full depth, and clear the condensate line. Two hours per head, flat rate, documented for your warranty file.
Cooling works by holding the indoor coil below the dew point. Everything airborne in the room lands on that wet surface and binds rather than blowing back off. The filter you rinse in the sink sits in front of all of it.
A sour, damp-basement smell in the first ten minutes of cooling is organic growth on the coil warming up and venting into the room. Surface sprays mask it for about a week.
Buildup across dozens of narrow blower blades changes the wheel's balance and cuts delivered air measurably. The system runs longer cycles to reach the same setpoint.
Sludge in the drain pan slows the condensate line until the pan overflows. The first sign is usually a stain on the wall below the unit, not a fault code.
The same sequence at every property. Nothing here is an add-on and nothing gets dropped because the day is running long.
Every head checked with model and serial recorded. A vinyl catch bag is fitted around the unit and drained to a bucket, with floor, wall, and furniture covered before anything opens.
Shell, filters, louver assembly, and drain pan removed. The unit stays mounted, the line set is untouched, and no refrigerant work takes place.
Released and pulled clear of the housing, then washed off the unit blade by blade. This is the step that resolves the odor and the one most services skip.
Low-pressure rinse driven fin to fin through the full depth of the pack, continued until the runoff comes back clear rather than brown.
Removed, scrubbed, dried, and reseated so it is not carrying standing water and sediment through the cooling season.
Cleared and confirmed flowing at the exterior wall, rather than checked from inside and assumed.
An EPA-registered coil treatment rated for occupied spaces, applied everywhere condensate forms.
Reassembled and run-tested, with temperature split and airflow logged before and after. You get photos of your own components and a dated service record.
Worth knowing before you compare quotes. Most visits sold as mini-split maintenance are the right-hand column.
| Task | Our deep clean | Typical tune-up |
|---|---|---|
| Wash and reseat intake filters | Included | Included |
| Fit catch bag; protect wall, floor, furniture | Included | Rarely |
| Remove shell, louver assembly, and drain pan | Included | No |
| Extract blower wheel and wash off the unit | Included | No |
| Rinse evaporator coil through full fin depth | Included | Surface spray only |
| Flush condensate line, confirm flow at exterior | Included | Sometimes |
| Apply EPA-registered sanitizer to wetted surfaces | Included | No |
| Log temperature split and airflow, before and after | Included | No |
| Dated service record with model and serial per head | Included | No |
| Outdoor condenser rinse | With whole home | Included |
Quoted before we open anything and unchanged by what we find inside. No hourly billing and no trip charge within our service area.
We keep routes short, which is how we hold two-hour arrival windows instead of half-day ones. Outside this list, email us and we will tell you honestly whether it works.
No. Mitsubishi, Fujitsu, Daikin, and LG all require documented maintenance as a condition of coverage, so a dated cleaning record supports a claim rather than jeopardizing it. We leave one for every head with the model and serial number.
Never. Everything is removed in place. The line set stays connected and we do not perform refrigerant work of any kind.
A vinyl catch bag around the unit drains into a bucket, and floors and furniture are covered before anything opens. We use one outlet and one sink and leave the room as we found it.
Every two years for most households. Annually if you have pets, a head in a kitchen, or you run cooling heavily from June through September.
Yes. It is EPA-registered for use in occupied spaces and dries during the visit. Tell us if anyone in the house is sensitive and we will use the unscented alternative.
Yes. Cassettes take longer and are quoted at $250 per head. Floor-mounts and slim ducted units are quoted after we see a photo.
We document it, show you, and stop there. Since we do not do refrigerant or motor work, there is nothing for us to sell you. We will pass along two local installers who handle that work.
Send the details and we will reply within one business day with a flat quote and two windows to choose from. No deposit and nothing charged now.
Every window is a three-hour block, starting on the hour between 7am and 3pm.