Most Adelaide households turn the cooling on for the first time on a day when they badly need it. The system has been idle since somewhere around April, the filters are carrying a winter of dust, and the first thing that comes out of the vents is all of it, into a closed-up house on a hot afternoon.
September is the better month for this. The days are mild enough that you can have the system apart without minding, and if something is wrong you find out while a technician can still fit you in this week. It is an hour or two of work, and it pairs neatly with the spring clean you were probably going to do anyway.
Do This First: switch the unit off at the wall, not the remote. Then filters out, fans done, outdoor unit cleared, and a twenty minute test run before you put the ladder away.
Why September, Not December
An air conditioner is one of the few things in the house that only fails when you need it. It sits through winter perfectly quiet, and the fault it developed somewhere in that time stays invisible until the afternoon you switch it on and nothing cold comes out.
That afternoon is also the afternoon every other household in Adelaide discovers the same thing. Refrigeration technicians spend the first serious heatwave of the season working through a waiting list, and a job that would have been routine in September becomes a week without cooling in December.
Mild enough to work
You can have the front panel off and the filters drying outside without needing the system running that day.
Help is available
A fault found now is a callout this week. The same fault in a heatwave is a place in a queue.
The dust goes outside
Windows open, filters washed on the lawn, and none of it circulating through a sealed-up house.
There is a second reason, and it matters more in Adelaide than in a lot of the country. A dirty filter restricts the air the system can pull through it, so the unit runs longer to reach the same temperature. You are paying for that difference every hour it runs through a long, dry summer.
Split System: The Filters
The filters are the whole job, and they are a householder task. The front panel of the indoor unit hinges upward, usually with a catch at each end, and behind it sit two mesh screens that lift out by hand. Nothing needs a tool and nothing needs a technician.
Kill the power at the wall
The remote only sets the unit to idle. Use the isolator switch or the wall switch so it cannot start while the panel is open.
Vacuum the filter dry
Take the loose dust off with a brush attachment before any water touches it. Wetting a loaded filter first turns the dust into a paste that works into the mesh and stays there.
Wash in warm water
Warm water and a little mild detergent, rinsed from the clean side outward so the dirt is pushed back the way it came. No hot water and no solvents, which distort the plastic frame.
Dry completely, in the shade
Direct sun makes the frames brittle over a few seasons. Give them as long as they need, and check the mesh is dry to the touch on both sides before it goes back.
Wipe the casing and the louvres
A damp microfibre cloth over the outside of the unit and along the direction louvres, which collect a surprising line of dust on the leading edge.
Never refit a damp filter. It goes back into a dark, enclosed space and sits there. That is the single most common reason a system smells musty the first time it runs in November.
Behind the filters you will see the coil, a set of thin metal fins. Leave it alone. The fins bend if you touch them with anything firmer than a soft brush, and a bent fin blocks the airflow it was shaped to allow. Coil cleaning is part of a proper service.
Ceiling Fans & The Pillowcase
Ceiling fan blades collect dust on the upper surface, where nobody sees it and nothing disturbs it, in a soft grey layer that builds all winter. Switch the fan on without cleaning it and that layer goes straight into the room, which is usually a bedroom, usually at night.
The trick is an old pillowcase. Slide it over the whole blade so the fabric wraps the top and the bottom at once, press gently, and draw it back towards you along the length of the blade. Everything comes away inside the pillowcase instead of onto the bed below. Shake it out outside between blades.
Do
- Turn the fan off at the wall and let it come to a complete stop
- Use a stable step ladder rather than a chair or the edge of the bed
- Check the summer and winter direction switch on the motor housing while you are up there
- Wipe the light fitting and the motor housing at the same time
Don't
- Use a feather duster, which lifts the dust into the air and puts it back an hour later
- Push down hard on a blade, which bends it out of balance and starts the wobble
- Soak the motor housing or spray anything wet near the fitting
- Clean it with the fan still live at the wall switch
Most ceiling fans have a small switch on the motor housing that reverses the blade direction. Summer is the downward setting, which pushes air past you and makes the room feel cooler than it reads on a thermometer. If yours has been on the winter setting since May, this is the moment to change it back.
The Outdoor Unit
The box on the side of the house is where the heat from indoors actually goes, and it can only shed that heat into air that is moving freely around it. Winter tends to work against that. Leaves pile against the base, grass clippings blow into the fins, and whatever you planted near it in autumn has had a season to grow across the front.
Rake out the leaves, clippings and debris from around the base and from underneath
Brush the fins clear with a soft brush, working in the direction of the fins rather than across them
Cut back shrubs and climbers so there is clear space on every side and above
Check the drain line is not blocked and that the unit is still sitting level on its feet
Look for anything obviously wrong: a dented casing, a loose panel, a nest under the cover
Keep the hose off it. A pressure washer, or even a strong jet from a garden hose, flattens the fins and drives water into the electrical side of the unit. A brush and a rake do everything a householder should be doing out there.
Evaporative & Ducted Systems
Evaporative cooling is common across Adelaide, and it suits the climate: our summer heat is dry, which is exactly the condition these systems work best in. They also need more seasonal attention than a split system, and most of that attention is on the roof.
Leave the roof unit to a technician. The pads, the water tray, the pump and the bleed valve all want checking before summer, and a system that sat full of standing water through winter needs someone who knows what they are looking at. Book that service in September rather than finding out in December.
The part you can do: evaporative cooling pulls fresh air through the house and needs somewhere for it to leave. Open a window or door in the room you are cooling, or the system fights itself.
Ducted refrigerated systems put the work in a different place. The ceiling vents and the return air grille are yours to clean, and they are worth doing properly: the return grille is the point where the whole house is drawn back through the system, so it collects more than anything else in the room.
Take the grille down if it unclips, wash it, dry it and put it back. Vacuum each ceiling vent with a brush attachment and wipe the blades. The ductwork itself, above the ceiling, is not a householder job and does not need doing every year.
The Dust It Will Move
Cleaning the system is half of it. The other half is everything the moving air is about to pick up. A house that has been shut and still through winter has settled dust on every high surface, and the first day of cooling lifts the lot of it back into circulation.
High surfaces
Wardrobe tops, cornices, picture rails, the tops of door frames and the pelmets above the curtains
Curtains and blinds
Air moving past a curtain shakes out what has settled in the folds since autumn
Light fittings
Especially the upward-facing ones, which are dust traps by design
Under the beds
The one place a draught reaches and a vacuum often does not
Work top down and finish with the floors, so anything you dislodge on the way lands somewhere you have not cleaned yet. If anyone in the house gets hay fever, this is the week it earns its keep, because spring pollen is already coming in through every open window.
Book Your Spring Clean
The filters and the outdoor unit are quick once you know the order. The rest of it, the fan blades in every room, the vents, the wardrobe tops and the high dust through the whole house, is the part that takes a day you may not have. Our Adelaide team covers the city and inner east, the Hills, the western beaches and the northern suburbs, with the same trusted, fully insured and police-checked cleaner each visit.
Fans & Light Fittings
Blades done properly in every room, so the dust ends up with us rather than on the bed
Vents & Return Grilles
Ceiling vents and return air grilles cleaned rather than wiped over
The High Dust
Wardrobe tops, cornices and pelmets, the surfaces cooling stirs back into the air
We handle everything the dust settles on. The refrigerant circuit, the roof unit and the electrical side are licensed work and stay with a qualified technician.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q.How often should I clean my split system air conditioner filter?
Check the filters every few weeks while the system is in daily use, and give them a proper wash at the start of each cooling season. In Adelaide that means September or early October, before the first run of hot days. Households with pets, or homes on an unsealed road or near building work, will find the filters load up faster than that and are worth checking monthly through summer. The filter is a mesh screen you can lift out by hand, not a part that needs a technician.
Q.What is the easiest way to clean ceiling fan blades without making a mess?
Use an old pillowcase. Slide it over the blade so the fabric wraps both the top and bottom surfaces, press lightly, then draw it back towards you along the length of the blade. The dust comes away inside the pillowcase rather than dropping onto the bed, the floor or your face. Take the pillowcase outside to shake out before you start the next blade, and wash it afterwards. A cloth or a feather duster does the opposite job, sending a season of settled dust straight into the air of the room.
Q.Do I need a technician, or can I clean the air conditioner myself?
The filters, the outer casing, the wall vents and the space around the outdoor unit are all householder jobs and need nothing more than a vacuum, warm water and a bit of care. Anything past that is not. The refrigerant circuit, the electrical side, the indoor coil behind the filters and any evaporative unit sitting on the roof are licensed work, both for your safety and because DIY on a sealed system can void the warranty. A good rule of thumb is that if you have to remove more than the front panel or climb onto the roof, book someone.
Q.Can MyHomeCleaning clean ceiling fans and vents as part of a spring clean?
Yes. Ceiling fan blades, light fittings, wall vents and return air grilles are all part of a once-off or deep spring clean, along with the high dust on wardrobe tops, skirtings and cornices that cooling stirs back into the air once you switch it on. We do not service the refrigeration side of a system, which is licensed work, but we take care of everything the dust settles on. Our Adelaide team covers the city and inner east, the Hills, the western beaches and the northern suburbs, with the same trusted, fully insured and police-checked cleaner each visit. Tell us about your home and we'll put together a personalised quote.
