Cleaning A/C Evaporator Coil

[veisler]

Experts -

Hoping you can help me here. Recently my A/C wasnt working, and upon further inspection I saw that the outline line was frozen and it was blowing almost no air. That led me to understanding that the filter may have been dirty, which I replaced. This helped some.

I also tried to clean the evaporator coil (I am not sure it has been cleaned in the 13 years the house has been around), but when I opened up the furnace access panel, I see a small metal plate that is preventing me from getting to the underneath side of the coil (see attached picture). I can't seem to take that metal plate off. So, my question is "how can I get to the underneath side to clean and spray it? Is my only recourse to take the full coil out of the furnace itself? I am very hesitant to that as I am more of a DIYer than a professional.

I'd welcome any suggestion the group has.

Thanks,

Vaughn

 

[billshack]

do not remove it , you will only cut the lines allowing the gas to escape.
Tell me more is the condenser hot, it the evaporator cold , is the compressor running .

 

[user 4883]

You can't remove the plate and/or the entire coil.

 

[veisler]

do not remove it , you will only cut the lines allowing the gas to escape.
Tell me more is the condenser hot, it the evaporator cold , is the compressor running .

Thanks Bill. I won't remove it. I should have included more detail....

The coils had frost on them when i ran into the initial problem. I turned off the A/C overnight (and replaced the air filter). Turned it back on about 3-4 hours later and the frost had melted. Frost, which had also bee on the outside line, had also melted. Once the A/C was running, the compressor was running fine, the evaporator was cold.

But airflow still seemed to be less than "before" across the house, which led me to wonder whether the coil had collected dirt and dust underneath. Thus the question to begin this thread.

 

[billshack]

typical frost on the dx coil means low on refrigerant