Today’s quick tip is to clean your air conditioner’s evaporator coils during your spring shakedown and your fall winterization routines. 

Why an Air Conditioner Evaporator Is Important

The evaporator is the star of the show. The air conditioner throttles warm refrigerant through an expansion valve or orifice into a low-pressure liquid inside the evaporator tubing. When this liquid vaporizes, it absorbs heat from the ambient air. This air is drawn from and returns to the interior of your RV. Pressurized by fans, the moving air passes through the cold evaporator coils, loses some of its heat (and humidity) to the refrigerant, and returns to your RV about 15-20 degrees colder than it left.

In other words, any time your air conditioner is in operation, air is flowing across your evaporator coils. Air contains moisture, dust, aerosolized oils, and other contaminants. Clean coils are effective coils, so all air conditioners have some kind of filter that should be inspected and either washed or replaced every 2-4 weeks.