Guide: HVAC Coil Corrosion Prevention

The term “corrosion” typically brings to mind rusty steel or iron, but the copper coils in your home’s Heating and Cooling systems can corrode too. Preventing coil corrosion proactively with regular maintenance is the smart way to avoid costly, unexpected damage to your system’s evaporator and condenser coils, and the expense of an early equipment replacement.

Main Causes of Coil Corrosion

Corrosion of your HVAC coils can occur in two ways:

• Outdoors, the condenser coil becomes pitted over time from exposure to caustic substances like chloride and fluoride that are present in the air and rain.
• Indoors, corrosion of your evaporator coil is caused by exposure to off-gassed volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from your home’s construction materials, pressed-wood components in furniture, textiles, fabrics and numerous everyday household items and cleaning products. On the coil’s surface, these VOCs transform into corrosive acetic and formic acids.

Over time, both of these kinds of corrosion will create tiny holes in the coils and fins where refrigerant can escape. If you don’t take steps now to halt this kind of damage, the leaks and gradual loss of refrigerant will lead to:

• A slow, steady decline in your HVAC equipment’s energy efficiency.
• An increase in your HVAC-related energy consumption and costs.
• Greater difficulty maintaining a consistent comfort level in your home.
• A premature system replacement because it’s impossible to repair coils with multiple, tiny leaks.

Advice on How to Prevent Coil Corrosion

The most effective way to keep corrosion at bay is to have regular preventive maintenance performed on your HVAC system. A trained and experienced HVAC technician has the tools, products and knowledge to neutralize then safely remove caustic substances from the coils. Your technician might also recommend:

• Getting an anti-corrosive coating applied on the clean coils.
• Adding an air cleaner unit to your HVAC system to reduce harmful airborne VOCs.
• Hosing down the outdoor condenser unit about once a month to help limit the accumulation of potentially-caustic debris.

To learn more about preventing coil corrosion in your Lake Oswego home’s HVAC system, or to schedule preventive HVAC maintenance that includes cleaning the coils, contact us at Roth Heating & Cooling.

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