How to Clean Your Air-Conditioning Unit
The aircon is an essential part of surviving summer in Japan, however air conditioner units can easily be forgotten when doing regular cleaning since the dirt isn’t particularly obvious. It’s important to incorporate air conditioner cleaning into your regular apartment maintenance, dirty aircon can affect your health since you’ll be breathing in the air it blows out.
If you’re new to having aircon and if you’re worried about how to clean air conditioner units, don’t worry, we’re here to guide you through. It’s an easy process! There’s also a wonderful array of Japanese cleaning products to ensure that you can look after it as well as it deserves.
The filters of air conditioner units in apartments in Japan should be cleaned every three months.
If you have a dirty air conditioner, or if you’re averse to air conditioner cleaning, you can always get in touch with professional air conditioner cleaning services!
Japanese cleaning products for your aircon
One of the easiest Japanese cleaning products for your aircon is エアコン洗浄スプレー, air conditioner cleaning spray that disinfects deodorizes, and helps to prevent mold.
To clean the removable filters, you don’t need to use any specific products, a simple cloth dampened with some water will do, or using a vacuum might be easier.
It can be difficult to get up into the nooks and crannies of aircon units in apartments in Japan. 100-yen stores offer Japanese cleaning products such as long bendable cleaning sticks to facilitate cleaning the difficult-to-reach parts of air conditioner units.
Setting up for the air conditioner cleaning
Open the windows to circulate fresh air from outside and make sure to unplug your air conditioner before doing any air conditioner cleaning!
You might want to line the floor or walls with plastic or even attach plastic underneath the aircon using some tape to collect any dirt that falls out of it.
For precaution, make sure to purchase some cleaning gloves, a face mask, and even gloves alongside the Japanese cleaning products. These will help to avoid getting dust or mold on your body or breathing any of it in.
How to clean air conditioner units
Some air conditioner units do have self-cleaning functions, but it’s still best to clean air conditioners manually occasionally. Self-cleaning settings will be displayed on the remote and there are usually two settings: one to clean the filters and one to clean inside the unit. If you don’t have self-cleaning settings, it’s still easy to maintain a clean air conditioner.
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to clean air conditioner units:
- Most of the air conditioner units can be easily taken apart. First, open the front cover, you should be able to lift it easily. Then, carefully remove the dust filters.
- Using a vacuum, old toothbrush, or damp cloth, you can then clean the dust filters.
- Rinse the filters with some water.
- Next, you need your cleaning spray, make sure to check the instructions specific to your spray. My spray advises to spray evenly about 5cm away from the unit and to avoid any of the electronic parts.
- Then wait for 10 minutes whilst the Japanese cleaning products do their thing. After this, put the filters back in and plug the air conditioner back in.
- After this, you might want to gently wipe the outside casing of the unit with a damp cloth to remove any dust build-up.
You’ve now got a clean aircon ready to use. Regular cleaning can make your aircon much more effective and can help cut down on electricity bills for apartments in Japan.
Hopefully, now you have more of an idea on how to clean air conditioner units. It’s an easy process that can help us all keep our apartments in Japan cleaner and healthier to live in.
If you’ve not thought to tackle cleaning your aircon before – better late than never!
If there is an unusual smell coming from your aircon, make sure to get on with some air conditioner cleaning, since it may indicate a build-up of mold. Don’t forget that if your air conditioner feels particularly dirty you can always contact a cleaning service. Good luck with the cleaning!