Our air con unit says that the filter needs cleaning/changing. As you know my OH is not able to do anything so it is down to me. First of all is the filter in the exterior or interior unit? What do I need to do and is it easy? I have no instruction booklet so am at a loss.

Rosemary

If I have no instruction book, I generally look up the manufacturer on the internet. They quite often have downloadable instructions in PDF format.

Its an interior one & the front of the unit will simply click out from the bottom/sides and the swivel up to lock in place.
The filters are then staring you in the face (normally), study for a moment and take one out remembering how it sits in situ.
Soak/wash/rinse in a sink with some washing up liquid and allow to dry, replace and do the other one.
Little quick pull on the cover to release it & let it swing back down into place, again a little pressure to click it back into situ.

Great thanks.

Rosemary

whilst switched off pass a stiff brush over the condenser unit, removing dust and dirt from the heat exchanger.

although there are a couple of other things to look that may require special equipment you will by now have saved yourself €100 svc charge

Thanks all for your help.

Rosemary

Talking about air con units, I had mine re gassed last week,

Gas............ ....................................... €35
labour............................................ ..... €35
Fuel charge taken from a chart................€65....

He tried to make himself look kind let me have the fuel charge for €3. What a con, I could have bought a new unit nearly for that.

did it need regassing ?

how new is it & what gas does it have ??

What the hell is a fuel charge?

Fuel for him getting to my house, he had a big chart. You would think they would be glad of the work.

Yes it needed gassing don't know what gas it uses it had a leak some how, it's about 3 years old.

Thank you so much for giving me these step by step instructions, I would not have dared to push the front off in that way if you had not told me to. It was all exactly as you said, I used water and household cleaning vinegar to remove the very thin layer of dust that was on the filters. Then I think that I either amused or baffled people who were visiting our castle by standing on our roof terrace holding the filters and swinging my arms around to shake the water off. Dried in no time and replaced them. Must admit that I expected the filters to be much dirtier than they were so this has given me faith in the settings. I think that the hardest part was moving the wardrobe in order to get at it and making sure that OH was soaking his feet so that he could not come and check on what I was doing or interfere by getting in my way.

Thank you once again, I really appreciate you taking the time and trouble to explain it to me.

Rosemary