How to clean a dirty old air-conditioner?

[elly1]

Any suggestions on what I can do to clean up this old air-conditioner? It's about 18 years old, works fine. Due to budget I don't really want to replace until it dies. Ive tried cleaning it but it's like smoke stained.  Can I spray it with a paint designed for plastic, like Rust Oleum?  I'll be repainting the wall in the near future 

[agnes755]

Can I ask if you need to remove unit from the wall?

we like to do the same with ours, but there is no way to remove it from wall.

please advise. 

[EricL]

Hello @agnes755

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's fantastic to have you join us, and thank you for sharing your question about painting your aircon unit.

It's great to hear that @elly1's project has inspired you to paint your own aircon unit. The good news is that it's not necessary to remove the head unit from your wall. What you do need to do is to mask the areas that you don't want the paint to go onto. This includes covering the sensitive internal parts of the head unit. Your goal is to remove as much of the plastic body as possible so that you can paint it away from the head unit.

However, if that proves too hard, just make sure that the only thing exposed to the paint is the outside body of the aircon head unit. Exhaust ports and infra-red receiver windows must be covered to prevent them from being covered in paint. The surrounding wall and furniture below the aircon must be covered to avoid being sprayed with paint.

My number one tip is to make sure to prep the plastic body as best you can with sugar soap before painting.

If you need further assistance, please let us know.

Eric