Thread: What causes this ? See photos

Saw this AC condenser today. Corrosion on the corner cooling fins. When I touched the finds, they crumbled in my hand. The unit was cooling normally and had no other detectable problem. The unit was getting pounded by the lawn sprinkler system so my guess is the buildup of dust and organic debris, combined with the hard mineral laden water, has caused deposits of minerals and other materials between the fins, ......which stayed wet due to the sprinkler system...which lead to the eventual corrosion of the fins. Any ideas as to the cause? That is just my best guess.

What Say Ye experts....?

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Lawn fertilizer spray or Dog peeing spot. Possibly abetted by prior crush injury to fins (which sould have been combed initially)

Ammonia (nitrogen) is destructive to aluminum.

Thanks H.G.....You are right...I somehow missed the obvious....this guy was a big lawn maintenance type guy (Fertilizer) and he did have a dog running loose. I think you figured it out. I was trying to think,..."What caused this in this one spot"????

dog pee. Fertilizer would be all across the coils. Dog would prefer to face left and hike his right leg based upon the pattern....about 40-50 lb male dog I'd guess ;-)

Most of the time its dog urine along with sprinklers. The one spot, is where the dog continues to mark his territory.

Thanks guys.

Gene

Originally Posted by Bob Harper

Dog would prefer to face left and hike his right leg based upon the pattern....about 40-50 lb male dog I'd guess ;-)

Originally Posted by Rick Hurst

The one spot, is where the dog continues to mark his territory.

"Mission accomplished, grrrrrwoof!" - Rover

Originally Posted by Bob Harper

dog pee. Fertilizer would be all across the coils. Dog would prefer to face left and hike his right leg based upon the pattern....about 40-50 lb male dog I'd guess ;-)

Look again at the photos, especially the first one blown up one with sprinklers operating, that corner is being saturated only at the base, note sprinkler head next to house, between downspout and A/C unit, then review other photos of same corner, matches spray pattern and drainage path of same. Tablets and granular can be added to the sprinkler system, or a period of time where sprinkler head not lifting to its present height and adjustment and washing ground applied fertilizer up towards fins.

Could be either irrigation assisted lawn chemicals (not necessarily for the purpose of fertilizer) or urine. Don't narrow yourself down, both are probable and possible as evidenced by the photos, as are other possibilities.

Originally Posted by H.G. Watson, Sr.

Tablets and granular can be added to the sprinkler system, or a period of time where sprinkler head not lifting to its present height and adjustment and washing ground applied fertilizer up towards fins.

It could have been a ricochet from an alien's ray gun, trying to shoot the dog with the caustic urine, that's been peeing on their spacecraft every night.

A few years back one of the grandchildren brought recorded episodes of a cartoon, somewhat crudely fashioned about a group of kids from Colorado and their small town, I can't quite recall the name of the series, might have been called South Park, something like that.

Anyway, I happened to sit in on several episodes which my granddaughter deemed her favorites,

one had this little fat boy (Cardman?) who was shooting fire, laser beams, and eventually a mechanical arm bearing a huge dish antena from his hind-end (apparently after having an encounter with aliens who "probed" him).

Your post, JK, reminded me of that.

Another episode was all about a personified turd which apparently came to life every Christmas, sang and traveled all over the place, left a smear mark on whatever he encountered. Mr. "something" (Handy I think?), The Christmas Poop.

IIRC later that visit we saw a Jim Carey movie, "Bruce Almighty". Bruce had the power of God, when he encountered some street toughs and told them to stop doing something, one of them sassed back and said "yeah, when monkeys fly out of my butt", then it happened. I laughed so hard, as I had recently seen the "trunk monkey" bits (think they may be still circulating on the net). For whatever reason, this too comes to mind.

Sorry for the drift, I was going somewhere with that, but forgot in the time it took me to type it. Alien probes, things coming from hind end, lasers, and trunk/butt monkeys, oh yes, and the flying monkey troops from the Wizard of Oz, and melting, corroding fins. Hmmmm. Nope, its gone. Lost it, must not have been important.

Many of the outdoor coil cleaning solutions are highly caustic and claim to brighten coils. If the unit was not completely level the solution could have pooled there and not been rinsed out correctly.

My opinion will go with the canine urine. The damage in the photo is very typical. The location of the coil seems to lend support to the theory.

Around her that is usualy caused by a chemical known as K9p!
Think about it!