Samsung Wind-Free Air Conditioner Self-Cleaning Review

I was looking at my Samsung Wind-Free air conditioner recently and started to see mold appearing in the gaps of the metal mesh on the outside.

But… I clearly had it taken apart and cleaned last year, didn’t I?

I don’t think they cleaned the outer metal mesh back then.

So this time I decided to do a complete disassembly and cleaning.

For disassembly and reassembly, I followed a video by “Self King (셀프왕)” on YouTube.

First, there’s a cover like this on the top of the air conditioner.

Remove the four screws on the cover.

Fortunately, most of the screws in the air conditioner are the same size, so as long as you don’t lose them, you don’t need to worry about which one goes where.

Inside, there’s a board for control.

To remove the front of the air conditioner, you need to disconnect all the wires plugged into the board.

Make sure to take a photo before disconnecting anything.

The connectors are like clips, so just grab the top part with your fingers and pull them out.

Think of it like taking off a clothespin.

Keep all the removed screws and parts together like this.

As long as you don’t lose them, you’ll be able to reassemble it.

Now let’s remove the bottom panel.

The bottom side of the lower panel is hooked, and the top is held by magnets, so just pull from the top and it will open.

Then lift it upward to remove it.

This inner cover has a total of four screws.

Just loosen the four screws.

Then you’ll see a distribution panel like the one below.

You need to remove the panel and disconnect the wires inside.

You don’t have to disconnect every single wire on this panel.

You only need to disconnect the gray wire.

Cable management isn’t that difficult, so just disconnect the gray cables.

You have to do this to be able to remove the upper fan.

The top cover is fixed with two screws at the bottom and is resting in place by gravity.

Remove the screws and lift it upward; it comes off easily.

Inside, the motor and fan are attached together.

There’s a lot of mold here too, so this is definitely a part you need to clean.

I wanted to completely disassemble the fan and motor too, but the company that came last time had totally destroyed the screws.

That’s when I realized why people do this stuff themselves.

So I had no choice but to wipe and brush off the mold with wet wipes and a brush.

Never touch the cooling fins.

Just wipe the opening with a wet wipe.

Now let’s disassemble the front panel.

Disconnect the connector and remove all the screws attached between the gray and white parts.

Then the air outlet will come apart.

Up to this point, it’s manageable.

The problem is taking off the metal mesh on the front…

The difficulty level here was hellish.

It was so hard that I couldn’t properly film the disassembly.

Look it up on YouTube for reference.

I took some photos after disassembling it.

The condition of the front panel was a disaster…

It makes sense that companies don’t like doing this part: disassembly is hard, takes a lot of time, and there’s a high risk of damage.

While cleaning this time, I got the feeling that Samsung designs these air conditioners with maybe 2 years on the short end, 3–4 years at most in mind.

If they were thinking about maintenance, I don’t know how they could have designed it like this.

This is after scrubbing it once with a brush.

It looks a lot brighter, but there was still mold left in the gaps between the holes.

So I had no choice but to bring out the bleach…

I sprayed bleach and waited 30 minutes.

Then I went over all the holes again with a toothbrush to remove the mold.

Since I plan to use it at least two more years after this disassembly, I cleaned it really thoroughly.

Reassembly is, of course, the reverse order of disassembly.

While putting the front panel back on, I broke off two pins.

It’s been a long time since I’ve done a job that needed both skill and brute force like this.

This is on a whole different level from iPhone repair.

After servicing the air conditioner, it doesn’t smell much even when the temperature is set higher.

It also looks clean from the outside, which I like.

Even beginners could try this at least once.

Don’t be afraid—try cleaning it yourself.

And I hope you use the saved cleaning fee to grill some meat with your family.