I don’t suppose why I assumed that I could handle the yearly maintenance of my air conditioner myself. I’m not particularally handy, & I suppose really nothing about the inner workings of a cooling system. I strictly wanted to save some money. It had been quite a few years since I’d had the air conditioner worked on. I knew that there was a significant buildup of dust & other contaminants inside. The musty stink coming from the vents & considerable amount of particulate getting circulated whenever the plan started up had me distraught. I did some research & every article strongly proposed calling for proactive maintenance, when I watched some how-to videos, the process didn’t seem all that difficult. I needed to go buy a few tools, & then I got started. It was a bit aggravating when I had trouble just removing the outer cabinet. All of the screws were rusted & really taxing to loosen. When I finally accessed the equipment, I was shocked by the amount of contamination. There was mold growth on the coil & algae flourishing in the condensate drain. The belts showed signs of wear & tear & there was tons of dust, lint, grime & everything was wet & stinky. The debris was not easy to disconnect. Although I tried to be gentle, I bent the fan blades. I spent several hours working on it & realized I needed professional help. When I initially called an HVAC corporation, she wanted me to wait a month for an appointment. I then explained that the air conditioner was currently in pieces, but fortunately, they agreed to send a professional to the home within the next several hours, but she was not glad with all the damage I had caused.