Vandalized AC condenser

[coolguy4]

Last night, a friend called me and said that her AC system seems to be performing poorly lately. It runs constantly to keep the temp inside her house around 70. I checked the condenser to see if it was clean, and I found that someone (she thinks it was her ex boyfriend) bent all the fins over. That explains the poor performance. The liquid line is hot too. It isn't scalding hot, but it's hot enough that it's uncomfortable to hold for more than a few seconds. So my question is if there is an easy way to straighten the fins, or if she's going to be spending days straightening each fin individually. Do "fin combs" actually work? If not, is there any trick to straightening them? Thanks.

[Goober]

Depends how bad its damaged. I've never really had much success with Finn Combs, only if they were slightly bent. If severely damaged, bent over, then I find a decent flat head screwdriver was best option to individually try and pry them back into normal shape.

[Rob White]

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What Goober said :)

Patience and a steady hand.

Rob

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[SimonWillis]

If the fins are severely damaged then best option is to replace it with new one. Or show it to expert for recommendation.

[nike123]

I recently have customer who in his genius moments used high pressure water pump to "clean condenser" on 10 years old chiller of 200kW cooling capacity.
Now he is in bank asking for loan of 60000€ for buying and installing new chiller!