I rarely use my airconditioner, how often should I clean it?

Hi all, my family has a split-unit airconditioner at home. We live in a tropical country that's hot all year round so being already used to the heat, we are content with the fan most of the time. We only use the A/C if the temperatures are pretty intense or if pollution is particularly bad outside and we have to close the windows. This maybe just averages out to once a month, with greater frequency of usage during the particularly hot month (on some months we don't use the A/C at all). In the past 5 years of having our split-unit airconditioner, we have actually never cleaned or maintained it, and it has been working fine. We don't see a surge in our electricity bills either (then again, we really use it very infrequently.)

We're moving house now and getting a new A/C and I just want to make sure that we're doing things right. Many articles I read say to clean the filters at least once a month, but I believe this is only if the A/C is used frequently. If I hardly/don't use the airconditioner in that particular month, is it all right to not clean it? Perhaps I could just clean it in the month when the usage is more frequent? And in this case, how often would it be necessary to get the A/C serviced by a professional?

Thanks!

submitted by /u/hanamihoshi
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