Aircon Maintenance

Aircon maintenance is an essential part of maintaining your home. Especially in hot and humid weather in Singapore. Being located near the equator has its advantages of having good sunny weather all year round but this brings about the high usage of air conditioning. With the high usage, this means higher wear and tear and is a machine, it needs its tender loving care as well for it to serve you and your family for years ahead.

Handymanhero examining the AC filter
Almost every household in Singapore has air conditioners at home. Offices are fitted with them as well to provide the comforts at work. It is funny to know that majority of us would only turn on the air conditioner only at night when we are about to go to bed. It is actually at this time that the weather is at its coolest but I guess it is the humidity that makes us feel comfortable instead. Air conditioners need to be maintained with proper cleaning of the filters and regular flushing of the draining systems. This is in view of the high condensation that we get in Singapore. If the draining system is choked, this will result in backflow and this jams up the aircon system and replacement is a real big messy affair if you are living at home. Keeping the aircon system in tip-top condition is crucial to ensure that the cooling efficiency is optimum. A blocked filter results in the aircon working much harder to bring the cool air into the environment and that results in higher energy costs as well. If you would like to have better cost savings, it is definitely a must to upkeep and maintain the aircon system in tip-top working conditions. Filters need to be cleaned to ensure the aircon system is working perfectly fine. Even if you are working in an airconditioned environment, it does not mean that the dust is minimal, in fact, you will be amazed by the high amount of dust that is being trapped by the filters. With the filters in place, it helps to filter the air as well. A clean filter means a less stressed air conditioner.
Aircon Filter - Before Cleaning
Before Cleaning
After Cleaning

You may have come across aircon servicing technicians that will always be telling you that you need to top-up your “aircon gas”. It seems that the technicians are always checking your aircon gas levels and they will always tell you that the gas is not sufficient. You need to know that your air conditioner does not need to fill up the gas every now and then. It is not like a car that runs on gas that needs to fill up. The freon gas is actually a refrigerant that runs through the cooling coils to give out the cold air when the compressed air is forced through the coils. So in short, it does not disappear. If there is not enough gas, then you should probably engage the technician to run a quick check on leakages instead of just topping up the gas. The technician will be happy to top it up as he is just coming back to charge you again and again.

 

But there are some signs that can clue you in. Here are 5 things to look for that might tell you that your air conditioner needs more refrigerant.

Your AC runs all day and never cools your home

Don’t let an AC technician just “top you off” with refrigerant. Remember: if your air conditioner is low on refrigerant, it’s leaking somewhere. If you just refill it, you’ll be low again soon.
A good AC tech will let you know that you have a leak and offer to fix it. Some companies don’t do that though because they’d rather just charge you to keep coming back and filling up your system.
Plus, doing it the right way is time-consuming. Fixing a refrigerant leak involves:

  1. Removing all the refrigerant from the system (called evacuating the system)
  2. Finding and fixing the leak
  3. Testing the fix
  4. Refilling your air conditioner with the right amount of refrigerant

Air coming out of vents isn’t very cold

Don’t let an AC technician just “top you off” with refrigerant. Remember: if your air conditioner is low on refrigerant, it’s leaking somewhere. If you just refill it, you’ll be low again soon.
A good AC tech will let you know that you have a leak and offer to fix it. Some companies don’t do that though because they’d rather just charge you to keep coming back and filling up your system.
Plus, doing it the right way is time-consuming. Fixing a refrigerant leak involves:

  1. Removing all the refrigerant from the system (called evacuating the system)
  2. Finding and fixing the leak
  3. Testing the fix
  4. Refilling your air conditioner with the right amount of refrigerant

Hissing/bubbling noise

Most refrigerant leaks are silent because they’re pretty small. But a large leak can cause your air conditioner to make a hissing or bubbling noise when it’s running.

Note: Don’t forget to fix the leak

Don’t let an AC technician just “top you off” with refrigerant. Remember: if your air conditioner is low on refrigerant, it’s leaking somewhere. If you just refill it, you’ll be low again soon.
A good AC tech will let you know that you have a leak and offer to fix it. Some companies don’t do that though because they’d rather just charge you to keep coming back and filling up your system.
Plus, doing it the right way is time-consuming. Fixing a refrigerant leak involves:

  1. Removing all the refrigerant from the system (called evacuating the system)
  2. Finding and fixing the leak
  3. Testing the fix
  4. Refilling your air conditioner with the right amount of refrigerant

So the next time when you engage an aircon technician and he asks that you top up your gas, verify that the gas needs to top up. As him on how does he justify for the need. 

Remember, engage only the professional and ethical aircon technicians to assist in your maintennace of your aircon units.

For more information on aircon servicing, give a call to handymanhero for more details.

Aircon Servicing Prices

Here are the Handyman Hero Aircon Servicing prices:

Ad Hoc Servicing … $40/unit
  • $40 per blower unit (min 2 units)
Chemical Cleaning … $70/unit
  • For wallmount A/C
Enzyme Cleaning … $90/unit
  • For wallmount A/C
R22 Gas Top Up … $40-$80
R410 Gas Top Up … $60-$120

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