Aircon Troubleshooter
Pick the symptom you are seeing. We will tell you the likely causes, what you can safely check yourself, and how urgently it needs attention.
What is it doing?
Before you call anyone out
Three checks solve a surprising share of aircon complaints, and all three are free.
- Pull the filters out and wash them. Restricted airflow causes weak cooling, icing, longer run times and higher bills. In a coastal, windy city this needs doing far more often than people expect.
- Look at the outdoor unit. It needs clear air all around it. Units boxed in by a wall, swallowed by a shrub, or covered with a tarpaulin cannot reject heat, and the system suffers for it.
- Check the remote and the mode. A unit set to Fan or Dry will blow air and never cool. It is a more common call-out than anyone admits.
When to stop using it immediately: if it is tripping the breaker, dripping water onto electrics or ceiling boards, or making a grinding noise. In all three cases, switch off at the isolator and call us. Continuing to run it turns a repair into a replacement.
What to tell us when you call
These four things let us arrive with the right parts instead of making two trips:
- The brand, and the model number if you can see it on the indoor unit.
- Any error code on the display or flashing light pattern - these are brand-specific and narrow the diagnosis immediately.
- Roughly how old the unit is, and when it was last serviced.
- Whether the problem is constant or intermittent, and what time of day it is worst.
If you would rather not diagnose anything, that is entirely fine - book a visit or call 076 537 8987 and we will work it out on site. You can also read more about how we approach repairs.
Commonly asked
My aircon is blowing but not cooling. What is wrong?
The most likely cause is low refrigerant from a leak. A sealed system never consumes gas, so if the charge is low it has escaped - usually at a flare joint, a braze, or through corrosion on the outdoor coil.
The other common causes are a fouled condenser coil that cannot reject heat, a failed run capacitor, or compressor failure. Check your filters and make sure the outdoor fan is spinning, then call us.
Why is my aircon freezing up?
Ice forms when the evaporator coil drops below freezing, and that happens for two main reasons: not enough air moving across the coil, or not enough refrigerant in the system.
Restricted airflow is the more common and the cheaper of the two - usually a filthy filter or a failing indoor fan. Switch the unit off, let it thaw completely, clean the filters and try again. If it ices up again, stop using it and call us, because running it iced risks liquid refrigerant reaching the compressor.
Is it safe to keep resetting a breaker that keeps tripping?
No. A breaker that trips repeatedly is doing exactly what it was installed to do - interrupting a circuit that is drawing current it should not, or leaking to earth. Repeatedly resetting it is a genuine fire and electrocution risk.
Switch the unit off at its isolator and leave it off until someone has diagnosed the fault.
Water is dripping from my indoor unit. Is that serious?
It is usually a blocked condensate drain, which is an inexpensive fix - but the damage it causes while you wait is not. Water running into ceiling boards, cornices and electrical fittings turns a small repair into a large one.
Switch the unit off at the isolator, catch the water, and book a visit promptly.