Aircon problems, and what they usually mean
Most aircon faults come down to a handful of causes, and more of them are cleaning than the industry likes to admit. Find what yours is doing and we will tell you what it normally is, what you can check yourself, and what it costs if it does need someone.
Start with what you can see or hear, not with what you think is broken. Pick the closest match below.
- WaterAircon leaking waterDripping from the indoor unit — nearly always a blocked drain, not a broken aircon.
- CoolingAircon not coldRuns but will not cool — usually a fouled coil, sometimes low gas.
- SmellAircon smells badMusty or sour air when it starts — mould on the coil and in the drain tray.
- NoiseAircon noisyRattling, buzzing or grinding — a dirty blower wheel, or a bearing on its way out.
- PowerAircon not turning onDead, or blinking and refusing to start — power, the remote, or the board.
Which one is mine?
Aircon faults overlap. A unit that smells is usually cooling badly too, and a unit that leaks has often been noisy for weeks first. That is not a coincidence: dirt causes most of them, so one clean fixes several at once. If yours is doing more than one thing, start here.
- Not cold and smelly at the same time — almost always dirt on the coil and blower wheel. One clean deals with both.
- Leaking and noisy — deal with the leak first. Water running down a wall does damage the aircon itself never will.
- Not cold, and the outdoor unit silent — that is electrical, not dirt. Start with the unit not turning on.
- Cold for an hour, then not — usually ice on the coil. Switch it off and let it thaw before anyone looks at it.
How do I know if my AC needs to be serviced?
If you cannot remember the last one, it needs one. Beyond that the unit tells you: the room takes longer to cool than it used to, the air at the vent feels weaker, there is a musty smell in the first minute, or you can see grey fuzz on the fins through the front grille. We recommend a service every three months, which is about how long a unit running daily in Singapore takes to start losing airflow.
The distinction worth getting right is servicing against repair. Cleaning fixes performance that faded slowly, over months. It does not fix something that stopped overnight. If the unit was fine on Tuesday and dead on Wednesday, no amount of cleaning will bring it back and you should not pay for a service hoping it might — Aircon repair in Singapore.
A routine clean is $50 for one unit and works out at $20 a unit if you do 6 in the same visit — General aircon servicing in Singapore.
What is the 3 minute rule for aircon?
It is the built-in delay before the compressor is allowed to start again. Switch a unit off and straight back on and most models will blow air but not cool for roughly three minutes. Nothing is broken. The aircon is waiting for the pressure inside the system to settle, because starting the compressor against that pressure is what wears it out.
It matters twice. After a power cut, or after switching off at the wall, give the unit five minutes before deciding it is faulty — a fair number of call-outs are units that were still counting. And do not hold a room at temperature by flicking the remote on and off. Set it and leave it. The unit cycles itself, more gently than you can.
Is bad AC smell harmful?
We will not tell you it is making you ill, and we will not tell you it is harmless. What is known is what the smell is: mould and bacteria growing on the wet, dark parts inside the indoor unit — the coil, the drainage tray and the blower wheel — with the fan blowing room air straight across them. Cleaning removes it.
People with asthma or allergies often say they notice it. That is as far as the evidence goes and as far as we will go with it. Anyone selling you work on the strength of a health scare is guessing.
The practical part is simple. A light musty smell usually clears with a normal service. A smell that comes back within a week or two is growing somewhere a service cannot reach, and shifting it means taking the unit off the wall and apart. That is $130 for the first unit and $88 for each one after — Aircon chemical overhaul in Singapore.
Not sure which one it is?
Tell us what the unit is doing and we will say whether it needs a visit. If it does, the call-out to diagnose is $50 and it is free if we do the job — so a diagnosis never costs you anything you would not have spent anyway.
Cleaning and overhaul prices are fixed and published on our price list rather than worked out at your door, and repairs are quoted once we have seen the fault. What each job involves is set out under aircon services. We are open 8am to midnight every day, public holidays included, island-wide with no travel charge.