Before Engaging An Air Conditioning Service Company, Do a simple 7 Steps DIY Aircon Checking First.
Why perform DIY check on your aircon before engaging an Air Conditioning Service Company?
If your aircon is not cold , not cold enough or sometimes cold sometimes not cold, you may think that it is time to engage an air conditioning service company to rectify the problem. Frankly speaking, you should do some DIY check first. I am sharing this with you because it may help you save time, money and effort. You may not even need to engage any air conditioning service company to rectify your air conditioner problem.
CitiCool is happy to share this DIY check and solution with all air conditioning users whose aircon is not cold Do a DIY check on your air conditioner first before you pick up the phone and engage an air conditioning service company to fix it for you. You may be able to save quite a lot of money. Why? This is because many of CitiCool’s customers managed to get cold air again on their aircon based on our DIY advice over the phone. Hence, they don’t even need to engage any aircon technician to help. We are showing this simple procedure with pictures to guide you along. You just need to perform a few simple DIY check on your aircon to find out what’s wrong with your aircon and why is it not cold. Refer to the benefits below.
You can easily identify the actual services you need from an Air Conditioning Service Company by yourself
By following all the 7 steps aircon DIY checking below, you will be able to determine whether you really need the help of an air conditioning service company in Singapore. You can also prevent yourself from being cheated by dishonest air conditioning service company due to lack of basic knowledge on your aircon problems. At least, you can find out what kind of aircon service you would require to make your air conditioner produce cold air again.
If you really need an air conditioning service company to help you solve your aircon problem, following the 7 steps Aircon DIY checking below will allow you to find out which of these common remedies is most suitable for your air conditioning system:
- general air conditioning service;
- chemical overhaul; or
- topping up of refrigerant.
7 Steps Air Conditioner Problem DIY Checking Guide
Step 1: Check the setting on your remote control
Sometimes your aircon system is perfectly ok but your remote control is not set to the correct setting. In fact there are a few mode to be selected and the one and only mode that will provide cold air is the “COOL” mode. Hence, please make sure you check the setting first before doing any other things.
The purpose of the 4 different modes in the remote control are shown below:
Auto Mode: In this mode, the fan speed and therefore the temperature will adjust automatically based on the room temperature detected by the aircon sensor.
Cool Mode: In this mode , the aircon will cool the room.
Dry Mode: In this mode, the aircon will help in dehumidifying the room.
Fan Mode: In this mode, the aircon function like a fan, there is no cooling effect.
[Useful Note: If there is no problem with your air conditioning system, once you set the temperature to around 23 or 24 degree Celsius, you should be able to enjoy cold air. There is no need to set the temperature until very low. I have seen some people set the temperature to 16 degree Celsius which is not advisable . In actual fact, in Singapore if you set the temperature anywhere between 22 to 24 degree Celsius, the air in the room should be cold enough for most people. If these temperatures are still not good enough, probably your room is very big or your air conditioner horse power or BTU is below the required capacity for your room. If your air conditioner capacity is right for your room, it is advisable to set the temperature between 24 to 25 for energy saving purpose. If the temperature is too cold for your body, it’s also not good for your health.]
Step 2: Check coldness by placing your hand near the air outlet of the fan coil.
If the air coming out is NOT COLD AT ALL, you will need a professional to check the aircon problem for you. If the air coming out is COLD BUT NOT STRONG AT ALL, proceed to step 3.
Step 3: Open the front cover of the fan coil and check whether the air filter is dirty.
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If YES, like the air filter shown above which is full of dirt, please take out the air filter and rinse it with normal water (DO NOT USE HOT WATER). After washing the air filter, dry the filter and place it back. Next, proceed to Step 4.
[Useful Note: Certain air conditioning service company only remove this filter and wash when performing general aircon cleaning for customer. In actual fact, there are a number of steps involve if they do a proper and complete job. You can refer to the link below to find out more on the scope of work required for a proper general aircon servicing or watch a video on how this is done.
General Aircon Servicing
Step 4: Check the airflow by shuffling your hand from left to right at the area near air the outlet. Feel the airflow. Check if the airflow is STRONG and EVEN.
If your air conditioner is in good condition, the airflow coming out of the air outlet should be STRONG and EVEN. If your answer is NO, please proceed to step 5.
Step 5: Use a Torchlight to check whether the blower is dirty.
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If your answer is YES (i.e. the blower is dirty, for example the blower shown in the above photo is already quite dirty. As a result, the coolness and air quality of the air conditioner is affected. You would need a general air conditioning cleaning service for your aircon. You can check Citicool’s pricing for general air conditioner cleaning service online.
If your answer if NO (i.e. the blower is not dirty), please proceed to step 6.
Step 6: Check the Cleanliness of the Evaporator coil
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The diagram above shows the evaporator coil. If there are only some dirt on the coil , normal air con servicing is sufficient to remove the dirt. However, if the dirt is very thick or there are Gel (algae) forming up on the coil, air con chemical overhaul is NECESSARY. The reason being you would need chemical solution to remove these stubborn debris as normal detergent would not be as effective.
[Useful Note: Performing aircon chemical overhaul is a very complicated and technical job and it is better to engage a professional to do the job. In a proper chemical overhaul, the fan coil needs to be removed from the wall and all the parts in the fan coil need to be dismantled for offsite chemical treatment. After the chemical treatment, all the parts need to be thoroughly flush with clean water. This is done to remove all the debris and chemical solution. Some company perform this procedure onsite which is improper because any chemical trapped within the fan coil is difficult to rinse off onsite. Chemical trapped in your aircon fan coil can cause corrosion and reduce the lifespan of your aircon fan coil. So, never try to save money by going for cheap but onsite chemical wash. CitiCool’s website has a number of educational articles and videos relating to aircon chemical wash/overhaul. You can refer to the following link for more information in this area. There are different types of videos available in this link.
Educational content relating the aircon chemical wash/overhaul/cleaning
Step 7: Check adequacy of refrigerant in the air conditioning system
Feel the coldness of the internal coil to determine the adequacy of refrigerant in your air conditioning system. Use your hand to feel if the internal coil is cold or not.
If the air conditioning system is fully charge, the entire coil should be cold. If the air conditioning system is not fully charge, certain part of the coil is cold but certain part may not be cold due to insufficient refrigerant level. In this case topping up of refrigerant would be necessary.
[ Useful Note: If your refrigerant is low, there could be a leakage somewhere. You need to engage an air conditioning service company to check where is the leakage area and seal up the area to prevent further leakage. Read our article relating to topping up of refrigerant for more knowledge in this area.
Educational Content relating to topping up of aircon refrigerant.
Why does CitiCool recommend the 7 steps DIY aircon checking and solution?
My boss has been performing troubleshooting on aircon problems in his entire career in the air conditioning service industry. According to him, the most common air conditioner problem is either one of the followings:
- air con not cold at all;
- air con not cold enough; or
- air con taking a very long time to cool the room.
Each time a customer call up with the above problem, I noticed that my boss spent a lot of time directing his customers to do the above DIY check over the phone. He told me that if customers have some basic knowledge, they may be able to rectify the problem by themselves. If the problem is a small problem, there is really no need for them to call in any air conditioning service vendor. If someone can solve the problem immediately on their own, they can get cold air immediately. They don’t have to bear with the hot weather while waiting for external help. They also no need to spend unnecessary money. I told my boss, instead of advising our customers over the phone, why don’t we take picture and show them exactly what to do. Seeing a picture is better and faster than listening to or reading a thousand words. To save his time explaining to customers whose aircon is not cold, he volunteered to post for me to take picture to show people how to do the checking. We hope doing so not only can save everyone’s time but can also benefit more air conditioning users. Most importantly, we can accomplish our mission of service quality too.
If you have been following CitiCool’s website and social media, you would note that we have been conscientiously providing lots of educational contents online. Our purpose is to help aircon users to have a better knowledge before engaging on any air conditioning services. If you have benefited from any of our educational contents on CitiCool’s website, Facebook, Google Plus or Twitter etc, kindly help to us to click like, share or follow. Your kindness will help us to reach out to more people having the same aircon problem. You may help more people save their time, money and effort. Also, if people have these basic knowledge, it will be difficult for air conditioning service company to cheat on them as they would know what kind of air conditioning services is required their aircon problem.
Other Educational Tips to read before engaging an Air Conditioning Service Company
Some other contents relating to air conditioning problems and solutions that you may like to follow:
Educational Content showing Causes, Tips and Solutions for Aircon Problems
Educational Content showing Best Practices for Aircon Chemical Wash
Educational Content showing the difference between Aircon General Servicing and Chemical Wash
For more educational articles, kindly refer to our article page for different educational articles relating air conditioning service and solutions for your aircon problems.
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