It's 36 degrees, the westerly's blowing and the air conditioner has picked today to quit. Try the three safe checks below first, because one of them fixes it more often than you'd think. If it's still not right, ring us: breakdown calls are answered seven days a week.
NSW air conditioning and refrigeration Lic. 000000C (demo)
ARC refrigerant trading authorisation AU00000 (demo)
Unit was blowing warm and dripping inside. They found the drain line blocked and a low charge from a leaking flare joint, fixed both, and explained it all without the jargon.
Sample review · Stillwind Air is a fictional business
23What's involved
Most of our air conditioner repair calls come in on the first hot week of the year, when a unit that sat idle all winter is asked to work flat out. Some need a part. A surprising number need nothing more than a setting changed or a filter washed. So before you book a call-out, it's worth five minutes with the remote and the manual.
We repair split systems and ducted systems across Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Maitland, Cessnock and Singleton, most major brands, with three ARC-licensed technicians in white vans.
None of these need a tool or a cover taken off. Please leave the covers on: there's live wiring and refrigerant under pressure behind them.
Check the remote shows cool (usually a snowflake), not fan, dry or auto, and that the set temperature is below the room temperature. Swap the batteries if the screen is faint. If someone has used the timer, the unit might be waiting to switch itself on.
Lift the front panel of the indoor head the way your manual shows and slide out the mesh filters. If they're grey and furry, wash them in warm water, let them dry completely and refit them. A blocked filter is the most common cause of a unit that runs but barely cools, and of ice forming on the coil. Our air conditioning service page has the full step list.
Most outdoor units have an isolator switch on the wall beside them. Check it's on. Then check the switchboard: if the circuit breaker labelled for the air conditioner has tripped, reset it once. If it trips again, leave it off and ring us. A breaker that trips twice is telling you something is wrong, and resetting it a third time won't fix it.
When the checks above haven't helped and the air conditioner is not cooling, these are the faults we find most often:
An air conditioner blowing warm air in cooling mode usually points to the outdoor unit. If the compressor has stopped, the indoor fan just moves warm air around the room. Check the mode first, since heat and auto both blow warm. In winter, reverse cycle units in heating mode stop every so often to defrost the outdoor coil, and you may see steam off it and feel no warm air for a few minutes. That's normal. Warm air on cool mode, on a hot day, isn't.
Every unit makes some noise, so the question is whether it's a new one. Rattles are often a loose panel or something touching the outdoor fan. A high squeal can be a fan motor bearing. Gurgling is usually the drain or refrigerant moving and is mostly harmless, while a hiss that doesn't stop can be a leak. Clicking that repeats every few minutes can mean the unit is cycling on and off. Note when it happens and what it sounds like, as it helps us work out the fault before we arrive. If a noise is followed by a burning smell, switch the unit off at the isolator and ring us.
Found and priced
before we fix it.
Ice on the pipes or on the indoor coil means the coil is running too cold. The usual reasons are not enough air across it, from a blocked filter or a failing indoor fan, or a low refrigerant charge. Turn the unit off, put a towel under it, and let the ice melt by itself. Don't chip or scrape it, and don't aim a hair dryer at it: the fins wrap around pressurised pipes. Once it's thawed, clean the filters and try again. If the ice comes back within a day or two, it needs a technician.
Ducted air conditioning repairs start at the controller, because most ducted systems show an error code that points at the faulty part. Common ones are a zone damper motor that has stopped, so one area won't cool; a controller that has lost contact with the unit; a blocked drain tray in the roof; and a duct that has split or dropped off its outlet, cooling the roof space instead of the room. Tell us the code when you ring.
Water running down the wall under an indoor head is usually a blocked drain line or a dirty coil, and it's a common call in a humid Newcastle summer. Switch the unit off and catch the drip while you wait. Our post on an air conditioner leaking water covers the causes and what you can check yourself.
We give you a straight answer. A single failed part on a unit under about ten years old is usually worth fixing. A failed compressor or a coil rotted through by salt on an older unit often isn't, because the repair costs a large share of a new system. Units that run on R22 have another problem: bulk imports of that refrigerant are banned in Australia from 1 January 2030, and after that a regas relies on reclaimed gas, which is likely to cost more. When it's close, we give you the repair price and a replacement price side by side, and our split system installation page covers what replacement involves.
Our call-out fee is $140 in business hours and $220 after hours and on weekends. It covers getting to you and the first half hour of fault-finding, which is long enough to find most faults. Parts and any further labour are priced before we start, and you decide whether to go ahead. Ring (02) 5550 2240: breakdown calls are answered seven days a week.
36Hot house right now?
Tell us the brand, what it's doing and any error code, and we'll often know what to bring before we leave Mayfield.
23Questions
The most common causes are a clogged filter, the unit set to fan or dry mode instead of cool, or an outdoor unit that has stopped while the indoor fan keeps going. Low refrigerant is the next most likely, and that always means a leak somewhere. Check the mode and the filters first, and if the outdoor fan isn't spinning, ring us.
Our call-out fee is $140 in business hours and $220 after hours and on weekends. It covers getting to you and the first half hour of fault-finding, which is enough to find most faults. If the repair needs a part or more time, we tell you the price before we start.
Repair usually makes sense when the unit is under about ten years old and the fault is a single part, such as a fan motor, a sensor or a capacitor. Replacement starts to make more sense when the compressor has failed, the coil is corroded through, or the unit runs on R22, whose bulk import is banned in Australia from 2030. We give you both prices when it's close, and you choose.
Ice on the pipes or the indoor coil usually means not enough air is moving across the coil, often from a blocked filter, or that the refrigerant is low. Turn the unit off and let the ice melt on its own, and don't chip at it, because the fins and pipes are easy to puncture. If the ice comes back after a filter clean, it needs a technician.
Turning it off at the isolator or the power point for a few minutes, then back on, clears some faults, and many units show an error code you can look up in the manual. If the circuit breaker for the air conditioner has tripped, reset it once. If it trips again, leave it off and ring us, because something is drawing more current than it should.
Yes. Ducted faults we fix most often are failed zone motors, controllers that have lost contact with the unit, blocked drains in the roof, and ducts that have split or come loose. Tell us what the controller is showing when you ring, as the error code often points straight at the part.
23Got a job?
Breakdown call-out: $140 in business hours, $220 after hours and on weekends, including the first half hour. Install quotes are free.
