Air-con problem

Hi,I have someone staying in my place who says after about half an hour water starts dripping from one of the air-con units..

Has anyone else had that problem?I'm hoping just condensation.

An easy fix or one for an expert??

Ta,John

 

Probably is low on refrigerant and needs re-gassing ???

hiya,  yes we get the same problem when we first arrive,we have found that running the aircon unit at around 22-23 degrees for around an hour tends to sort it out, Apparently we have been informed that its something to do with running it too cold when its first started up.

Hope this helps

Sounds like a blocked drainage pipe from the wall unit. Either needs clearing or a vent putting in to aid drainage as some of the pipes when fitted by Polaris were at the wrong angle and don't allow gravitational drainage of the water caused by condensation. Not expensive but sounds worse than it really is. Jf

Hi all,thanks for the replies.

Will try the solution re running at a lower temperature for a while,sounds reasonable..

Faulky,where would the water drain to via the pipe??I guess it must be condensation of some description but do the pipes go right the way outside??

 

Ta

 

John 

Yes, if you were to remove the whole box off the wall you would be left with a white plastic pipe that disappears into the wall structure. The bit of plastic pipe that you can see will either need clearing of a blockage (unlikely) but more likely a little plastic vent needs inserting that will break the vacuum that is creating the blockage by not allowing the water to drain away.

The pipe will be linked to your main drains which all merge in your bathroom where the stainless plate sits on the floor. That's there for rodding if you get a blockage.

Ay air con installer like Apollo would fix this in seconds. Probably worth booking a service and they would do this at the same time. Jf

Thanks again.

Further to this,has anyone had a service done recently??What type of price?Is there a wait to have one done?

 

Ta

John

I've never had a service done yet after nearly 4 years use as air con units shouldn't need too much meddling with if they are only used periodically. The main issue would be a re gassing if performance is a problem.

I will be arranging a service soon as my filters will need cleaning and would expect to pay around 100 to 150 euros for a proper engineer to do all three internal units and the roof top inverter and include re gassing if required. Any more too expensive and any less I would be doubting the credentials of those carrying out the work. Cost will also be determined if you can slot in the visit to your property when the engineer is on site anyway as most seem to be based nearer to Alicante.

Remember, in the early days of CDA there were a lot of jobbing plumbers and builders from the UK who were trying to make a quick buck by installing air con with no actual training or experience in that line of work. Some of those systems are the ones that will cause problems to owners now. JF

Regardless of the amount of use an AC unit should be checked and serviced on a regular basis becuae if they are allowd to run with blocked filters or if they are ow on gas it can then really cost you money

When a unit gets low on gas the unit has to work much harder, you cam normally tell because the air that is coming out of the main roof top unit is not hot, and of course the air from the romm units is not cold

To re-gas a unit can cost anithing from €60 - €150 depending on the amount of gas, the weight of gas required to be replaced but if it is very low there is a good chance that there is a leak in the system but nowadays only certian engineers can get access to the correct gas

A good engineer will first test this with a temperature probe as all AC units have operating specifications before testing gas levels and a typical service for a 3 bed unit should be around €60 depending on the units installed

An engineer that specialises in installations may not be the best person for servicing and repairs, I use 2 different companies Apollo Air for installations and a Spanish specialist for repairs and servicing