Aircon repairs
Not cooling. Dripping water. Tripping the DB board. Making a noise it never used to make. We arrive with the four parts that fail most often already on the van — which is why most repairs finish on the first visit.
2–3 hours on siteTypical repair turnaround
Quoted before we startYou approve, then we work
2-year guaranteeOn the repair we performed
Overview
After 5 000-odd jobs, the pattern is boringly consistent. The overwhelming majority of aircon breakdowns in Johannesburg homes come down to one of four things: refrigerant that has escaped through a leak, a capacitor that has failed, a coil or filter so clogged the unit can't move air across it, or a fan motor on its way out.
That's useful to know, because it means we can carry all four on the vehicle. When a technician has to say "I'll order the part and come back next week", it's usually because the company didn't invest in stock — not because your fault was exotic.
The fifth possibility is a failed compressor, and that one is different. It's the expensive one, and on an older unit it's often the end of the road. If that's what you're facing, we'll tell you plainly rather than quoting you for a repair that costs two-thirds of a new machine.
In detail
You don't need to diagnose it yourself. But it helps to know what we'll be looking for when we arrive.
Refrigerant is the usual culprit — and an aircon doesn't consume gas, so if it's low, it's leaking. The second suspect is the capacitor, a component that gives the compressor the kick it needs to start. A failed one leaves the fan spinning happily while the compressor never engages. The third is airflow: a coil buried under a season's worth of dust simply cannot transfer heat.
A split unit produces a surprising amount of condensate, and it all leaves through one small drain line. Dust and algae build up inside that pipe, the water backs up into the drip tray, the tray overflows, and it runs into your room. It's one of the cheapest repairs we do — and one of the most expensive to ignore, because ceilings and skirting don't recover.
A rattle is usually a loose cover or a fan blade catching. A grinding or screeching noise is a bearing in the fan motor. A hiss can be gas escaping. A hum with no start is very often the capacitor again. Noise is diagnostic — record it on your phone if you can, because faults love to go quiet the moment a technician walks in.
Repeatedly resetting a tripping circuit is the worst thing you can do. Tripping is an electrical fault announcing itself — a shorted compressor winding, a failing capacitor, or genuine earth leakage. Switch it off at the isolator and phone us before you damage something more expensive.
Benefits
Anyone can make an aircon blow cold for a fortnight. The difference is whether it's still cold in a year.
01
If the gas is low we find out why it's low. Topping up a leaking system is a way of charging you twice for the same fault — and we'd rather find the flare, the coil pinhole or the schrader valve that's letting it out.
02
Capacitors, contactors, fan motors, gas and drain-clearing equipment are on the van. The parts that account for most breakdowns don't need ordering.
03
We diagnose, we explain, we hand you a written number. If you'd rather not proceed, you don't — and nothing further is owed.
04
Anyone opening a refrigerant circuit must be SAQCC registered. Unregistered work can void the manufacturer's warranty on the unit you're trying to save.
05
If the repair fails for the same reason, we come back and we don't charge you again. That's on the job card, not just on this page.
06
Sometimes the right answer is 'this unit isn't worth the money'. We'll say so, even though the sentence costs us the job.
What's included
Same process whether it's a bedroom split unit or a restaurant's kitchen system.
Full on-site diagnosisElectrical, refrigerant pressure and airflow all checked
A written fixed quoteHanded to you before any work begins
Common spares on the vehicleCapacitors, contactors, fan motors, gas
Drain line clearingWhere a leak is the fault we've found
Post-repair performance testRun with you present, temperatures verified
A 2-year workmanship guaranteeIn writing, on your job card
Why us for this
Aircon repair is the part of this trade where customers get hurt most often — because you can't see what was done, and the failure shows up months later when the person who did it is unreachable.
The most common damage we're called in to undo is a unit that's been "gassed up" repeatedly by a company that never looked for the leak. Each top-up costs money, vents refrigerant into the atmosphere, and leaves the underlying hole exactly where it was.
We look for the leakRather than selling you a top-up every summer
The quoting technician does the workNo brokered leads, no strangers at your door
Plain-language explanationWe'll show you the failed part and tell you what killed it
Same-day in most casesAnd an honest answer when it can't be
Our process
Most repairs are done inside a single visit of two to three hours.
01
Phone, WhatsApp or the form. Tell us what it's doing in your own words — warm air, water, noise, tripping.
02
A two-hour slot, by SMS, with the technician's name. Not a vague promise of 'Tuesday'.
03
We test the electricals, the gas pressure and the airflow, then hand you a fixed written price.
04
We fix it, run it with you watching, hand over the paperwork and take the old parts away.
Phoned at 8am with an aircon that had stopped cooling. Someone was here by 11 and it was fixed by one. They found a leak the previous company had just gassed over twice.
FAQs
The things people ask while we're still on the phone.
Phone us, or send a photo of the unit on WhatsApp. We answer questions without charging for the privilege.
Ask us a questionIt depends entirely on the fault, which is why we diagnose before we quote rather than guessing over the phone. A blocked drain line is one of the cheapest jobs we do. A capacitor is inexpensive. A fan motor is mid-range. A compressor is expensive enough that on an older unit we'll usually advise replacement instead. You'll have a fixed written number before anything is touched.
Yes — the fee covers the technician's time and the diagnosis. It's quoted to you before we dispatch, so there are no surprises, and it's not discovered at the end of the visit.
In most cases, yes. The four faults behind the majority of breakdowns are all things we carry on the vehicle. Where a part has to be ordered in, we'll tell you honestly on the day and give you a date rather than a shrug.
No. A sealed refrigerant circuit does not consume gas. If it needs regassing annually, it has a leak, and the company topping it up is charging you for the same fault repeatedly. See our regassing and leak repair page.
Our rule of thumb: if the repair costs more than about half the price of a new inverter unit, and the machine is over ten years old, replace it. A new inverter also uses meaningfully less electricity, so the sums usually favour replacement sooner than people expect. We'll tell you which side of the line you're on.
Samsung, LG, Alliance, Hisense, Midea, Daikin, Carrier, Gree and most others. Parts availability varies by brand and age, and we'll tell you upfront if yours is likely to be a problem.
Related services
Next step
Tell us the symptom and we'll tell you what it's likely to be. Fixed price before we start, two-year guarantee after we finish.
Fixed pricing · Same-day callouts across Johannesburg and the wider Gauteng
Contact
Breakdowns get priority. Phone us and you'll speak to someone who can tell you honestly whether we can reach you today.
