Air Conditioning Repair Plymouth
Air conditioning repair in Plymouth for homes and businesses. HPE Airflow SW Ltd repairs systems whoever installed them, whatever the make. F-Gas certified for refrigerant work and NICEIC Approved for the electrical side, which between them cover almost every fault an air conditioning system can develop.
Our hours run to 8pm on weekdays and cover both weekend days, because equipment tends to fail at the point you are relying on it.
What usually goes wrong
Blowing but not cooling. Most often low refrigerant, which means there is a leak somewhere. Topping it up without finding the leak is not a repair, it is a delay, and it is poor practice with refrigerant. We trace the leak, fix it, then recharge.
Water dripping from the indoor unit. Almost always a blocked condensate drain. Cheap to put right, and worth doing quickly before it stains a ceiling or reaches something electrical.
Ice on the pipework or coil. Restricted airflow or low refrigerant. Often the underlying cause is simply a filter that has never been cleaned.
New noises. Rattles and grinding usually mean a fan bearing. A change in the compressor note is more serious and worth looking at early.
Dead unit. Sometimes electrical supply rather than the equipment. Because we hold NICEIC Approved Contractor status, we can investigate and put right the supply as well as the unit, which saves a second contractor.
Smells. Usually microbial growth on a coil or in a drain tray. Unpleasant, and a proper clean is the answer rather than an air freshener.
Refrigerant leaks and why topping up is not a repair
If your air conditioning is blowing warm air, there is a fair chance somebody has told you it needs re-gassing. It is worth understanding what that actually means.
A refrigeration circuit is sealed. Unlike fuel in a car, refrigerant is not consumed. If the charge is low, it has escaped, and it has escaped through a leak that will still be there tomorrow. Simply adding more refrigerant means the same fault in a few months, another bill, and another quantity of refrigerant released into the atmosphere.
It is also, on systems above a certain charge size, against the law to knowingly top up a leaking system without repairing the leak. The F-Gas regulations exist precisely because these refrigerants are potent greenhouse gases.
A proper repair means finding the leak first, usually with electronic detection, nitrogen pressure testing or an ultraviolet tracer depending on the system. Common culprits are the flare joints at the indoor unit, damage to the interconnecting pipework, and corrosion on the outdoor coil, which is far more common on properties near the sea around Looe and the South Hams.
Once the leak is repaired the system is evacuated properly and weighed in to the manufacturer’s stated charge, not guessed at by pressure. We are F-Gas certified, register number 2000776, and we record what we do.
Faults that turn out not to be faults
A fair proportion of the call outs we attend are not equipment failures at all, and it is worth checking these before you pay anybody to visit.
Filters. Blocked filters are behind more poor performance complaints than every genuine fault combined. They clip out, rinse under a tap, dry and go back. Doing that every couple of months in a system that runs regularly will save you money and extend the life of the unit.
The system will not run at all. Check the isolator has not been switched off, and check the batteries in the handset. Both sound too obvious to mention and both account for visits we have attended.
It runs but the room is not cooling. If the filters are clean, look at the outdoor unit. If it is boxed in, buried behind a shrub that has grown over it, or blocked with leaves, it cannot reject heat and the system cannot cool.
It is dripping. Usually a blocked condensate drain rather than a refrigerant problem. Sometimes clearable, sometimes not.
It smells musty on start up. That is the drain pan and coil needing cleaning, which is a service rather than a repair.
Where it genuinely is a fault, we will find it. We would just rather not charge you for a visit to press a switch, and we will happily talk you through the checks on the phone first.
Faults that turn out to be installation errors
A noticeable share of the systems we are called to have never worked properly, because they were not installed properly. That is a different conversation to a breakdown.
The recurring causes are incorrect refrigerant charge from the outset, pipework runs beyond the manufacturer’s limit, an outdoor unit crammed somewhere with no airflow, a condensate drain with no fall, and equipment sized for a room considerably smaller than the one it is in.
Where that is what we find, we will tell you plainly, including when the honest answer is that a repair only papers over the problem. It is better to hear that than to pay for the same call-out twice a year.
Repair or replace
We will give you a straight answer rather than steering you towards new equipment.
Most faults are worth repairing. Drains, filters, fans, sensors, controls and leaks on accessible pipework are all straightforward. A failed compressor on an older system is where the sums change, because it is the most expensive component in the unit.
The other factor is refrigerant type. Some older systems use refrigerants that are now restricted, which makes recharging them progressively harder and more expensive. If yours is one of those, we will tell you, because it affects whether spending money on it makes sense.
If replacement genuinely is the better answer, see air conditioning installation.
Commercial repairs
For businesses, a failure is lost trade rather than discomfort. We work early mornings, evenings and weekends so repairs can happen outside opening hours where that matters.
We cover commercial systems including multi-splits and ceiling cassettes, and server room cooling, where a fault is an urgent matter rather than a comfort one.
Avoiding the next one
Most of what we repair could have been caught on a service. Filters, drains and refrigerant charge are exactly what a service visit checks.
Annual air conditioning servicing is considerably cheaper than a summer breakdown. Near the coast, around Looe or Kingsbridge, we shorten the interval because salt air corrodes outdoor coils faster than most people expect.
My air conditioning is blowing warm air. What is wrong?
Usually low refrigerant, which means there is a leak. It can also be a failed capacitor, a fan that has stopped, or a blocked coil. We find the cause rather than simply adding gas, because a topped up system with an unrepaired leak fails again within months.
Can you just re-gas it?
Not on its own. A refrigeration circuit is sealed, so if the charge is low it has escaped and will escape again. On systems above a certain charge size it is also against the law to knowingly top up a leaking system without repairing the leak. We locate the leak first, repair it, then weigh in the correct charge.
Do you repair systems you did not install?
Yes, any make. A good share of what we attend was installed by somebody else, and a fair proportion of those turn out to be design or setup problems rather than equipment failures.
How quickly can you come out?
We aim to attend quickly across Plymouth and the surrounding area, and for commercial premises we work early mornings, evenings and weekends so a repair does not cost you a trading day. Call 07789 373208 and tell us the make and what it is doing.
Is it worth repairing or should I replace it?
Most faults are worth repairing and we will say so. Replacement makes more sense where the compressor has failed on an older unit, where the refrigerant is being phased down and is getting expensive, or where the system was undersized from the start and has never worked properly.
Are you qualified to handle refrigerant?
Yes. F-Gas certified, register number 2000776, which is a legal requirement for refrigerant work. We are also NICEIC approved for the electrical side, so a fault involving the supply does not need a second contractor.