There are so many households in Singapore who are frustrated with the performance of their aircon unit. This is due to the lack of awareness when it comes to maintaining the aircon unit. After all, an aircon unit is a machine. Without proper care and maintenance, it will start to slow down.
If it was used to cool the room within 5 mins, now it will take 10. But if your aircon unit is low on refrigerant then it will run for hours and hardly cool the room. This is because the cooling ability of an aircon unit depends on the refrigerant level of that unit.
If the refrigerant level is full, the aircon’s cooling will be fantastic. If the refrigerant level is medium or lower than that, the cooling will start to get worse.
So what is an aircon refrigerant?
Refrigerant is a chemical that is an integral part of the cooling mechanism of your aircon unit. What the refrigerant does is absorb all the heat in the environment and produce cool air which helps in cooling down the room. The aircon refrigerant works with both the compressor and evaporator in order to create a cooling environment.
There are multiple types of refrigerant used in different scenarios or different aircon units.
- Chlorofluorocarbons
- R22
- R410A
You might be thinking which refrigerant will be applied to my aircon unit? Well, leave that to your technician as that’s what they do as applying the wrong refrigerant might disrupt your air conditioner. You can contact Sibehcool and we will immediately hook you up with an expert technician to answer all your queries.
Let’s look at some of the ways that highlight your refrigerant issues
Is your Air conditioner cooling the room?
When the refrigerant levels in your air conditioner are low, the unit will take a longer time to cool the room temperature. This will also show up on your energy bills as low refrigerant aircons tend to bring higher energy bills.
You should get your refrigerant checked if your unit is acting as above.
Is your cooling line on ice? have a look
Normally, having a low coolant level means low pressure. So, that would mean that your coolant pipe temperature will also be low. This results in lowering the temperature on your evaporator coil.
With the low temperature, the air moisture will start to condense into a freezing coil, leading to ice forming on it. Ice forming on the coil then results in icing the surrounding which eventually leads to ice in your aircon’s cooling pipe.
Do you hear any hissing or bubbling in your aircon unit?
The cooling pipe in your air conditioner works at extremely high pressure to transfer the refrigerant throughout the machine. So, if you hear a bubbling or hissing sound in your aircon unit, this might be because your cooling pipe has broken.
If the answer to any one of the above questions is YES then the air conditioner has a refrigerant problem and would require an immediate refill.
How to refill refrigerant in an aircon unit?
If your aircon unit requires a refrigerant refill, then you should contact a professional aircon technician. They have the relevant equipment and the refrigerant to refill the machine.
Refilling by yourself would be a bad idea if you are an amateur at this because the refrigerant is very harmful to human skin.
So, how often should you refill your aircon refrigerant?
Your aircon does not need a refill until there is a leak in the pipe and if there is one, the refrigerant leaks from there. That said, you never know when there is a leak. You only know when the ac does not cool properly, the cooling pipe is iced, a hissing or bubbling sound gets heard from your unit, or you get high energy bills.
The best routine to monitor your refrigerant levels is by having routine maintenance of your aircon unit via an expert technician. The technician will not only make sure that your air conditioner performs to its optimal condition but they will also check and refill your coolant levels.
Once you have refilled your unit, hopefully, it will not disturb you for another couple of years if the aircon unit is new.
Conclusion
Now that you know what causes a leak and when you require a refrigerant refill, you can easily keep a check on your aircon unit. And whenever you have a similar problem, you know what to do. You can contact us if you are having a refrigerant leak. At Sibehcool, we ensure that our clients get the best service possible. We do not charge extras, you will only be charged for the refrigerant refill.
