Air-Conditioning

Dollars and Sense's July 2026 price guide puts general servicing at about S$50 to S$70 for one unit, rising to about S$110 to S$150 for five units, a non-dismantle chemical wash at about S$80 to S$130 per unit, a chemical overhaul at about S$150 to S$220 per unit and a gas top-up at about S$80 to S$180, depending on the gas and how much is needed. Those are the guide's ranges, not a quote for your units. A landed home's bill can be higher when outdoor units are reached by ladder or from a roof, when ducted units are serviced through ceiling access panels, or when a leak has to be found and fixed before any gas goes in.

Daikin recommends a service every three months for a unit used every day, and Mitsubishi Electric also recommends quarterly servicing. For lighter use, Dollars and Sense's July 2026 guide suggests every 6 to 12 months. In a landed home that can mean bedrooms used every night on a three-month cycle and a guest room on a longer one.

Watch for water dripping from the indoor unit, a bad smell, a noisy fan or weak airflow. Daikin and Mitsubishi Electric both trace indoor leaks to a blocked drain pipe and noise to a dirty fan. Mitsubishi Electric adds that a bad smell can come from mould on the coil and drain pan and weak airflow from a choked coil or dirty fan, and a general service cleans each of these. Note what you see from the floor and leave covers closed. If water keeps dripping after a clean, the drain route itself may be the problem, which our article on planning the aircon drain route explains.

Daikin says skipping servicing lowers the unit's performance and cooling efficiency, clogs the cooling coil and fan rotor, can cause water leaks and shortens its life. Mitsubishi Electric also links regular servicing to fewer leaks and a longer life. Where it stops paying off is a fault that returns after every clean, because the same service again won't fix a leak or a failing part. Ask for the cause to be found instead.

No. A chemical wash, which Daikin describes as using chemical to remove stubborn dust and grime that chokes the cooling coil and drain pipe, goes further than a general service. Daikin's sign that one may be due is when you stop feeling cool air, and a technician then checks whether a chemical flush or steam cleaning is needed; a fan coil coated in ice needs a chemical flush. Daikin advises against doing it yourself because its chemical flush involves dismantling parts of the indoor unit.

Daikin's list of causes runs from simple ones, such as a dirty filter, something blocking the indoor or outdoor unit, the temperature set too high or windows and doors left open, to faulty parts. If gas is the problem, Mitsubishi Electric says the unit was either undercharged at installation or is leaking, and a leak needs a pressure test to find it, a repair and then the correct amount of gas. A top-up alone leaves the leak. Our article on aircon that is still not cold after servicing goes through what the technician should check.

Look for things you can check rather than a ranking. BCA asks owners to make sure installation or retrofitting is done by a trained air-conditioning unit installer who has an identification pass and is registered with BCA, publishes a list of trained installers, and asks for a trained installer to inspect outdoor-unit supports during routine servicing. For R32 units, Mitsubishi Electric keeps a list of firms trained on R32 equipment and asks firms that want to be listed for ITE certificates in installing and commissioning R32 split units and in R32 safety. Then compare written quotes that list each unit and the work on it, and that say extra repairs wait for your OK.

Dollars and Sense's July 2026 price guide gives typical ranges with installation of about S$1,100 to S$1,800 for a System 1 (one indoor unit) and about S$5,600 to S$7,000 for a System 5, sized around bedrooms and HDB flats. The same guide says brand, cooling capacity and energy rating move the price, that longer piping, extra trunking and harder access to the outdoor unit's ledge cost more, and that installation included in a package may leave out piping, brackets or trunking. A landed home can add longer pipe runs between floors, outdoor units on a roof or high wall and, for ducted units, ceiling work. Our aircon quotation check shows how to compare quotes line by line.

Yes, if the pipes and drains are to be hidden. Concealed refrigerant pipes and condensate drains run through ceilings and walls, so planning them before the ceilings close avoids opening finished work later. Installing into a finished house is still possible, but it can mean visible trunking or opening and making good a ceiling. Our article on planning the aircon drain route during a renovation covers where the water goes and how to keep the drain reachable.

There isn't one figure that fits every job. A new unit swapped onto suitable existing pipes is a far smaller job than a new ducted system across several floors with ceilings opened and made good, so the timing is set after the site check, together with when the equipment arrives and how the work fits around any renovation.

It comes down to the room and its ceiling, which our aircon buying guide for landed homes works through, along with whether existing pipes can be kept. For servicing, a wall-mounted unit is cleaned in the room, while a ducted unit is reached through an access panel in the ceiling.