Need some advice on air-con here.

[Fai]

Hi. I'm not an electronic engineer of any kind, but I just wanna know a few things.... Please help!

Yesterday I had my air-con checked and the air-con serviceman told me that my capacitor is spoilt and I've to change a new one, promising that my air-con would work right after he changes it, for $180(Singapore dollars). I know nothing about air-conditioning so I let him do it.

The air-con blew air after he changed the capacitor. Problem is, the air was not cold. He tells me that I've got fungus or something inside and it will require cleaning using special chemicals and etc which would cost me another SGD$80 per unit. I feel cheated!

How much does a Capacitor for an Daikin Air-conditioner cost? And do I really need to have them wash my aircon with chemicals for $80?

Please help me... Thank you.

[Peter_1]

There is not such a thing as a 'capacitor for a Daikin'
A capacitor is a capacitor.
What value? Labour work to replace it?
Fungus is indeed possible aand can indeed only be cleaned with special chemicals. If you don' t do it, that's up to you.
But why isn't it blowing cold air after the cap replacement? Fungus has nothing to do with this.
Did you day this to the tech?

[piston broke]

I agree, fungus or bacteria won't stop it cooling.

Capacitors don't cost much, about £10 maybe. Sounds like there is something wrong with the refrigeration circuit or control circuit to bring the compressor on. This may turn out to be expensive.

He should have checked it was fully fuctioning before leaving it. Was it cooling when he left? If it wasn't, why pay him?

I say get a second opinion and come back and tell us what they say before parting with too much more money.

PIST

[Fai]

sadly, i've already departed from my money. This sucks... I can't go get my money back now, can't I? So this fungus thingy has no effect on cooling? hmmm... then what can I do to detect the major problem?

Now that I've had it on for 5 hours, it seems that it can blow cold air out, just that it takes very long to cool the room.

[Fai]

but anyway, thanks for your help. Many cheating repairmen around here. Had a bad repairman who tried to insist that I'd need to change a lot of parts for my washing machine, which is totally untrue when I got it checked from the official company serviceman.

They give me so much crappy excuses to increase the price. What can I do against such people anyway -_-?

[piston broke]

the world is full of evil people trying to get your money.

look on the bright side. You have a roof over your head, a job, a washing machine and air conditioning (even though its a bit slow).

Things could be a lot worse.

PIST

[botrous]

Well capacitors cost in Leb between 2 USD and 10 USD average , sure fungus will not stop the cooling , but treating that is very important , so try to get rid of it as soon as possible ..... check for the refrigeration charge and if there is any leak in the system....

[Temprite]

There is not such a thing as a 'capacitor for a Daikin'
A capacitor is a capacitor.

Hello Peter.
Above statement is true.
But you can always buy one from Daikin at three times the price of your normal wholesaler.

Capacitor for Daikin 2.5 hp non inverter 46uf.Cost from normal wholesaler about $15 Aus.

[piston broke]

Here's an idea. Why not tell the person who attended to your a/c to view this site and this thread and give him a chance to defend himself.

We are only hearing one side of the story. Maybe you have misunderstood him.

I agree if there is bacteria on your coil it should be treated.

PIST

[frank]

It would be nice to know if the unit was cooling before he "serviced" it. What exactly did the "service" consist of? We always spray chemicals on the evaporator during a service visit to kill any bacteria as part of the normal routine.

How do singapore dollars relate to UK pounds? is $180 expensive?

[Fai]

I'd consider it as very expensive over here. I'm quite sure I can get it done at SGD$120 instead...now that i've actually checked around.

Anyway, the air-con was totally unable to work. Before it stopped working, there was barely any cool air. So when he checked it, he says that he needs to change the capacitor for $180 and it'll make it work. So I agreed and when its out, it blows cool air, but a very small amount of it and its not enough to cool the room.