Aircon Gas By Price Or Centimetre?

[pattayadingo]

3 differnt quotes over the phone to gas a panasonic aircon unit.

500 Baht

400 Baht

And by the centimetre - but no unit cost at all.

I do not object to the 400 Baht to come out and do the job but never in the past been quoted by the centimetre.

As I have no idea how much per centimetre or how many, I am curious if this is like, 'how long is a piece of string?' type cost or is / does it tend to be cheaper this way?

[ksamuiguy]

Refrigerators, A/C are sealed units and should never need to have Freon gas added.

They need to find and repair the leak first.

Freon is sold by weight, the gas cylinder is weighted before and after the gas is added.

Some do have a set price for the gas, depending on the size and distance from the condenser to the evaporator (inside unit).

Service call plus Freon is the usual way to charge.

900 service charge plus Freon.(expensive sold by the Kg.)

If done correctly once it should never need "gas" again. Just so you know Freon is expensive and is a pain to obtain, time lost plus petrol to go get the gas.

[Naam]

Service call plus Freon is the usual way to charge.

900 service charge plus Freon.(expensive sold by the Kg.)

only if the service company's mainstream business is highway robbery

Some do have a set price for the gas, depending on the size

and distance from the condenser to the evaporator (inside unit).

the main factor is not piping size/distance but the size of the unit.

[pattayadingo]

900 is expensive. I've had a few done in the past and never been quoted anywhere near that amount.

But I have never been quoted for - I presume - cubic centimetres. That is what I find odd. I'd rather know what i am going to be paying up front - where possible - to minimise being ripped off at all at the end of the job (any job) of work.

I presume the guy was going to wait and see how much gas he used, but he is now not going to get the job because I have no idea what the eventual cost might be.

[BlackPuddingBertha]

A fridge is a factory-sealed unit but split aircon certainly is not. It has various pipes and connections, some of which are screw-threaded. There may be perfectly normal slight leakage over time and the gas (R410, not Freon which was banned many years ago) may need to be topped-up. There may also be much greater leakage if a pipe splits etc, and obviously that would require a repair, followed by the air being sucked out and the system refilled with refrigerant.

The regular 400B service should include a small gas top-up if needed, but if a lot of gas is required (following a repair, for example, or if a screw connector came loose) then one would expect to pay extra for it and it would be charged for by weight which also equates to a volume (in centilitres). One would also expect to pay a bit extra for the time involved in emptying the system of air as this can take a while.

[thunder30101]

Way wrong ^ All refrigeration systems are sealed once installed. (You think manufacturers build them to leak ???) Lets talk refrigerant not freon, the majority of existing units in use in thailand (home units) use r-22 which is not banned in thailand, some countries have banned the manufacture of new supplies meaning you just have to recycle your old gas to use it. Yes there are flare type fittings but if they are leaking its not normal or acceptable. Find the leak using a spray bottle with soapy water or spray kitchen cleaner, try to tighten it, if that doesnt work cut the fitting off re-flare the pipe and leak solved. They will prob just charge what they think they can get from you to recharge your unit without finding your leak. My house had a leaky unit, checked all the fittings and found the schrader fill valve seal had failed causing the leakage replaced it and went to do home and bought my own gauges and a 13KG tank of R-22 for about 2200B. Just remember if your unit does use 400 series gas you CAN NOT use r-12-22-134a gauge sets as 400 series gases run at higher pressures than the older series gases. My 13K btu unit uses 654 grams of r-22 so i can fill many systems for that money spent.

[BlackPuddingBertha]

Way wrong ^ All refrigeration systems are sealed once installed. (You think manufacturers build them to leak ???)

Not way wrong at all. As I said, split aircons are not sealed when they come from the factory. The installer has to add the pipes between the two units first, then empty the system and then put the gas in. And various screw connections remain afterwards. Fridge compressors leave the factory sealed, finished and ready to run.

I didnt know that Thailand sold new units using the old R22 gas (and I'm a bit surprised they do), but it makes no practical difference to the way it works. I had R22 and R410 units back in Europe and they were serviced exactly the same way by the same person at the same time, though with different fittings and different gas, of course. Over the years I had one unit that used to lose a little gas over a few years (never found out why) and one other unit where the side of one metal screw connector split, and that required a replacement part to be fitted and a complete refill of gas.