Aircon Installation in Cape Town and Gqeberha

Why a good installation matters as much as the brand

Most people spend weeks choosing an aircon and about five minutes choosing who installs it. That is backwards. A mid-range unit installed properly will usually outperform and outlast an expensive unit that was installed badly. The installation decides how much gas is in the system, whether moisture and air were removed from the pipes, how hard the compressor has to work, whether water drains outside or down your wall, and whether the outdoor unit can breathe.

Along the Eastern Cape coast there is an extra layer: salt air and wind. An outdoor unit bolted to an exposed wall facing the sea in Summerstrand or Aston Bay lives a very different life from one in a sheltered courtyard in Kariega. Part of our job is to plan around that before a single hole is drilled.

What our installation includes

• A site assessment. We look at the room size, ceiling height, windows, sun exposure, the wall where the indoor unit will go and where the outdoor unit can sit. For simple jobs, clear photos on WhatsApp are often enough.
• Correct sizing. We recommend a BTU size based on the actual room, not a guess. Too small and it never cools. Too big and it short-cycles, wastes power and leaves the room clammy.
• A fixed written quote. You know the full price before we start, including brackets, piping, trunking and any extras.
• Neat installation. Level indoor unit, shortest practical pipe run, insulated copper lines, sealed wall penetration and tidy trunking.
• Pressure test and vacuum. We test the pipe joints for leaks and pull a deep vacuum to remove air and moisture before releasing the refrigerant. Skipping this step is one of the most common reasons new units fail early.
• Commissioning and handover. We check cooling and heating, drainage and electrical connections, then show you how to use the remote and clean the filters.

Choosing the right size

Aircons are sold by cooling capacity, usually quoted in BTU. As a rough starting point, small bedrooms often suit a 9,000 BTU unit, larger bedrooms and studies a 12,000 BTU unit, and open-plan living areas 18,000 to 24,000 BTU. But those are only starting points. A west-facing room with big windows under an uninsulated roof can need a full size up. A shaded, well-insulated room can sometimes go a size down.

We take the guesswork out of it by looking at the room. If you already bought a unit, we will tell you honestly whether it suits the space before we install it.

Inverter or fixed speed?

Fixed-speed aircons switch the compressor fully on and fully off to hold the temperature. Inverter aircons slow down and speed up instead. That means:

• Lower electricity use when the unit runs for hours at a time
• Quieter operation, especially at night
• A steadier temperature without blasts of cold air
• Less wear on the compressor from constant stopping and starting
• Better behaviour on backup power systems, because they do not draw a big surge every time they start

For bedrooms, home offices and living areas that are cooled for several hours a day, an inverter is almost always the better buy. Many reverse-cycle inverter units also heat efficiently in winter, which is useful in inland towns like Humansdorp and Kariega.

Installing near the sea

All of our coastal areas deal with salt to some degree, and some suburbs deal with a lot of it. For homes close to the beach we recommend:

• Placing the outdoor unit on the most sheltered side of the house, away from direct spray and the strongest wind
• Using corrosion-resistant or stainless steel brackets and fixings
• Choosing a unit with a coated condenser coil where possible, often sold as blue fin or gold fin
• Leaving room around the unit so it can be rinsed and serviced easily
• Booking a service at least once a year, or every six months right on the seafront

These steps add little to the cost of an installation and can add years to the life of the unit.

Electrical supply

Most standard wall-mounted units can run from a suitable existing plug circuit, but larger units, multiple units or long cable runs may need a dedicated circuit from the distribution board. If new electrical work is needed, it should be done by a registered electrician who can issue a Certificate of Compliance. We will tell you during the quote whether that applies to your job.

Estates, complexes and body corporates

If you live in an estate, a sectional title complex or a security village, there are often rules about where outdoor units may go and what they must look like. Check with your home owners association or body corporate before you book. We are used to working within these guidelines and can send photos of the proposed position for approval.

Areas we cover

We work on split and inverter aircons in two regions. In the Western Cape we cover Cape Town and its suburbs, from Sea Point, Rondebosch and Constantia to Durbanville, Bellville, Blouberg and the South Peninsula, plus the Helderberg, the Cape Winelands, the Breede Valley, the West Coast and the Overberg. In the Eastern Cape we cover Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha), Kariega and Despatch, Jeffreys Bay, Humansdorp, St Francis Bay and Kenton-on-Sea.

In Cape Town we plan installations around the summer south-easter, salt air on the Atlantic Seaboard and False Bay coast, and the hotter summers of the northern suburbs and Winelands. In the Eastern Cape we plan around Gqeberha's wind, beachfront salt and the inland heat of Kariega.