Oh man. Another major unexpected expense. It started when I had my air conditioner cleaned. A few hours after the cleaning, my aircon started to make this very loud whirring noise, almost like the fan was hitting something. Shortly after that, my aircon suddenly stopped working. I asked the aircon service company to take a look again the next morning and when they did, they said there was a problem with the compressor. I was in disbelief. My compressor was just replaced about 6 months ago and compressors are supposed to have a lifespan of at least 5 years. The problem for me now was that I had a different aircon service provider install the new compressor. So now, the service provider that cleaned the aircon was saying that fault was with the one that installed the compressor since they must have installed a faulty one but that service provider was saying that the one who cleaned my aircon was at fault. If I had more time and energy (and even money to hire a lawyer), I would probably take one (or both) of these service providers to court but I don't. I decided that replacing the compressor again would be too expensive and risky since the aircon might stop working again after a few months so I instead decided to buy a new aircon.
The challenge now was that the area outside my pad where the condenser (or the half of the split-type aircon that sits outside your house) was a bit too low and not many condensers could fit. I was talking to two aircon contractors and the first one said they could provide a customized aircon that would fit but it would cost about three times a normal split-type aircon. Thankfully, the other contractor was able to find one unit whose condenser would fit. I decided to go with that. The problem then became the indoor unit. The new one was only about 2/3 the length of the original one. This meant that once it was installed, holes in the wall that were needed by the older and longer aircon were now visible. Ugh.
When the contractor said that the new aircon would fit, I thought they meant it would fit both outside and inside. Apparently, they just meant outside. The holes on the wall were pretty big and glaring. Clearly, I needed to have this fixed ASAP.
I called the the engineering department of my building and they said that they could fix the problem and they could even match the paint as closely as possible the paint I currently have. The repair was done in phases. Phase 1 was the application of putty to cover the holes. Thankfully, the handyman actually made my wall look pretty good (even without the paint).
Phase 2 - repainting - came a few days later and thankfully the new paint closely matched the color of the rest of my wall (it's a bit different but because light strikes the different parts of my pad differently, all walls and sections of the room tend to appear having slightly different shades of yellow anyway).
I am happy that my pad now has a new (albeit expensive) aircon. I hope this one lasts just as long as, if not longer than, my previous aircon. One thing's for sure though: I will be hiring a new aircon service provider to do regular aircon maintenance.
The challenge now was that the area outside my pad where the condenser (or the half of the split-type aircon that sits outside your house) was a bit too low and not many condensers could fit. I was talking to two aircon contractors and the first one said they could provide a customized aircon that would fit but it would cost about three times a normal split-type aircon. Thankfully, the other contractor was able to find one unit whose condenser would fit. I decided to go with that. The problem then became the indoor unit. The new one was only about 2/3 the length of the original one. This meant that once it was installed, holes in the wall that were needed by the older and longer aircon were now visible. Ugh.
When the contractor said that the new aircon would fit, I thought they meant it would fit both outside and inside. Apparently, they just meant outside. The holes on the wall were pretty big and glaring. Clearly, I needed to have this fixed ASAP.
I called the the engineering department of my building and they said that they could fix the problem and they could even match the paint as closely as possible the paint I currently have. The repair was done in phases. Phase 1 was the application of putty to cover the holes. Thankfully, the handyman actually made my wall look pretty good (even without the paint).
Phase 2 - repainting - came a few days later and thankfully the new paint closely matched the color of the rest of my wall (it's a bit different but because light strikes the different parts of my pad differently, all walls and sections of the room tend to appear having slightly different shades of yellow anyway).
I am happy that my pad now has a new (albeit expensive) aircon. I hope this one lasts just as long as, if not longer than, my previous aircon. One thing's for sure though: I will be hiring a new aircon service provider to do regular aircon maintenance.
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