Heat pump & air con repair FAQ

A fault call-out with a minor repair is €140 to €400, parts extra. A longer visit with a service is about €399. A refrigerant leak repair and recharge is €290 to €800. See the cost guide.

Once a year. Most manufacturers need a yearly service to keep the warranty. It costs €120 to €290.

No. SEAI grants don't pay for servicing or repairs. A replacement heat pump unit that hasn't had an SEAI grant before can get up to €6,500. See the SEAI heat pump grant.

Anyone who opens the refrigerant circuit needs an F-gas certificate, and the company needs an F-gas company certificate. See F-gas engineers.

That depends on the company and the time of year: winter is busy for heat pumps and summer for air con. They'll tell you when they ring.

Requests for every make go to the company, including Mitsubishi Electric, Daikin, Samsung, Panasonic, LG and Grant. Tell us the make on the form so they come prepared.

One heat pump and air conditioning company that covers your county. They find the fault, price the repair in writing and deal with you directly.

Over 70% of domestic heat pump flow faults in Ireland are caused by a blocked mesh gauze inside the inline strainer or magnetic filter, air trapped in the circulation pump after topping up pressure, or motorised zone actuators closing all loops at once. Cleaning the strainer and bleeding the primary circuit usually restores full flow within an hour.

A sudden doubling of electricity usage almost always means the outdoor heat pump has locked out on a fault or cannot reach target temperature, forcing the 3 kW electric immersion or inline booster heater to carry the entire heating and hot water load on direct resistance electricity. Diagnosing the underlying flow, sensor, or refrigerant issue puts the compressor back in charge.

A light, even coat of white frost on the back fins during damp 0C to 4C Irish weather is normal, and the cloud of vapour you see is steam rising when the automatic defrost cycle melts that frost every 45 to 90 minutes. However, thick solid sheet ice that never clears points to a faulty defrost thermistor, blocked base drain pan, or low refrigerant charge.

An air-to-water heat pump should be serviced once a year—ideally in late summer or autumn—to clean the magnetic filter and strainer, wash the outdoor evaporator coil, check glycol and inhibitor levels, verify expansion vessel pressure, and inspect electrical terminals. MVHR filters should be checked every 6 months and replaced every 6 to 12 months.

Plumbers can work on the wet central heating pipework, strainer, and zone valves, but by law only an F-Gas certified refrigeration and heat pump engineer is permitted to connect gauges, trace refrigerant leaks, braze copper gas lines, or handle R32 and R410A refrigerants.

Check three quick things first: note the exact fault code on the indoor controller screen before pressing reset, check the water pressure gauge on the indoor unit or filling loop (it should read between 1.0 and 1.5 bar when cold), and make sure the outdoor unit rotary isolator switch or trip switch on the consumer unit has not been turned off.