How long should an AC service take in Dubai

A proper AC service has four parts: coil clean (indoor and outdoor), drain pan and drain line clear, filter wash and reseat, gas pressure check. None of these are quick.

The coil clean alone — done properly with a chemical wash and a low-pressure rinse — takes 20 to 25 minutes per unit. The drain line clear takes another 10. Filter wash, dry and reseat takes 5 to 8. The gas-pressure check, including time to run the unit and let the readings settle, is another 8 to 10. Add unit teardown and reassembly and you are at the 60-minute mark.

If your technician arrives, opens the front grille, sprays the coils with what looks like water, wipes the filter dry, closes the unit and asks for payment, you have not had a service. You have had a wipe-down.

We know because we have inherited a lot of after-the-fact diagnoses. The most common issue we see is a partially blocked drain line that the previous service did not clear — three weeks later water is dripping from the indoor unit into the carpet.

The other point worth knowing: gas top-up is not a routine part of an annual service. A correctly charged unit does not lose gas. If a previous technician topped your gas up every year as a matter of routine, the unit had a leak that was never diagnosed.

Standard split-unit service at QuickFix is AED 195. Same-day in our six core zones. Three-unit booking is AED 480 — useful if you want all the bedrooms done at once.