Do you get your aircon serviced?

[laserblazer]

In school, we have to have the aircon serviced every 6 months. I think it's largely a preventative for Legionnaires Disease. Wondered what the procedure is in private abodes.

[EMM]

We have ours serviced annually, the misuse it gets from holiday guests makes it essential.

[maccasa]

I asked this question of the engineer who installed mine - he said if you only use it occasionally in the cold months for heating and for only a few weeks in the summer it is not necessary to do it every year - every 2-3 would be sufficient - however if the property is rented out frequently it is essential every year.

[Farol]

From my experience elsewhere the main part of the service is cleaning the filters in the outside unit. There are other things like checking for leaks but they should be a rarer occurence.

With the wind in the Algarve and salt, sand and dust in the air (which you can easily see deposited on patio furniture and shutters) I think it would be very easy for a unit to become blocked if not serviced. However, if you can get to the unit you might find it easy to clean/replace the filter yourself.

If you search on the internet you might be able to find the service requirements for your units. If not then ask one of the local companies for a detailed specification of what they do as part of a quote. Don't just settle for "annual service = €nnn" without knowing exactly what you would be paying for.