Most aircon advice assumes a home where the only thing the unit breathes in is ordinary household dust. Add a dog or a cat and that stops being true. Fur is lighter than dust, it travels further on the airflow, and it does not stay on the surface it lands on. It goes where the air goes: into the filter first, and whatever the filter misses goes on to the coil, the blower wheel and the drain.
The service itself does not change because you have a pet. The same general service, the same chemical wash, the same overhaul. What changes is how often you need them. This is what we would tell a pet owner who asked what to book, and what to look at yourself in between.
What we publish for pet households
Our chemical wash page says to go every 6 months if anyone in the home has allergies or asthma, if the aircon runs 8 or more hours a day, or if you have pets. A lightly used guest-room unit can stretch closer to 12 months, but a pet household is not that case. Alongside that, routine general servicing stays at roughly every 3 months.
So for a home with a pet, the short version is:
- General service: about every 3 months. Filter clean, coil wipe, drainage flush and gas check.
- Chemical wash: about every 6 months, not the 6 to 12 months a quiet home can stretch to.
- Chemical overhaul: every 2 to 3 years, or sooner if the unit has been neglected or smells no matter how often it is serviced.
That is a schedule for the unit in the room where the animal actually spends time. If the dog lives in the living room and the spare bedroom aircon is used twice a week, the bedroom unit does not need the pet schedule. Do not pay to run every unit in the flat at the shortest interval because of one animal.
Where the fur actually ends up
The photo at the top of this article is the intake mesh of one of our service jobs, with a grey felt of dust and lint pressed into it. We are not claiming that one came from a pet household, because we do not know that. It is what any airborne material looks like once it mats together, and fur builds that felt the same way, only faster.
It helps to think of the unit as a series of catches, each one stopping some of what the one before it missed:
- The filters catch the bulk of it. A pet household can clog a filter well inside three months, and a clogged filter is the cause of most of the early symptoms: weaker airflow, a unit that runs longer for the same temperature, a room that cools unevenly.
- The coil sits behind the filter. Whatever gets past a loaded filter sticks to the wet fins, mixes with condensation and starts the grey film that a general service wipes and a chemical wash actually dissolves.
- The blower wheel is the long barrel that moves the air. Lint wraps into the gaps between its blades and builds slowly enough that nobody notices the airflow dropping. We cover how that fouling looks and why it escapes a general service in what a general service does not reach.
- The drain is the last stop. Hair and lint wash down with the condensate, collect in the drain pan and the first stretch of pipe, and feed the slime that eventually blocks it. A blocked drain is what turns into water dripping from the front of the unit.
Because the fur is spread through all four, a pet household usually shows its problem as a smell or a leak before it shows it as a breakdown.
What you can do between visits
Almost everything that helps costs nothing and takes minutes.
- Wash the filters more often than the usual advice. If you are already doing it, move it earlier in the cycle and look at the filter each time. When it comes out visibly furred, that is the interval for that room. How to take them out and where DIY stops is in washing your aircon filters yourself.
- Look at the filter before you wash it. A thick layer of fur on the room side tells you how much the animal is shedding into the airflow, and that is the interval to use for that room.
- Vacuum the floor and the furniture near the unit. Fur on the floor gets lifted by the same air movement that carries it into the intake.
- Keep the door shut when the aircon is on. It is the same advice as for energy, and it also means the fur that stays in the room is not pulled through the rest of the flat.
None of this replaces a service. A filter washed every fortnight still leaves the coil, blower wheel and drain to be cleaned by someone with the right tools.
Which job to book, and what it costs
Our prices are published in full and the displayed price is the final price. The general service covers a filter clean, a coil wipe, a drainage flush and a gas check:
- 1 unit: $45
- 2 units: $70
- 3 units: $95
- 4 units: $115
- 5 or more: $25 per unit
The chemical wash is the deep coil clean that removes mould, biofilm and the grime a general service cannot lift:
- 1 unit: $135
- 2 units: $245
- 3 units: $345
- 4 units: $425
- 5 or more: $100 per unit
The chemical overhaul, where the fan coil is dismantled for cleaning, starts at $200 for 1 unit, and is $370 for 2, $515 for 3 and $640 for 4, then $150 per unit from 5.
Where you have a pet in one room only, the maths is simple. If it is the bedroom unit, you are buying the wash for one unit at $135 rather than for the whole flat. If you are also due a general service on the other rooms, do it in one visit, because the per-unit price falls as the unit count rises: four units at $115 is $28.75 each, against $45 for one.
Signs the schedule is not keeping up
A pet household is the one most likely to outrun a normal service interval. These are the signs to act on early rather than waiting for the next scheduled visit:
- A musty or sour smell when the unit starts. It is the most common first sign. Our guide to why an aircon smells musty goes through the causes, and the coil and blower are the ones a wash addresses.
- Water dripping from the front of the unit or onto the ledge. In a pet home it is often a drain pan that has collected hair.
- A room that takes longer to cool than it used to, with a clean filter. That points to the coil or the blower wheel.
- A visible grey film on the louvres or the air outlet.
If you are not sure which of the three jobs you need, that is what the 9-point pre-check is for. It is included with any service booking, and anything extra found is quoted before work starts.
Allergies, which are a different question
Pets are often mentioned in the same breath as allergies, and our own published schedule groups them. But a cleaner coil does not make the animal hypoallergenic, and no service stops the animal shedding. What a regular schedule does is keep the unit from adding mould and biofilm on top of whatever the room already has. For what features and settings help allergy sufferers in Singapore, see aircon for allergies: what features actually help.
Common questions
How often should I service my aircon if I have a dog or cat?
About every 3 months for a general service and about every 6 months for a chemical wash, on the unit in the room where the pet spends time.
Do I need to service every unit on the pet schedule?
No. The pet schedule is for the unit the animal lives near. A seldom-used guest room can stay on the standard interval.
Can I just wash the filters more often instead of paying for a chemical wash?
Filter washing helps and costs nothing, but it does not reach the coil, the blower wheel or the drain, which is where a chemical wash and overhaul work.
Will servicing remove pet smell from the aircon?
It removes what the unit itself is holding, such as biofilm on the coil and blower and slime in the drain. It does not remove odour that is coming from the room, the bedding or the furniture.
WhatsApp 9107 2601 to book a service with your number of units and which room the pet lives in, and we will tell you which job it needs before anyone comes out.
Related reading: aircon chemical wash · full price list · chemical wash every unit or just one · running your aircon all day