Almost every aircon job in Singapore comes with a warranty, and almost nobody reads it until something goes wrong. Then the useful question arrives too late: the unit is not cooling six weeks after a chemical wash, and the owner wants to know who is paying to fix it.
The answer depends on something most people never separate in their heads. There are two different warranties on a typical aircon, they cover completely different things, and they are given by two different parties. Confuse them and you end up calling the wrong company, missing the window on the right one, and paying for something that was covered.
The two warranties, and who gives you which
The manufacturer's warranty comes from Daikin, Mitsubishi Electric, Panasonic, LG, Midea or whoever built the unit. It covers the machine — a compressor that fails, a PCB that dies, a fan motor that was faulty from the factory. It is tied to the unit, it usually runs for years, and it follows the equipment.
The workmanship warranty comes from the company that did the work. It covers the work, not the machine. If a drain pipe was not sloped properly and the unit drips two weeks later, that is workmanship. If a flare joint was not tightened correctly and the gas leaks out, that is workmanship. If a fifteen-year-old compressor gives up, that is neither — that is a unit at the end of its life.
This distinction is the whole thing. A workmanship warranty is a promise that the job was done right. It was never a promise that the machine will not age.
What our warranty periods actually are
We publish ours on each service page rather than leaving you to ask:
- General servicing — 30 days workmanship warranty. Servicing starts from $25/unit and includes the 9-point pre-check.
- Chemical wash — 60 days workmanship warranty. $135 for one unit, $245 for two, $345 for three, $425 for four, then $100 for each additional unit from the fifth onwards.
- Installation — 1 year installation warranty, on top of the manufacturer's warranty on the units. Installation starts from $1,200.
Look at the shape of that list, because the shape is the point. The cleaning jobs carry weeks. The installation carries a year. That is not a company being generous about one and stingy about the other — it is the honest length of time over which each kind of work can be judged.
Why a servicing warranty is short, and why that is not a red flag
Owners sometimes read "30 days" and assume it means the company is not confident. It means the opposite of what they think.
A general service is a cleaning operation. If it was done properly, you know within days: the airflow is better, the smell is gone, the drainage runs. If it was done badly — filter not seated, drain not cleared, casing not reassembled — that shows up almost immediately too. Thirty days is long enough to cover every failure mode that cleaning can actually cause.
What a cleaning warranty cannot do is stretch to cover the machine. If your unit is eight years old and the compressor fails five weeks after a wash, no cleaning warranty on earth was ever going to pay for that, no matter how long the number on the invoice said. A company promising a 12-month warranty on a $25 service is not offering you more protection. It is offering you a number that will be argued about later.
An installation is different, and that is why the period is different. A new install has to survive a full year of Singapore weather, a full year of daily runtime, and the slow reveal of anything done wrong inside a wall or a trunking run. A slow gas leak at a badly made flare joint can take months to show as weak cooling. A drain laid with the wrong fall might only overflow when the drain finally silts up. Twelve months is the period over which installation faults surface.
What voids the manufacturer's warranty — this is where money is lost
The expensive mistakes in Singapore are almost never about the workmanship warranty. They are about doing something that costs you the manufacturer's warranty on a unit worth thousands.
The most common one is a DIY or improvised chemical wash. We do not recommend it, and not only for the reason people assume. A proper wash means isolating mains power, handling coil-safe chemicals correctly, and clearing the drainage fully. The wrong chemical or an incomplete rinse can corrode the coil or leave the smell behind — and DIY damage usually voids the manufacturer's warranty on the unit. You save a service fee and put a multi-thousand-dollar warranty at risk.
The second is installation by someone unqualified. Brands can and do decline claims where the unit was not installed correctly. The install is the moment the warranty is either protected or quietly compromised, and you will not find out which for a year or two.
The third is simply having no record. Which brings us to the part that decides most disputes.
The paperwork that decides a claim
When a warranty claim goes wrong in Singapore, it is very rarely because someone refused a valid claim out of bad faith. It is because nobody could establish what was done, to which unit, on what date, by whom.
Before the technician leaves, you want to be holding — on paper or in your phone — the following:
- The date and the exact work performed. "Servicing" is not enough. "General service, 3 units, bedroom units 1 and 2 and living room" is.
- Which units. In a system 3, "the aircon" is three different machines. A claim about the wrong one goes nowhere.
- The brand, model and serial number of each indoor and outdoor unit. Photograph the nameplate once and you have it forever. This is what the manufacturer will ask for first.
- The warranty period, in writing. Not "we'll come back if there's a problem" — an actual period on the invoice.
- Any part replaced, and whether that part carries its own warranty.
That is a five-minute habit that turns a future argument into a phone call. Our pricing page makes the same point from the other direction: when you are comparing quotes, always ask whether there is a workmanship warranty at all, whether the pre-check is included, and whether the quoted price is the final price. Cheap operators who employ undertrained technicians are exactly the ones whose warranty claims become disputes.
Three questions to ask before you book anything
You can settle most of this before any money changes hands.
- "What is the workmanship warranty on this job, in days or months?" If the answer is vague, that is your answer.
- "If the same fault comes back inside that period, do I pay for the return visit?" A workmanship warranty that does not include the return trip is not much of a warranty.
- "Will the invoice show the units and what was done to each?" This is the one nobody asks and the one that matters most later.
What to do when something goes wrong inside the period
Move quickly and be specific. Contact the company that did the work, state the date of the visit, describe what the unit is doing now, and say clearly that you believe it relates to the work performed. Do not start by demanding a free replacement — start by describing the symptom, because the symptom is what tells an experienced person whether it is workmanship or the machine.
Then let them look at it. Some faults that appear right after a service genuinely are unrelated — a capacitor that was already on its way out, a compressor at the end of a long life. A company acting in good faith will tell you which it is and show you why. If the fault traces back to the work, the return visit is on them; that is what the warranty is for.
And if the unit is old enough that this keeps happening, the warranty conversation is really a replacement conversation. How long an aircon should last in Singapore is the more useful thing to read at that point, and when to repair versus replace a fan or blower covers the same decision at component level.
Frequently asked
Does a chemical wash come with a warranty on the whole unit?
No. A chemical wash carries a 60-day workmanship warranty on the wash itself. It is not a warranty on the compressor, the PCB or the gas charge, and no cleaning job could honestly cover those.
My aircon is still under the manufacturer's warranty. Can I use any servicing company?
Routine cleaning by a competent company is normal maintenance. The risk is not who cleans it — it is work that damages the unit, or an installation done incorrectly. Keep the records either way, because the manufacturer may ask for a maintenance history.
Is the installation warranty transferable if I sell the flat?
Ask before you assume. Treat the warranty as belonging to the job and the paperwork, and hand the invoices over with the keys.
What if the company that installed my aircon has closed down?
The workmanship warranty goes with them. The manufacturer's warranty on the units does not — that is between you and the brand, and it is another reason to keep the model and serial numbers.
The short version
Two warranties, two parties, two different jobs. The manufacturer covers the machine. The company covers the work — 30 days on our general servicing, 60 days on a chemical wash, one year on an installation. Get the period in writing, photograph the nameplate, keep the invoice, and do not let an unqualified pair of hands near a unit whose factory warranty is worth more than the job.
Want the warranty terms in writing before you book?
Tell us the units and what you need done, and we will confirm the price and the warranty period before anyone comes out. Message us on WhatsApp, or read what each visit covers on aircon servicing, chemical wash and installation.