Four aircons are $160 to service. Five are $175. The fifth unit adds $15. It is easy to miss on the price list, because it is natural to assume each extra unit costs about what the last one did. It does not work that way, and the step is bigger or smaller depending on the job. This guide shows what the fifth and sixth indoor unit actually add, so you can decide with the real figures what to include and what to ask your quote to say.
Every figure below is on the pricing page. The only thing added here is arithmetic.
What the price list says about five units
Up to four units, each job has a price for that exact number. From five units the table changes shape. The last row on each table reads "5+ units" with a rate per unit, and that rate applies to every unit in the booking, not only to the ones past the fourth. So five units is five times the rate, not the four-unit price plus one more.
| Job (wall units) | 4 units | 5 units | What the 5th adds | 6 units | What the 6th adds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Normal servicing ($35 per unit from 5) | $160 | $175 | $15 | $210 | $35 |
| Chemical wash ($100 per unit from 5) | $425 | $500 | $75 | $600 | $100 |
| Chemical overhaul ($150 per unit from 5) | $640 | $750 | $110 | $900 | $150 |
Two things stand out. First, the fifth unit is the cheapest unit you will add at any point on the table. Second, the sixth costs the full per-unit rate again, so once you are past five, each extra unit adds a steady amount instead of getting cheaper. The saving is concentrated at the fourth-to-fifth step.
The same step, one job at a time
Adding up the table by job shows how uneven the ladder is.
- Normal servicing: $55, then $90, $120, $160, $175. The units add $55, $35, $30, $40 and $15. The fourth unit costs more than the third, and the fifth costs almost nothing extra.
- Chemical wash: $135, $245, $345, $425, $500. The units add $135, $110, $100, $80 and $75.
- Chemical overhaul: $200, $370, $515, $640, $750. The units add $200, $170, $145, $125 and $110.
The overhaul is the job where the step matters most in dollars. A fifth unit added to a four-unit overhaul costs $110, against $200 if that unit were the only one booked. A fifth unit added to a four-unit service costs $15, against $55 if it were booked alone.
What this changes if you have four units
If you have four indoor units, you are one unit short of the cheaper rate. That does not mean you should find a fifth unit to book. It means that when you ask what a service costs, the next unit, if you have a spare room unit that you were going to leave out, costs far less than you think.
The usual reason a unit gets left out is that it is the least-used one, a guest room or a study. Leaving it out of a four-unit visit saves nothing worth having. A general service for four units is $160 and for five is $175. If you skip the fifth unit to save money, you are saving $15 and leaving the unit dirty. A unit that is on a long gap between services is the one our first-service guide warns about.
For the deeper jobs the same logic holds with bigger numbers: $75 for the fifth unit on a chemical wash, $110 on an overhaul. Whether that unit needs a wash or only a service is a different question, and we cover it, using the pre-check findings, in which units to wash first when the budget is tight. That post uses four units. Everything in it still applies; this one is the step beyond it.
What this changes if you have five units
The common trap on a five-unit home is reading the price as the four-unit figure plus a top-up for the fifth. On our list that is wrong, and the correct figure is lower. For normal servicing, five units is $175, not $160 + $35 = $195. For a chemical wash it is $500, not $425 + $100 = $525. For an overhaul it is $750, not $640 + $150 = $790. If any quote you receive for five units adds up to the larger number, ask how it was built.
The other trap is the opposite. A quote that says "$35 per unit" without a count might be written for a smaller job than yours. Always make the unit count a line in the quote, as we explain in what a per-unit quote is actually counting.
Count indoor units, not outdoor units
The count that sets the price is the indoor units, the wall units in the rooms. A System 3 is three. A System 4 is four. A System 5 is five. Outdoor units and circuits matter for gas top-up and not for cleaning, and the guide linked above sets out the difference.
That means a home with a System 3 and a System 2 has five indoor units and two outdoor units. The cleaning price is the five-unit price, even though the units hang on two separate circuits. If you are comparing how many indoor units different system layouts give you, our System 3, 4 and 5 comparison lays out the layouts. If you are considering a physical fifth unit, adding an extra aircon unit to an existing system explains what that involves. A larger home, such as a landed house, can reach five units, and what is different for a landed house covers it.
Time: five units is a long day
Our published time per indoor unit is 30 to 45 minutes for normal servicing, 60 to 90 minutes for a chemical wash and 2 to 3 hours for a chemical overhaul. Multiply by five and the numbers change what you should plan for:
- Normal servicing: about 2.5 to 3.75 hours of work for five units.
- Chemical wash: about 5 to 7.5 hours.
- Chemical overhaul: about 10 to 15 hours.
Those are sums of the per-unit times, so they say how much work there is, not how the visit will be staffed. An overhaul of five units is more than a day of work however it is split. Ask when you book how the visit will be scheduled, and whether it will run on one day or two. Our guide on how long servicing takes and how to plan your day has the per-unit times and what to have ready. Someone should be home for any of these, and for the deeper jobs it is worth clearing the room under each unit beforehand.
Checking a five-unit quote against the list
Take any quote for five wall units from us and check three things before you accept it. Each one takes a minute and each is a way a quote can quietly drift from the list.
- Is the unit count written down? A line that says "servicing, $175" is only checkable if it also says five units. Without the count you cannot tell which row of the table it came from.
- Does the total equal the unit count times the rate? For five units that is 5 x $35 = $175, 5 x $100 = $500 or 5 x $150 = $750. If the total sits above that, ask which extra line was added and why.
- Is one job being priced as another? A chemical wash and a chemical overhaul are different jobs at different prices. If the quote just says "chemical", ask which one it means. Our guide to checking that an overhaul was really done explains why that distinction matters after the work as well as before it.
A short way to work out your own number
- Count the indoor units in the home, room by room. Include the one nobody uses.
- Decide which job each unit needs. If you are not sure, the 9-point pre-check, which is included with every service booking, tells you before anything more expensive is done.
- Look up the job on the pricing page. Up to four units, read the price for your exact number. From five, multiply the per-unit rate by the number of units.
- If you mix jobs in one visit, such as washing three units and servicing two, send us the count for each job and we confirm the exact figure before anyone comes out. Adding up the published rows is only a guide, and the combined price can differ.
The displayed price is the final price, and the servicing, wash and overhaul jobs each carry a 90-day workmanship warranty.
Send us your unit count
If you have four or five units and want the exact figure for your mix of jobs, tell us how many indoor units you have and what each one has been doing. We will give you the price before we come, and the pre-check on the day tells you whether any unit needs more than you booked. The price list is on the pricing page, and the jobs are explained on the chemical wash and chemical overhaul pages. WhatsApp us on 9107 2601 and we will tell you what to expect before we come.