A flat with two aircons is the cheapest case to budget for, and also the one where the price list is easiest to misread. Servicing two units is $90, not two times $55. A chemical wash for two is $245, not $270. An overhaul for two is $370, not $400. Whether you book both units in one visit or one at a time moves your yearly bill by more than most people expect.
This post works out a yearly upkeep number for two indoor units, including the chemical overhaul that most guides leave out of the yearly figure. Every price below is taken from our pricing page. Where the arithmetic is our own addition of those prices, we say so, so you can check it against the list.
The three prices that matter for two units
| Job | 1 unit | 2 units | 2 units booked separately | Splitting costs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Normal servicing | $55 | $90 | $55 + $55 = $110 | $20 more |
| Chemical wash | $135 | $245 | $135 + $135 = $270 | $25 more |
| Chemical overhaul | $200 | $370 | $200 + $200 = $400 | $30 more |
The "booked separately" column is simple addition of the one-unit prices. It is what you would pay if each unit were done on a different day and priced as a one-unit job. The per-unit price drops as you add units to the same visit. The rule is easy to remember: whatever job you are doing, do both units on the same visit.
Servicing is routine three-monthly maintenance. A chemical wash is the deeper coil clean we publish at every 6 to 12 months. A chemical overhaul takes the whole indoor unit off the wall, strips it and chemical washes every part, and we publish it at every 2 to 3 years, sooner for a unit that is badly fouled. Each job carries a 90-day workmanship warranty, and the 9-point pre-check is included with every service booking.
Three yearly plans for two units
These are straight additions of the published two-unit prices, not packages. We do not sell annual packages or take money upfront. You book each visit when you want it, and you can change the plan at any time.
- Light. Normal servicing every three months: 4 visits x $90 = $360 a year.
- Balanced. Two normal services and one chemical wash: 2 x $90 + $245 = $425 a year.
- Thorough. Three normal services and one chemical wash: 3 x $90 + $245 = $515 a year.
Now add the overhaul, which sits outside the yearly cycle. At $370 for two units, spread over 3 years it is about $123 a year, and over 2 years it is $185 a year. Put it on top of the Balanced plan and you are looking at roughly $548 a year across three years (3 x $425 + $370 = $1,645, divided by 3).
There is a fair question inside that number: if you overhaul in a given year, do you still need that year's wash? An overhaul strips the unit and chemical washes every part, so it may cover what a wash would have done. But we will not tell you to skip the wash without looking at the units. If the pre-check on the day says the overhaul has covered it, the three years above come to $1,400 instead of $1,645. Do not plan on that until it has been confirmed on site.
What a general service does not do for you
The Light plan is the cheapest on paper, and for a lightly used pair of units it can be enough. What it cannot do is reach the parts that foul over time. A normal service dismantles the roller and blower and cleans the filter, coil and drainage. It does not take the unit apart piece by piece the way an overhaul does. In a humid country where the units run for hours every day, grime collects in places a service never touches.
The signs that a unit has moved beyond what a service can fix are the ones we list on our overhaul page: the musty smell or weak cooling returns soon after a chemical wash, the unit is more than 5 years old and has never been overhauled, heavy mould or thick grime is visible on the blower wheel, or water keeps overflowing even after the drain is cleaned. Any one of them is a reason to move up a step. None of them is a reason to book the most expensive job without a check, and our pre-check exists so that you are told which job the unit actually needs.
If you have already read our System 4 yearly budget, this is the same method for a smaller flat. The difference is that with only two units, the saving from keeping them on one visit is $20 to $30 a job rather than a larger sum, but it still adds up over a year.
Where splitting the visit is worth it, and where it is not
Doing both units together is cheaper on every job. But sometimes you only want one unit done this quarter, and that can be the right call. Say the main bedroom unit runs every night and the other is used on weekends. The heavily used one may need the wash while the other only needs a normal service. A wash for one unit ($135) plus a service for the other ($55) adds up to $190 on the one-unit prices. Treat that as a guide only. When you mix jobs in one visit, send us the count for each job and we confirm the exact figure before anyone comes out, because the combined price can differ from adding the rows.
Our post on whether to wash every aircon or just one unit goes through that decision in more detail, and the four-unit version shows what splitting does to a bigger flat. For two units the lesson is smaller in dollars but the same in kind: ask for the unit count and the job written on the quote, so you can check it against the list.
If a third unit arrives later
If you add a third indoor unit later, on the published prices, a third unit adds $30 to a normal service ($90 to $120), $100 to a chemical wash ($245 to $345) and $145 to an overhaul ($370 to $515). From 5 units the per-unit rate applies to every unit in the booking, and our post on the fifth unit shows how that works.
Gas is a separate line, and it is not part of the yearly plan
None of the plans above include gas. Gas top-up is priced per outdoor circuit, not per indoor unit: R22 $115, R410A $130, R32 $170. Indoor units that share one outdoor unit share one circuit. So if your two indoor units run off one outdoor unit, one top-up covers one circuit. If each indoor unit has its own outdoor unit, you have two circuits, and R32 would be 2 x $170 = $340.
Gas does not belong in a yearly budget, because refrigerant is not used up. In a healthy system the same gas circulates for the life of the unit. If a unit needs topping up, gas has gone somewhere, and the useful question is where. A leak detector check is $180 flat. If you find yourself paying for gas more than once, stop topping up and ask for the leak check instead. The costs and the sequence are on our gas leak repair page.
Five questions to put to any yearly quote for two units
- Does it say two units? A line that just says "servicing" cannot be checked against the list.
- Is it one visit or two? If the quote shows two one-unit prices when both units are being done together, ask why.
- Is the job named? "Chemical" can mean a wash or an overhaul, and the two are priced differently.
- Is gas in it? If so, ask whether it is for one circuit or two, and whether a leak has been looked for.
- What is the warranty? Ours is 90 days on workmanship for servicing, wash and overhaul.
A short way to pick your own plan
- Count your indoor units and note which one runs the most.
- Start with the Balanced plan, $425 a year, unless the units are lightly used.
- Put the overhaul in your calendar for 2 to 3 years after the last strip-down, or sooner if the units show the signs above. If neither unit has ever been overhauled and the system is more than 5 years old, it may already be due.
- Book both units on the same day unless there is a real reason not to.
- Let the 9-point pre-check decide whether the job you booked is the job the unit needs.
The displayed price is the final price. An overhaul takes about 2 to 3 hours per unit, so two units is a good part of a day, and someone should be home. Our pricing page has every figure used here.
Send us your unit count
If you have two units and want an exact figure for your own mix of jobs, tell us how old the system is and when it was last washed or overhauled. We will give you the price before we come, and the pre-check on the day tells you whether either unit needs more than you booked. WhatsApp us on 9107 2601 and we will tell you what to expect before we come.