Every fault below comes from real call-outs across Durban and surrounding areas. Some have a quick check you can try yourself before booking anyone — where that's true, we say so. When a visit is needed, the diagnosis is done with a signal meter, quoted before work starts, and covered by our 12-month workmanship warranty. New to this part? Start with the outdoor condenser unit component guide.
1. Corroded outdoor coil on a coastal installation
What you'll see: White or powdery deposits and crumbling aluminium fins on the outdoor coil, with cooling performance that has declined steadily over a few years.
Why it happens: Salt-laden air settling on the coil and corroding the aluminium fins and their bond to the copper tubing. Units within a few hundred metres of the sea are most affected, and units never rinsed are worst.
How we fix it: We assess how much fin surface remains viable and whether the coil can be cleaned and treated or has to be replaced. Where the unit is being replaced we specify a coated-coil model and site it out of direct salt spray.
Full corroded outdoor coil on a coastal installation troubleshooting guide →
2. Poor cooling from a unit boxed into a narrow space
What you'll see: A system that has never cooled particularly well, runs almost continuously, and is expensive to run despite the unit being correctly sized on paper.
Why it happens: The outdoor unit recirculating its own hot exhaust because it lacks clearance, typically installed in a narrow side passage, under a low deck, or facing a wall too closely.
How we fix it: We measure operating pressures to confirm the unit is running against elevated head pressure, then quote to relocate or re-orientate it. This is an installation defect, and no amount of servicing compensates for it.
Full poor cooling from a unit boxed into a narrow space troubleshooting guide →
Symptom doesn't match any of these?
Faults overlap — a "outdoor condenser unit problem" is sometimes another link in the chain wearing a disguise. Describe what your system is doing on 069 507 6822 (or WhatsApp a photo of the error screen) and we'll tell you which component it actually sounds like, free, before anything is booked.