August 2026 Leicester Portable Air Conditioner Repair

August Portable Air Conditioning system repair

Not everything we work on is a huge system, one of a smaller projects this month was a Portable Air Conditioning brought to us as not cooling. Initially the customer suspected compressor / capacitor issues based on advise from Google / Web searches.

System Type

Portable or Mobile Air Conditioners are a self contained system which pull air from the room and re circulate back in after heating or cooling as set. The condenser exhausts its heat through a vent which is usually placed out of a window / nearby vent. There are a few downsides to this type of system, Firstly they take up a significant footprint in whichever room they are placed, they are rather noisy due to the compressor being contained inside (as opposed to a split system with the compressor outside) and they are inefficient do to losing some of the heat it is attempting to exhaust outside being released back inside on its way out. The upside is usually the price, ranging from £500 to £1200 depending on brand (and availability). Scalpers, sadly, have also had a hand in their value this summer.

Findings

After stripping down the unit and looking inside it was immediately obvious that it had lost its refrigerant charge. The question becomes where from. Compared to my last weeks investigation which took 6 hours, searches through 26 flare nuts, 5 different rooms and a long walk to the outdoor unit, this mobile has everything on show from just one position!

Strategy

After passing nitrogen into the system and hearing the hissing sound the leak was quickly located and a new section of pipe brazed in later meant no further leaks. We have to add a service port on to these units as they are cut and brazed off following factory charge, this is also a good indicator if the system has been worked on previously.

Progress

Nitrogen pressure holding, we release, vac and chare the system with the R290 refrigerant and give it a test. After the compressor cutting out on thermal and scratching my head as to the reason why, I reassemble the casing and remember the fan will pull the air from wherever you let it, not from where the casing makes it had it been in place!

Result

Frosty 9 Deg C air coming out the front and 32 Deg C exchausted out the back, one happy customer later and another job dusted off.

Looking for air conditioning repairs? Seeing as the country has all but run out of fixed AC systems we are still taking requests for AC Repairs, give us a call today for a free quote / estimate.