The faults we see most often and how they're fixed
Across a typical Dorset summer the top five faults are: capacitor failure on the outdoor fan motor (£90–£140 fitted, 30-minute repair); blocked condensate drain causing water ingress (£70–£120 to clear and re-route, often add a safety float switch); slow refrigerant leak at a flare joint (£180–£350 to leak-test, repair the joint and recharge); failed fan motor (£250–£450 fitted depending on brand); and PCB failure on the indoor unit (£280–£550 fitted — and usually a 24-hour parts order). We carry the first three in van stock; the second two we order rapid-response where the supplier is in Bournemouth or Poole.
Reading manufacturer error codes — what they actually mean
Every manufacturer flashes or displays its own error codes. Daikin uses letter+number combinations on the remote and an LED flash pattern on the outdoor unit; Mitsubishi Electric uses two-character codes (P5, E6, etc.); Panasonic uses an H/F numbering. The code points to a subsystem — refrigerant, electrical, controls, communication — but it doesn't tell you which component has failed. That's a diagnosis job: pressure-testing, voltage-checking and elimination. We bring the manufacturer fault-code manuals and the diagnostic adapters to interrogate the system properly.
Why 'just top it up' is almost never the right answer
If a system needs refrigerant, it's because refrigerant has leaked out — refrigerant doesn't get used up. F-Gas regulations actually prohibit topping up a system with a known leak greater than a defined threshold without first repairing the leak. A top-up alone wastes refrigerant (now £80–£150/kg), lets the leak grow, and means a second callout within weeks. Every Adapt re-gas includes a full pressure test, leak location and repair before any refrigerant goes back in.
When repair stops being worth it
Most domestic systems are economic to repair until around year 12–14, or until the compressor itself fails. A failed compressor on a 10-year-old system is usually the moment to weigh up replacement: a new compressor is 50–70% of the cost of a new system, and the rest of the system is at the back end of its design life. We'll always tell you straight — repair quote in one hand, replacement quote in the other, with no commission either way.
Commercial repair response — what changes
Commercial repair calls are about downtime cost. A restaurant losing its dining-room cassette in July loses £hundreds an hour in walked covers; an office with a failed comms-room split risks server damage. We respond rapid-response on commercial as default, prioritise BCP postcodes, and carry the controls and capacitors most commonly needed for ducted, cassette and VRF systems. For SLA-backed commercial contracts we offer 4-hour response inside Bournemouth and 6-hour response across the wider Dorset patch.
Safety while you wait
If the system is tripping the isolator, leave it off — don't keep resetting it. If the indoor unit is dripping water, switch off at the isolator and put a bowl underneath. If you can see ice forming on the indoor head, switch off and let it thaw before we arrive (an iced coil masks the underlying fault and can damage the compressor when run). If there's any smell of burning, switch off at the consumer unit and call us immediately.
