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G’day all… this is my first post.
I live in a 100+ unit large apartment complex in inner west Sydney that is only about 10-15 years old.
Each unit has a Temperzone ducted airconditioner/heater unit and the building has a heating tower/boiler at the rooftop that allows operating these individual units. Maintenance of the heating tower/boiler at the rooftop is the strata responsibility.
Recently, the building’s heating tower/boiler went broke, which meant 100s of units were all left without any central heating in the middle of winter – not very convenient!
The building manager has contracted a repair’s company. However, this company has been working on the repair for more than 1 month now and nothing has been fixed.
I am not an expert in this area but my gut-feel says that 1 month is an extraordinarily long time to fix an issue and we are simply taken in by this company. Either that, or they are incompetent. I cannot tell.
Needless to say, it is extremely frustrating as well to not be able to heat up a unit in the winter.
I wanted to get advice from experienced people in this forum as to whether my gutfeel is right, and hear any alternative solutions or suggestions for reputable airconditioning system repair companies.
Thanks everyone for their advice!
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I don’t know anything about air conditioning/heating, but it is a bit hard to say whether your inkling is correct, without knowing what is wrong with the system.
As a start – have you made any enquiries with the building manager as follows:
– what is wrong with the heating tower – is it a repair or replacement job? (you say it is a repair but there may be a component that is being replaced)
– what are they doing/what steps are they taking to fix it?
– what is the estimated time period to effect the repair?
– does the strata scheme have the money to fix it?
I suggest only then will you have any basis on which you can form a conclusion.
I lived in a block of flats where the hot water system went kaput in the middle of winter. They had to make a new tank, and we went for nearly a month with no hot water…
gypsyinabigtown said
I would’ve thought the strata mgmt. would have to have made arrangements to prevent it from ever happening (e.g. extensive warranties with service level agreements specifying a minimum downtime)
As you’re in building 10 to 15 years old, the warranty on this will have expired by now. Your building manager should have a contractor performing regular maintenance checks on the cooling tower (and other plant and equipment) that will minimise the chance of a big problem like this occurring. But even if it is regularly maintained, sometimes the unforeseen happens and things just break down.
A cooling tower on top of a building would be a potential nightmare to replace so I would think that they are doing their best to repair it.
Without knowing the problem I can’t tell you if a month is excessive or not. I would suggest you approach you building manager or committee to get an update.
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