What an AC maintenance contract includes, and what it costs

Contracts 7 min read

What does an AMC actually cover?

The company comes a set number of times a year, cleans the filters, flushes the drain and checks the unit is running properly. The price guide we use lists the contents of a standard visit as filter washing, drain flushing and general checks⁸. Deeper coil cleaning tends to appear in mid and upper tiers, so ask whether it is in yours.

Visit count is where plans differ most. Reported plans run 2-4 scheduled visits a year⁷, and a quarterly plan does roughly twice the work of a twice-yearly one. A Dubai supplier that publishes its own prices, for example, builds its contracts around four quarterly visits. Check the number of visits, with months named, before you compare prices.

What does a contract cost by home size?

Dubai contracts are usually sold by home size, because a bigger home means more indoor units, longer drain runs and often a ducted system. These are the bands one price guide publishes.

Those bands are wide, so here is a second view. Barajeel, a Dubai AC supplier, publishes its own contract prices, VAT included: AED 525 a year¹⁹ for a one-bedroom flat with one unit, AED 1,425 a year²⁰ for a three-bedroom flat with three, AED 2,200 a year²¹ for a small villa with five splits and AED 4,800 a year²² for a five-bedroom ducted villa. GeeM Home, a Dubai maintenance provider, publishes AED 600-1,200 a year²³ for an apartment with two or three units.

Per unit, the price guide puts a single split at AED 380-1,000 a year¹, while Barajeel's benchmark for a residential wall-mounted split is AED 250-400 per unit a year¹⁸. If a two-bedroom flat with three indoor units is quoted near the bottom of the apartment band, something has been left out of the scope. Ask what.

What sits outside the contract?

Most of the surprises are here. The price guide lists gas recharges, spare parts, duct cleaning and after-hours call-outs⁹ as usually outside or charged on top. Refrigerant matters most: a unit that loses gas every summer will cost more than the contract price every year.

Spare parts are handled differently from plan to plan. The price guide reports 10-20% off parts¹² for contract holders rather than parts cover. A discount on a part you cannot price is hard to judge, so ask what a common part, such as a capacitor or a drain pump, costs with and without it.

Is a contract better than paying per visit?

Paying as you go, one visit for one split unit costs AED 150-350+ a visit¹⁶, and some providers advise servicing at least twice a year¹⁷. For a small flat with one or two units, that often comes close to the bottom of the contract band. What the contract mostly adds is a company already booked for your building when the unit fails in summer.

With four or five indoor units and a condenser on the roof, a schedule with one company usually makes more sense. The AMC cost calculator works out both options for your unit count.

What if the building is on district cooling?

In a district-cooled tower the chiller plant belongs to the cooling provider, and the fan-coil unit in your ceiling is usually yours to keep clean. The price guide says that in these flats one or two cleaning-focused visits a year¹⁵ are usually enough. Some companies still sell full contracts for them, so check what is left to maintain once the plant is excluded.

Before you sign

• Visit count in writing, with the months named.
• Whether deep coil cleaning is included once a year or quoted each time.
• The gas policy: a stated top-up allowance, or charged separately each time.
• Breakdown response time and the after-hours charge.
• Whether the price includes VAT.

If you rent, check the lease before you pay for anything. The price guide notes that some Dubai leases keep AC servicing with the landlord¹⁴. Where that is the case, the landlord is paying for the servicing already. The legal default is set out in who pays for AC repairs in a Dubai rental.