Aircon Regassing: What It Is, When You Need It, and Why "Just Top It Up" Is the Wrong Answer

What "regassing" actually means

Regassing — also called recharging — means topping up or replacing the refrigerant (the "gas") that an air conditioner uses to move heat out of your room. The refrigerant runs around a sealed loop between the indoor and outdoor units; it is what makes the cold.

Here is the part most people are never told: that loop is sealed, and a healthy air conditioner does not use up refrigerant. It is not like petrol. If your unit is low on gas, it is because the gas has leaked out somewhere — so the real job is usually to find and fix the leak, not simply to refill it.

Signs your aircon might be low on refrigerant

A few symptoms point towards a refrigerant problem — though each can also have other causes, which is why a proper diagnosis matters:

• ✓ Blowing warm or weak air even when set to cold and running for a while.
• ✓ Ice or frost forming on the thin copper pipe or the outdoor unit.
• ✓ A hissing or bubbling sound, which can indicate refrigerant escaping.
• ✓ The unit running constantly but never quite cooling the room.
• ✓ Cooling that has dropped off gradually over a season or two.

Why topping up the gas is not a real fix

If a technician simply pumps in more refrigerant and leaves, the leak is still there — and within weeks or months you are back to warm air and another call-out. You pay twice (or three times) for a problem that was never actually repaired.

Worse, refrigerant is a controlled substance: releasing it or repeatedly venting it is wasteful and environmentally harmful. The correct approach is to find the leak, repair it, then recharge the system to the manufacturer's specified amount and confirm it holds. That is a repair, not a top-up.

The refrigerant type matters

Air conditioners use different refrigerants — most South African units run on either R32 or the older R410A — and they are not interchangeable. The correct type and exact charge for your specific unit are set by the manufacturer, which is why this is not a DIY job and not something to guess at.

If you want to understand the difference between the two common refrigerants, our guide on R32 vs R410A explains it in plain terms.

What it costs and how it is handled

Because the right fix depends on whether there is a leak, where it is, and which refrigerant your unit uses, regassing is quoted per job rather than at a fixed price. The honest first step is a diagnosis: confirm whether refrigerant is actually the problem (it often is not — a dirty filter, a faulty fan or a blocked outdoor coil can mimic "low gas"), locate any leak, and then quote the repair and recharge.

Van Biljoens quotes are free and without obligation, so you can find out what is genuinely wrong before committing to anything.

How Van Biljoens approaches it

We have serviced and repaired air conditioning across Pretoria since 1956, and we treat low refrigerant as a fault to be diagnosed, not a consumable to be sold. That means checking the easy things first, finding the leak rather than masking it, and recharging to the correct specification for your unit so the repair lasts.

If your aircon has stopped cooling, book an assessment and we will tell you what is actually going on — whether that is a regas, a leak repair, or something simpler like a service and clean.