It is 34 degrees, the AC is running, and the room is not getting cooler. Before you queue for a technician in peak season, run through these seven checks — roughly half of "AC broken" calls in Malta end at one of them, and the other half get diagnosed faster because you did.
The seven checks
1. The remote, honestly
Cooling mode (snowflake), not fan or dry; set point well below room temperature; fan on high. Every technician has a story about a €45 call-out that ended at the mode button — usually after a guest or a toddler had the remote.
2. Filters
Pop the front panel. If you cannot see light through the filters, the unit is suffocating. Rinse, dry, refit. In a dusty Maltese summer with windows open, filters clog in weeks, not months.
3. The outdoor unit
The condenser outside must dump heat to work. Check it is running (fan spinning, warm air out), nothing is stacked against it, and the coil is not matted with dust, lint and salt crust. Airflow blocked outside equals weak cooling inside — balconies where the unit is boxed in behind planters are a Maltese classic.
4. Doors, windows, sun
Cooling a room with a sun-blasted, single-glazed window and a door open to the stairwell is a losing race, not a fault. Close up, shade the glass through the afternoon, and judge the unit again in the evening.
5. Ice on the pipes
Look at the copper pipes at the indoor and outdoor unit. Frost or ice means either airflow starvation (see filters) or low refrigerant — switch the unit off, let it thaw fully, clean the filters, and try once more. Ice again means a professional visit.
6. Breaker and isolator
If the indoor unit responds but the outdoor never starts, check the outdoor unit's breaker or isolator switch. A tripped breaker that re-trips is a fault — stop there; our tripping guide explains why forcing it is a bad idea.
7. The unit's age and size
A 9,000 BTU unit in a 35m² open-plan room with afternoon sun was never going to win. If the unit has always struggled in August, it may be undersized rather than broken — a sizing conversation, covered in the installation guide, not a repair.
When it is technician time
Ice that returns, warm air with correct settings and clean filters, an outdoor unit that will not start, or hissing and bubbling sounds — those are refrigerant and component territory. Describe it precisely when posting on Qabbad's AC page: unit brand and rough age, which checks you did, what the pipes looked like, whether the outdoor unit runs. In July and August that description is the difference between a technician arriving with the right parts and a second visit.
Servicing prices and what a proper visit includes are in our AC servicing guide.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my AC running but not cooling?
The most common household causes are wrong mode settings, clogged filters, a blocked or filthy outdoor unit, or an iced coil. Genuine refrigerant loss and component failure are real but come after the basics.
Does low refrigerant mean my AC needs topping up?
Refrigerant is not consumed — if it is low, it leaked. The proper repair is finding and fixing the leak, then regassing (€80 – €200 in Malta). Serial top-ups without a leak fix are money down the drain.
How long should an AC take to cool a room in Malta?
A correctly sized, healthy unit should make a closed room noticeably cooler within 10 to 15 minutes even in high summer. Hours of running for marginal change points to one of the causes above.