Installing an air condition...

Hi Yiannis,

was the charge only for the installation or for the unit itself and how much work was involved?

Cheers
Ricky

I'm making renovations so I could give you my opinion. But at this stage, you don't give any information.
210 euros to install a wall mounted AC for a big room with copper pipes, drain pipes chased in the wall etc. No it's cheap.

Hi Ricky, the unit was already in the house waiting to be installed. Thus the price quoted was only for the installation as described by john2011 i.e copper pipes, drain pipes chased in the wall as well as to top it up with gas. So you think it was cheap? In Greece next door even before the crisis the same job was 100 euros the most... need to spend more time here to get in sync with the prices... 

Thanks for the quick responses
Yiannis

Hi Yiannis,

I'm not sure if it was cheap but it was not a rip-off. Especially if the quality of the work was good and finished on time.

Enjoy your new AC.

Cheers
Ricky

we just had two fitted as well and although they were both completed within 4-5hrs - the actual finish was not as good as expected - they left gaping holes in the external walls and some interior walls...they now have to come back and fill them....preferably before the winter and rains.

Hi toonarmy9752, it seems that 4 to 5 hours is a reasonable amount of time considering that they did mine in 2/2.5 hours. May I ask how much did you pay? If my estimate is correct and according to what the other guys sais, you should have paid around 400 euros.

Yiannis

janagn wrote:

Hi toonarmy9752, it seems that 4 to 5 hours is a reasonable amount of time considering that they did mine in 2/2.5 hours. May I ask how much did you pay? If my estimate is correct and according to what the other guys sais, you should have paid around 400 euros.

Yiannis

cant say Yiannis as the landlord paid for it all.

but but my calculation would be based on a working rate per man and there was two men.. so by basic calculations
number of men x time taken x rate
2 x 5 x 10 = 100 euros.....even if the company have to charge more for their profit margin (say 25-30%) that would still not come to more than 130 euros...on the basis of your charges they must be charging considerably more.

this is of course labour only and assumes that all required materials were already supplied.

its complicated by the fact that i dont know in your case how many men were used.

Hi toonarmy9752, on the basis of your calculations I was ripped off but the other people here think that I was not. If majority is right than hourly rate must be 50+ euros and not 10. Thus your landlord should have paid around 500 only for labor. In my case for example: 2 hours x 2 people x 10 rate = 40!!! Can't see it reaching 210 euros even if they had to excavate for copper themselves.

janagn wrote:

Hi toonarmy9752, on the basis of your calculations I was ripped off but the other people here think that I was not. If majority is right than hourly rate must be 50+ euros and not 10. Thus your landlord should have paid around 500 only for labor. In my case for example: 2 hours x 2 people x 10 rate = 40!!! Can't see it reaching 210 euros even if they had to excavate for copper themselves.

i do have to say the 10 is a guess at what the men may earn (10 per hr prob equates to 20-25k euro per yr - depending on how many hrs they work) which is good money here....bloody good money for bodged work) Contrary to others opinions my opinion for what its worth I still think you were ripped off. Fortunately not too heavily.

have a look at some of the ads in the freebie magazines and they often (but not always) quote air con units and they usually incl fitting and vat. that will give you a good idea as to what should be charged or make say three call for a quotes....

too late to do anything now though.

janagn wrote:

Hi toonarmy9752, on the basis of your calculations I was ripped off but the other people here think that I was not. If majority is right than hourly rate must be 50+ euros and not 10. Thus your landlord should have paid around 500 only for labor. In my case for example: 2 hours x 2 people x 10 rate = 40!!! Can't see it reaching 210 euros even if they had to excavate for copper themselves.

i dont know what they paid but theyre in business and wont be paying silly money for sure. but what i do know is if these guys were earning/charging that sort of money and charged it to my landlords it would take my landlords 7-8 yrs to recover their outlay.!!!somehow i dont think so!!!!!

my landlords are cuter than cucumbers

toonarmy9752 wrote:

Contrary to others opinions my opinion for what its worth I still think you were ripped off. Fortunately not too heavily.

As I was in hurry I had to relay on my landlord to get this organized. So I am not really sure where he got these guys but this morning I did a yellow pages check and the results are as follows:

Old a/c to be installed on the wall between 9000 and 24000 BTU including materials between 150 and 170 euros. 

Old a/c to be installed on the wall between 9000 and 24000 BTU excluding materials 100 to 105 euros.

So I guess I was ripped off around 50 to 60 euros best case scenario.

Yiannis

yes thats what i think too.....sorry about that but hey this is malta and its par for the course....that doesnt of course make it right and i certanly dont condone it.

toonarmy9752 wrote:

yes thats what i think too.....sorry about that but hey this is malta and its par for the course....that doesnt of course make it right and i certanly dont condone it.

I just hope that after 5 years they will not be under extreme public deficit as I know that practices like these led Greece where it is today... Milking the Euro-cow is not something that can go on for ever....

Yiannis

janagn wrote:

toonarmy9752 wrote:

yes thats what i think too.....sorry about that but hey this is malta and its par for the course....that doesnt of course make it right and i certanly dont condone it.

I just hope that after 5 years they will not be under extreme public deficit as I know that practices like these led Greece where it is today... Milking the Euro-cow is not something that can go on for ever....

Yiannis

this has been going on here for years and years.....cant see it changing anytime soon...as long as you are wary of it you can avoid it. and never recommend or support anyone who does this.

toonarmy9752 wrote:

this has been going on here for years and years....

This is the trap of the financial crisis and the illusion Med people live in. It has been going on for years and years while they had their own currency and they could devaluate it once the s...t were hitting the fan. However when you have Euro you cannot devaluate the currency so when the s..t hit the fan i.e high prices disproportional with country product, it is game over.

Hi, I didn't say it is cheap. Considering, you buy and install a new AC, that would be cheap.

For example I pay for one Inverter Hi-Wall Cooling capacity 12,000 Btu/hr, € 555.08, including installation.

with 4m up to 18,000 Btu/hr of twin lagged refrigerant copper pipes, 5 meters PVC condensate drain pipe.

I'm not an expert, but from my experience, I've never understood how the suppliers estimate their costs. That's jungle.

You must know, that when they come to your house, often, they will charge 40 euros to move, it's fixed fees.

Maybe 150 euros maxi I would say in your case, the cost to install your AC and fill in the holes, and give a good and clean job.

But don't worry, in Malta, it's very hard not to be overcharged. If it's cheap, work is often bad and worthless.

Next time, call several companies to ask a quote.

Possibly Greece and Malta are similar. The same in portugal, spain, italy haha.

Malta Europe not USA.

I particularly liked this end bit of the advert ...
"So don't bother if you have any   air conditioning maintainence  problem or query"


Terry
OIA