Air conditioning installation in Walton-on-the-Naze

Everywhere on this coast needs a bit of thought about salt. Walton needs more than a bit. The town sits on a peninsula with water on three sides, and the Naze headland above it is losing around two metres of cliff a year to the sea. If a quote for a Walton installation does not mention coil protection, the person writing it has not been here.

Why the standard unit is the wrong unit

An outdoor unit rejects heat through a condenser coil made of thin aluminium fins on copper tube. Salt-laden air eats aluminium. Inland that process takes decades and nobody thinks about it; a few hundred metres from open water on an exposed headland it can visibly degrade a coil in a handful of years. The system does not stop — it quietly loses capacity, works harder for the same room temperature, and then fails early.

The fix is a factory-applied protective coating on the coil, specified when the unit is ordered. It cannot sensibly be added afterwards, and it is a small percentage on the price of the equipment. On top of that, siting matters more here than anywhere else on our patch: a unit on a sheltered elevation out of the prevailing onshore wind will outlast the same unit on an exposed one by years.

Seafront terraces and East Terrace

Walton grew as a Victorian resort — the pier was extended to 2,610 feet in 1898, which still makes it one of the longest in the country — and much of the older housing is narrow-fronted terraces and townhouses along and behind the seafront. These are a different job from a detached house. There is often no side access, the plot is shared with neighbours on both sides, and the only sensible position for an outdoor unit is to the rear or at high level, which means a longer pipe run and more thought about noise at the boundary.

None of that makes it difficult. It does make it a job that needs surveying properly rather than quoting from a photograph.

Holiday lets and second homes

A good deal of Walton property is let or used seasonally. Air conditioning is worth more here than the comfort alone: it is a filter people search on when they book, it makes a let usable in July rather than merely available, and the heating side extends the season at both ends. If the property is let rather than lived in, say so at survey — it changes the controls we recommend, not the system.

Villages and areas nearby

We also cover Frinton-on-Sea, Kirby Cross, Kirby-le-Soken, Great Holland, Holland-on-Sea, Thorpe-le-Soken and Clacton-on-Sea, along with the surrounding Tendring villages. If you are not sure whether you are in range, call and ask — the answer is usually yes.

What it costs

Our pricing is published rather than quoted on the doorstep, so you can see roughly where you stand before anyone visits. See one, two and three room prices.

Nearby towns we cover

• Air conditioning in Frinton-on-Sea
• Air conditioning in Holland-on-Sea
• Air conditioning in Clacton-on-Sea
• See every area we cover

Worth reading first

• Why it needs an annual service
• Does air conditioning heat a room?
• How to choose a brand