Modbury, then and now
A fast-built suburb
From 1954 to 1971 Tea Tree Gully council's population rose to almost 37,000, and by 1975 it had reached about 55,000 as housing spread quickly. It passed 100,000 by 2004.
The council's centre
Modbury village emerged in 1857. Today the suburb holds the City of Tea Tree Gully's chambers and its main business district.
Homes
At the 2021 Census, 75.3% of Modbury's occupied homes were separate houses and 18.5% semis, row houses or townhouses, averaging 2.9 bedrooms.
Tenure
31.2% were rented, 33.1% owned with a mortgage and 29.6% owned outright.
Repair or replace an older system?
According to Solar Victoria, systems past 15 years old typically use over three times the energy a modern reverse cycle unit does. If yours is that old and needs anything bigger than a minor repair, a replacement quote is worth having alongside the repair quote. Our repair or replace tool walks through the decision.
Rinnai says an undersized system often leads to poor heating or cooling, higher energy use and a shorter life, while one that's too big short-cycles. A swap is a chance to have the house sized again, not just matched to the old unit's label.
The jobs that come up most in Modbury
Swapping an old split or wall unit for a new reverse cycle split. Usually the quickest win. Ask whether the old brackets, pipes and circuit are fit to reuse or should be replaced.
Replacing gas ducted heating. If you're moving to ducted reverse cycle, the ACT Government's guide says the old gas ducts are too narrow to reuse. Plan for new, insulated ducting. If you're keeping gas for now, get it serviced by a licensed gasfitter.
Adding cooling for summer. Adelaide's dry heat suits evaporative cooling, and a reverse cycle split in the main room covers winter mornings and the humid days.
Checks before you call anyone
You can
- Check the breaker and the remote, and that the mode is set to heat or cool.
- Clean or rinse the filters as the manual says.
- Note the model number and the unit's age.
Leave to a licensed installer
- Diagnosing faults inside either unit.
- Anything involving refrigerant. Topping up a leaking system before the leak is found and repaired is illegal, the ARC says.
- Opening, testing or adjusting a gas heater, which is for a licensed gasfitter.
What we'd do
If it were our home
If the system in our Modbury house was past 15 years and needed a compressor, a fan motor or a refrigerant leak repair, we'd replace it rather than repair it. We'd ask for a heat load calculation on the new one and pick it on its heating output as much as its cooling. A small fault on a newer unit is different: we'd fix that.
Tell us what you need and your postcode. Licence-checked installers in Adelaide's north-east who do this kind of work can see it, and only the one who takes the job gets your details. If we don't have anyone close to Modbury yet, the form says so at once.
