What's particular about Clarkson
About 2 km from the sea
Clarkson is 34 km north of the CBD and roughly 2 km from the ocean. The Galvanizers Association of Australia's corrosion guide rates land 1 to 10 km back from surf coasts with real salt spray as C3, and says the bands can stretch further inland with the prevailing wind.
A 1990s and 2000s suburb
The area was largely uninhabited until the early 1990s. Building in the north-east started in 1995, the suburb grew through the 2000s, and the 1,800-lot Somerly estate was finished in 2008.
Mostly houses
Separate houses made up 89.3% of Clarkson's 5,039 occupied homes in 2021, with townhouses and semis at 9.8%.
A fair share of renters
30.6% of homes were rented at the 2021 Census. If you rent, the owner decides on new systems, but you can still ask for a faulty one to be looked at.
Bush to the east
Across the railway line is Neerabup National Park. If your outdoor unit faces that way, keep leaves and growth clear of it.
Salt, a couple of kilometres back
You don't need to be on the beachfront for salt to matter. Mitsubishi Electric's instructions list salty places such as the seaside among spots to avoid, and Daikin's warranty card leaves extra corrosion protection in sea air to the owner. In Clarkson, that means asking about coastal coil protection when you buy, and having the outdoor unit serviced on the schedule its manual sets.
The sea breeze helps on summer afternoons and also carries the salt. An outdoor unit on the side of the house facing the ocean takes the most of it, so a sheltered wall is worth a few extra metres of pipe if the installer agrees. Our coastal homes guide goes further.
The original system: service, repair or replace?
Plenty of Clarkson homes still run the evaporative cooler, split or ducted system they were built with. A service tells you where it stands: an evaporative unit's pads, pump and water system, or a reverse cycle unit's coils and drains. See evaporative cooler servicing or air conditioning servicing in Perth, and our repair or replace tool if the news isn't good.
What we'd do
What we'd do in Clarkson
We'd treat any Clarkson outdoor unit as a coastal one: coastal coil protection on a new unit, a sheltered spot if there's a choice, and a service at least before each summer. With an original system from the 1990s or 2000s, we'd get it serviced and assessed before replacing it, by someone who works on that type every week.
