Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Technician
What the work is
Assembles, installs, maintains and repairs industrial, commercial and domestic air conditioning and refrigeration systems and equipment that can contain refrigerant gases and liquids.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Installs air conditioning and refrigeration systems and equipment in industrial, commercial and domestic settings
- Assembles components and parts to construct air conditioning and refrigeration systems
- Repairs and maintains air conditioning and refrigeration components such as compressors, motors, condensers, evaporators and pumps
- Repairs and maintains air conditioning and refrigeration lines used for refrigerant, liquids and gases in the air conditioning, heating or cooling process
- Tests operational air conditioning and refrigeration systems to prevent breakdowns and ensure optimal performance
- Fills systems with gas or fluid to check for leaks, and removes gas and fluids with vacuum pumps
- Recovers and fills refrigerant in air conditioning and refrigeration systems
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in an air conditioning and refrigeration service company that looks after cool rooms, shop fridges and office cooling systems. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A cool room that was warming up at dawn is back at the right temperature by lunch
- A cooling system you installed runs so quietly the office forgets it is there
- A shop owner says you saved their stock, and means it
Hard days
- Working on a hot roof in summer, repairing the machine that keeps everyone else cool
- A call-out at midnight on a long weekend when everything is closed and the stock is warming
- Having to tell someone their old system is not worth repairing
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 382131, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.