By Chris Schulz
Investigative Journalist | Kaipūrongo Whakatewhatewha
A Consumer NZ member received a $23,000 payout from the air conditioning company Daikin after claiming one of its systems heated his childrens’ bedrooms to intolerable levels.
But Steven Perreau says his payout from Daikin doesn't go far enough. He is calling for all Daikin customers with the same air conditioning system to be warned of the problem, which he believes is a fault with the unit’s heating options.
Daikin says the issue happens when two of the system’s settings, which it says are rarely used together, are both on. It has issued a software update to stop the problem from happening to anyone else.
But Perreau isn’t convinced the software update is sufficient to fix the problem for everyone. He calls it a "dangerous defect" and urges Daikin to recall the systems.
It started with a winter heating problem
Steven Perreau lives in Swanson, West Auckland, which he says can be cooler in winter and warmer in summer than other parts of the country.
In early 2024, he ordered a new air conditioning system, choosing Daikin’s CTXJ-T model. It included an outside processor and five indoor units, which he spread throughout the house. It cost him $11,610.75.
In May, Perreau was woken in the night by one of his two teenaged children having a cold shower and complaining their bedroom was too hot.
Over the following weeks, his children complained consistently about how hot their bedrooms were getting during the night.
Perreau was running the Daikin app for the air conditioning through a third-party app he uses to control many of his home appliances. When he checked the data, he could see exactly what was happening.
"The target temperature was 19 degrees all night," he says. “What I could see is that after a couple of hours it just began heating. It began running a heating cycle and heating the room up."
He recorded the temperatures in his children’s bedrooms at 30 degrees. "The kids were cooked. The air conditioning was going nuts. Something was drastically wrong,” he says.
What was wrong with the air con?
Perreau put oil fin heaters into his children's bedrooms and refused to use the Daikin units while he began dealing with the company’s customer service team.
Over several weeks, Daikin representatives visited Perreau’s home, testing his units during the day to see if they could replicate what he claimed was happening.
Perreau was told they couldn't find any faults. But he began conducting his own tests and found what he believes the fault was: a button on the remote control for an option called “comfort flow”.
When pressed, “comfort flow” is supposed to “automatically change the direction of the airflow” to heat or cool a room more effectively.
Perreau says he successfully tested his theory several times, watching as a bedroom set to be 19 degrees rose to 30 degrees after several hours.
This, claims Perreau, is due to a Daikin software bug. “It loses its way and goes nuts,” he says.
He requested a full refund of the system, plus a $5,000 fee for the 80+ hours he estimates he spent diagnosing the problem.
Through a law firm, Daikin rejected his offer, so Perreau lodged a claim with the Disputes Tribunal.
What Daikin says the problem is
Daikin agrees the problem is a software bug but says it relates to a “rarely used combination of settings”.
It says the issue happens when comfort mode is used at the same time as the vertical setting, which, according to Daikin’s manual, “sends air directly downwards”.
The company’s New Zealand director Richard Creagh told Consumer it has taken steps to warn customers and installers about the bug.
It has also updated the system’s operating manual, and created a software patch to “reduce the maximum temperature when operating in this way”.
“Daikin has supplied thousands of these particular units across New Zealand and Australia over the past decade without incident,” says Creagh.
In a settlement agreed upon before the case reached the Disputes Tribunal, Daikin paid Perreau his requested amount of $23,410.75 in full.
What Perreau wants to happen next
Perreau believes anyone with the same Daikin system could be susceptible to the problems he’s faced.
He warns everyone who has the same model as him to be wary of using “comfort flow” along with the vertical setting, and to contact the company to ask if their unit is safe.
He believes the systems should be recalled until a full investigation has been undertaken as he believes it could cause harm.
Daikin didn’t respond to Consumer’s queries about which Daikin models were susceptible to the fault, and whether the software update had been rolled out online for all customers or instead requires a manual update by a technician.
Worried? What to do if you’re a Daikin customer
Anyone with a Daikin air conditioning system with the same fault should contact the company, the retailer or their installer and ask for it to be repaired or replaced.
Daikin’s phone number is 0800 20 90 10 or you can use its online contact form.
