The hidden system above your ceiling. From ₪450, plus ₪249 per duct.
What is a mini-central air conditioner in Israel, and how much does it cost to clean?
A mini-central (מיני מרכזי, mini merkazi) is the standard air conditioning system in Israeli apartments built in the last two decades: one concealed indoor unit sits above a lowered section of ceiling and distributes air through flexible ducts to flat vents in several rooms. Because it is hidden, it is the system most often never cleaned. Cleaning starts at ₪450 for the indoor unit plus ₪249 per duct, takes two to three hours, and a typical three-duct apartment comes to ₪900–₪1,200. If you see vents in your ceiling and no white box on any wall, this is the system you have.
If your apartment has flat vents set into the ceiling in several rooms, and no white box on any wall, you have a mini-central system — מיני מרכזי in Hebrew. One machine, hidden above a lowered section of ceiling, pushes cooled air through flexible ducts to each room. It's the standard in most Israeli apartments built in the last twenty years.
It is also the system that gets neglected the most, for a simple reason: you cannot see it. There's no filter you can pop out and rinse, no coil you can glance at. Most owners have never once looked inside, and a large share of the systems we open have not been cleaned since the day the apartment was built.
Meanwhile the ducts — soft, ribbed, dark and permanently damp in an Israeli summer — are close to a perfect environment for mold. Whatever grows in there is blown into every room of your home, every time the system runs.
Wiping a vent with a cloth does nothing. The problem is a metre and a half further in.
Blocked ducts cut cooling efficiency by up to 30% — the system runs longer for the same result, and you pay for it.
Mold inside the ductwork is distributed to every room, including bedrooms and children's rooms.
The smell gets worse each season and never resolves on its own, no matter how long you leave it off.
Uneven cooling — one room freezing, another barely cool — is usually a partially blocked duct, not a broken system.
Water dripping through the ceiling means a blocked drain. Left alone, that becomes a plasterwork repair.
A strained system fails early. A compressor replacement costs many times what a decade of annual cleans would have.
We open the service hatch and run a camera into the ducts. You see the footage before we quote the duct work.
Coil, blower wheel and drain pan deep-cleaned in place, drain line flushed through.
Each supply duct cleaned with rotating brushes and high-power extraction, working back from the vent.
EPA-approved treatment through the whole system, then airflow and temperature checked at every vent.
A typical apartment takes two to three hours. Roughly 45–60 minutes for the indoor unit and first duct, then about 20 minutes per additional duct.
* A 3-duct apartment typically lands between ₪900 and ₪1,200 all in. You get the exact figure before we come.
Most mini-central systems we open have never been touched. Send us your city and how many ceiling vents you have — we'll quote it.
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