AIRAH DA 19 review - here's what they are saying. The good ... and the bad

One of the things I love about AIRAH is the great input we receive on our projects that we do on behalf of the industry. Our members come from all the way through the value chain and work in businesses from global corporations to the single operator so we get all sorts of perspectives.

Our latest review is on the maintenance bible for HVAC&R industry in Australia - DA19.

I thought I'd share some of the insights we have had to date on what your industry likes about DA19 - and what it doesn't.

If you use DA19 and want to influence the review - you only have a few days left to do so...

AIRAH Review DA19: HVAC&R Maintenance

Published in February 2009 AIRAH application manual DA19 HVAC&R Maintenance is due to be reviewed and updated. An online survey is open until Friday 30th June to help us scope out the terms of the revision project.

Complete the survey now.

AIRAH needs your help to build a better DA19, one that reflects contemporary industry needs. Please take the time to share your views and knowledge on DA19 HVAC&R Maintenance with us.

Heres a bit of a peek at the feedback we have had to date:

The good...

• It is reasonably comprehensive, well structured and easy to grasp
• Overall this a great document. Economical serviceable life span page is great reference used with customers. Service schedule are good guides
• DA19 provides valuable information on equipment service schedules and economic life cycles, this is good as it provides users with an industry base line, it is also easy to read and understand, quite often when referring to Aust standards it is difficult to understand my preference is to reference DA19 on all of my contracts and conditions reporting. 
• General Information providing a common standard
• Good reference document
• Its very comprehensive
• the Current DA 19 is a very good document, substantial improvement from previous versions of the manual
• It established a clear industry standard for maintenance and avoids conflict about what should and should not be included in PPM.
• Appendix A is great with the suggested maintenance to be provided to various types of equipment.
• My organisation & I work of the DA19 Manual as this insures that we are meeting the required legislated Australian standards and BCA guidelines.
• It also helps us when there is a dispute with the frequency of maintenance being carried out by other contractors that don't comply the minimum requirements.
• Very helpful.
• The structure of the manual - it is clear, and provides a step-by-step guide to what is included and excluded from a service visit
• It prescribes a best practice level of maintenance for HVAC that it requires and is absent from current statutory maintenance.
• It's very practical. It's more operational, easier for applying in field works, solid, not abstract.
• Easy to use 
• We need an industry standard for maintenance tasks. This is the best available at the moment
• Standardise expectation of clients
• The number of plant type classifications with plant specific maintenance tasks assigned.
• Clearly the detail is driving specifiers to reference DA19 in their documents and this should be promoted more to consultants as the industry standard.
• Incorporation of Risk Assessment/Management in the maintenance "space", as safety often gets overlooked once the initial installation has been completed.  
• The complete approach to system maintenance - can be used as a reference for setting up maintenance checks, and provides good guidelines for asset management.
• The DA19 is the only publication that I have found that gives actual guidelines and information regarding HVAC maintenance and the need for it.
• It is a good single point of reference for the planned maintenance of mechanical services equipment.

The bad...

• It is not flexible and it needs a greater focus on energy efficiency (especially with respect to maintenance of controls
• With the service schedules they are like a hamburger with the lot. We believe there can be maintenance delivered at different levels still meeting the code. This maybe difficult to do but customers reference DA 19 which can be very open ended. Like in a builders contract could have method schedule 1, 2 Etc.
• there should be a clarification between the differences and interpretation between Aust standards and the DA19 Manual for Maintenance, that will enable the user to make an informed decision on minimum requirements in relation to Aust Standards.
• Some details out of date with Technology
• It basically only caters for designers, in field service advice would be good.
• There is no advice in relation to annual fire maintenance.
• cannot suggest of any fundamental issues. it may need an update to reflect the state of standards as they evolved since 2009
• It is not comprehensive with respect to the new Australian Standards that have been released since DA19 was developed. The asset types are in some cases over the top (duct, pipe, etc), and others thin, no reference to CO monitoring systems, detail on BMCS PM, Air Quality testing, Refrigerant monitoring alarms, etc.
• There are several types of equipment not covered in Appendix A. Items such as autoclaves, suction pumps, CRAC units, air to air heat exchangers, desiccant wheels, water treatment and quarantine/operating theater areas (checking of airflow direction).
• Nothing to really comment as this is a very powerful tool to use.
• There are items included in the service items which are really quite low (in terms of priority) and the descriptors of the higher priority maintenance items are missing or not detailed sufficiently.
• Nothing really. It would be good if it could clearly identify though what parts are statutory maintenance (and include them if it doesn't). It varies per state, but very few deviate from the NCC requirements as called up by occupancy certificates.
• The depth of the knowledge system in DA is not enough, or in other word, the hierarchy is not enriched. Looks a bit too simple.
• Not a lot
• Some of the tasks are a bit out dated on the newer equipment
• Need greater number of categories particular for AHU configurations
• There is a substantial amount of tasks nominated as monthly or quarterly which is often challenged by clients as to the "value add" of that frequency, would like to see some of that reviewed.
• Not enough on ammonia systems, and detailed compressor maintenance intervals and the specifics of the recommended checks i.e. recommended thrust clearance check intervals, slide position indicator calibration, compression testing, vibration analysis frequency, grease analysis, expected shaft seal bleed rates etc.
• The manual is quite complex and can be a difficult document to relay to tech staff without some interpretation from senior staff
• The Air Handling unit plant maintenance could be broken down more for fan coils units and AHUs. The inclusion and importance of servicing split type units too.
• More focus on condensate water drains including traps and pipework too. 
• it is not particularly use friendly to navigate requiring cross referencing across a myriad of tables.
• The "economic life of equipment" table is misleading.
• Many of the tasking are over the top and cost prohibitive. Clients are ill-informed and uneducated and believe that DA19 is a statutory requirement not a best practice "guide"
• Unfortunately! I personally do not like anything about DA-19. Customers are literally using DA-19 as a full scope of works and their HVAC bible, rather than using it as a guide. The customers lack of understanding with DA-19, is putting intense pressure on our HVAC industry. Most tasking and frequencies are over the top, eg: tasking and frequencies for a high wall split etc is Monthly, where should maintenance be carried out as to DA-19, would in most cases cost more than the cost of a small 2kw unit.

Have your say

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