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lech auto air conditionin

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If your Prius A/C air vents have developed a bad odor ever time you turn on your air conditioning there a few cures for this problem. Lets start with the easiest and least expensive. The can of aerosol bio-stat or fungicide, some are just cleaners and some work with a coating over the evaporator. In different parts of the country there are different mold spores, fungus, pollen, leaves, bugs, ect. Combined with the water from the condensation from your working a/c this makes the perfect environment ( breading ground, petri dish) for fungi and bacterial growth. Different smells from different cars, some smell like dirty socks, dirty baby diapers in a plastic can on a hot summer day, sweaty men's locker room ect. as a consumer your self if you are the DIY ( do it yourself) type. You can go to your local auto part supply store and try your self, but I stress THOROUGHLY READ THE INSTRUCTION !!!. Some contain vary strong chemicals some bio-stats not to be inhaled. If you are a TECH in a shop or you are the owner of a shop you or your TECH must wear a air tight seal around the face respirator filter, the type with the carbon pack that says it is for ( VOC ) and pesticides they are about $35 to $65. it seals over the mouth and nose so one for each TECH. Remember the FDA, EPA, Health and Safety only tested and set standards of use and exposure to the chemicals used for one time or vary intermittent use only. If you are a TECH doing this in a shop for a living year after year that is extremely high exposure rate. Open all the cars door windows do it out side if you can. Some times the can treatment works some times not it depends on the cause, most of the time in my area in San Francisco I find it works 9 to 18 months some times longer. If the cans don"t work find a Air Conditioning specialty shop that has a machine designed just for this job. It works one of a few ways O3 (ozone generator), makes a spray mist with a chemical or ultra fine forger chemical disbursement that will be delivered through the recycle intake under the dash. In this photo I just show one type for example. Prius owner remember to change your filter under your dash for your fresh air and do not just remove it because it is plugged or dirty. There is a way to make a better filter but there is a negative side to that. the filter that came with the Prius is about a (MERV 6) by the looks of it, it gives good air flow but dose not filter out much. You can make your own if your are that type of person. Use of (MERV 11) or (MERV 13) filter material. If you do, and use you use your air ,heater, or just vents a lot then you will have to replace then every month to every 3 months at most. A plugged filter will cause poor a/c , heater performance and in some cases damage the compressor. A MERV 11 to 13 filter can stop pollen and cigarette smoke and some bacteria and fungi. Later when time permits I will show how to make this type of filter for your Prius like I did for my own Prius C.

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