Proper maintenance of AC in hot weather?

The refresher kits have a hose that goes from the can to the car's refrigerant valve. When you go to add refrigerant, the hose contains air, so the first thing you'll add is a volume of air.

It's best to take it to a pro, which really isn't that expensive. If that's impossible, Autozone has a/c equipment available for loan, but there's probably a learning curve involved, and these may be banned in some states.

 

You do what you NEED to do and don't worry about it.

 

Hi Lech, so if completely having your refrigerant removed a.k.a. recovered and recharged by weight is a good thing, how often should we do this, every 4 years or at signs of reduced cooling? What would you or a dealer or competent AC shop charge for this? And we should look for a shop that services a lot of hybrids so they know what they are doing? Thanks!

 

Freon doesn't wear out. If it's working, just use it. You can change the cabin air filter, and
back wash the condenser once in a while. You don't have to change the freon.

If you have the temp set at the lowest speed and fan speed is low, and on recirculate,
you run a good chance of freezing the evaporator. You'll have little or no air out of the vents.

If that happens, turn the compressor off, turn to fresh air, and turn the fan speed to high.
In about 30 seconds you should start having air come out. Leave it like that for a minute or so.
That will melt the ice that has formed.

 

The freon does not need to be changed but maybe to get an accurate charge by weight you need to evacuate the system then refill. Hopefully Lech will clarify.

 

Is your a/c NOT working????
If it is low on freon, there is a leak.
The ONLY reason you would need to evacuate the a/c system would be if something failed, and
replacing the failed part requiring the system to be open.
Again there is NO reason to evacuate and refill the system, for service. If the system is not working,
you need to find out why. Then repair/replace the part that has failed. Then evacuate the system and
fill correctly. If you don't have the tools or the knowledge, they you need to take it somewhere that does.
And of course, it will cost money. But money well spent!

 

PAG Oil absorbs water, if your system has a leak and the pag oil is saturated
you need to suck it out and replenish or things will coorode.

In reality this is hard to do (and usually not recommended) And further it’s best to let sleeping dogs lie.

The act of “doing maintenance “ On a properly operating system is more Risky than leaving it alone until there is an issue.

Also once there is an issue (like a leak) in theory you aren’t supposed to just drain and replenish Anyway,
(even though I just replenish due to the cost of repairs and the fact every time I’ve had an AC system fixed it failed shortly after and have gotten 10 years from just replenishing every other year )

Falls into the if you gotta replace junk it category

 

That is correct it does not wear out. But one thing it does 100% do leak out. Every vehicle manufactured leaks that’s why they use rubber seals synthetic hoses they all have a leak great even metal has a leak rate.

One car may lose 2 g or 10 g a year another car might lose 30 g a year. There’s nothing set in stone . On a Prius it’s double crucial for refrigerant charge when it’s going low. A regular compressor needs that extra refrigerant that’s not just for the passenger but it Hass to make it all the way back to the compressor to cool it because of the heat of compression and friction but electric motor has another heat source the electric Winings of a motor or like a home inductive heater in your bedroom so I need a extra amount of refrigerant to keep that cool to that as part of the power use. A regular compressor needs that extra refrigerant that’s not just for the passenger but it Hass to make it all the way back to the compressor to cool it because of the heat of compression and friction but electric motor has another heat source the electric windings of a motor are like a home inductive heater in your bedroom so it needs a extra amount of refrigerant to keep that cool to that as part of the power use.

If you put it on the lowest setting max cool there is no chance of freezing on a properly charge system because they have a temperature Sensor when it senses it gets cold enough to make ice it slows down or stops the compressor so the freezing thing is a fantasy fairytale from years long passed by ancient caveman.

Electric compressor systems when it senses it’s under capable of keeping up with the requested cabin temperature it starts adding power to the electric motor making it spin faster thinking it just needs more refrigerant. But if you were one or 2 ounces low or even 3 ounces low the computer system the way it was programmed does not know this it does not account for this so it just keeps adding more power to the windings making them hotter forcing the compressor to spin faster to compensate for the 2 ounces 3 oz. 4 ounces that it is low adding more heat to the motor windings forcing it to work harder and draw more amperage from your high voltage battery. All the time it continuously keeps ramping up the RPMs until one day the compressor gives up his life and burns up prematurely because somebody listen to that guy who says you don’t have to drain it out and refill it every often because it doesn’t wear out. Specially if it’s those guys who go buy bubbles in the site glass or looking at pressures on gauges in automotive field we love those guys because they burn up so many compressors and make us so much money by destroying a customers car. Although I feel sorry for the customer having to pay such a high price by taking advice from a backyard hack a YouTube professor or a armchair engineer.

Usually on average a brand new car should at least get you three or four years unless there’s a defect or stone damage to the condenser. Some vehicles can keep that pattern up for a decade. Well another customer may find it did not go for years but only three years the next time before he had to recharge and then the time after that he was only able go as long as two years.
Are you starting to see a pattern so there’s really no set in stone rule about a time interval. But definitely at the first sign of noticing something is not working right get it recharged drained and refilled by weight only. I myself on my very own personal cars sons moms aunts uncles cousins every 2 to 3 years on older cars and usually wait for years on a brand new car.

 

Prius is do not use Prius is do not usePAG oil. It is even worse than that it’s called Ester oil it’s even many times more hydroscopic than PAG.

 

Well, that’s never been done on my AC. Time to get that scheduled & be done, ac works fine and only gets turned on 3 months out of the year.

 

Here is a PC thread on using that very product that may be of use. OP is in Oklahoma. Be sure to read the entire (2 page) thread; lots of pros and cons and alternative suggestions there...

 

It’s a good product works majority of the time, in some severe cases the smell and mold may come back after about nine months plus or minus depending on Ambient contaminant conditions.

If anyone is interested MACS in about seven minutes is going to start the mobile air conditioning society webinar on getting your 609 refrigerant license.
Here is the YouTube webinar link

For those of you who may have the old 609 from decades ago grandfathered in and a lot of things have changed if you would like to update your knowledge this webinar is free.

They also talk a little bit about the new refrigerant R1234YF.

Going over process of recovering refrigerant recycling refrigerant and recharging refrigerant