Aftermarket AC condenser Skyrocket, high side

2016 Prius
14. Cooling fans per inch on the aftermarket condenser.

21. Cooling fins on the OEM DENSO condenser.

Fewer cooling refrigerant passage tubes on the aftermarket condenser

if you were to cut open a Refrigerant tubes in the OEM, you would have 12 to 15 tiny thin thin’s on the inside of the tube for surface area to dissipate heat.

On the inside of the aftermarket, do you have about six cooling fans inside the tube.

This means higher head, pressure and really hot weather, lower fuel mileage longer run times for compressor.

I’m cool days you’ll notice absolutely nothing different out the

On a hot day, is where the vehicles AC falls on it’s face. 85°, 90°F plus

But until then, the system runs, unnecessarily, high, head pressure.

This is the price to pay when you save $100 on some aftermarket condensers. .

sometimes diagnosing a poor performing air conditioning system nobody would suspect that Shinnie New Condenser

 

you took the exact words right out of my mouth

That’s exactly what I tell everybody to. Word for Word

 

if you add it in series, it will take more power. It will increase more friction. It will definitely need more refrigerant.

If you put them in parallel, you will definitely increase the cooling capability to like series, but even better you will decrease the static friction loss by having condensers in parallel, and again to you will increase the gas charge required but that’s OK.

If I was going to do my own vehicle, and I wanted to modify it for better cooling in extreme hot weather.

I will try to find the absolute biggest Condenser and I might have to do a little sheet metal modification make my own brackets and make custom hoses to fit.

A Condenser that came from a SUV or a van that has dual Evaporators.
This means that condenser was manufactured to reject more heat from the heat load of a rear evaporator plus the front evaporator and the larger interior cubic foot volume of a large van.

They make the condensers a little thicker, may be a few inches taller a few inches longer

Take somebody with a mechanical skill, and some willpower and a little finessing of metal hose fittings, but this is what I would do with my own vehicle if I lived in extreme hot weather climate. I would even mount a second evaporator in the rear of my vehicle, like they do in the SUV or the van exactly the same..