Do you use your air con?
 

Just wondered how people use theirs. Work at a garage and get all sort of comments.

Some never use it, it uses too much fuel, not hot enough etc. When I say mine is never switched off (climate on auto) as it's good for keeping the cabin comfortable and windows demisted in rainy weather sort of goes over peoples heads.

Yeah, I leave mine on auto all the time. I don't think it does the system any favours by not using it regularly as the liquid/gas lubricates the seals and stops them drying out. What really amazes me is that some people think you only need to use it in hot weather.

I tell so many customers it's not for use only when it's hot, yes your right I believe you get less problems if it's in constant use.

I leave mine on all year round. Picking and choosing when it is on causes problems.

Yes, on auto permanently. Set at 19 degrees and left alone.

Mine is always on. not only is it air conditioning it is also acts as a dehumidifier even when the arm heater is on, as said a lot people don't understand what AC is. I do sometimes have to tell passengers to keep the windows up as the car will cool quicker if the AC is left to do the job its designed to do.

I leave mine on Auto most of the time but do occasionally switch it off.

One of the most frustrating journeys I have been on was with my old boss who every 10 minutes or so would switch the air-con on and the off 10 minutes later rather than leaving it on Auto.

He was so tight that and may have saved a miniscual amount of fuel but the constant temperature variation was very annoying and uncomfortable.

Left on auto, my motto with aircon is use it or lose it.

I always feel frustrated jumping in a car and seeing ac off.

Always get the, but i only changed the compressor 2 years ago, how come its failed already, i only used it in June last year its like new!

For the couple of quid you save I don't feel its worth the £300-£800 worth of repairs every couple of years.

Out of interest, does anyone know what sort of power the average AC compressor consumes?

In an XJ6 I used to have I never turned it off.In the Omega I have it's never worked in 7yrs of owning it,in the V70 I tried it and it blew warm so turned it off and not bothered with it since.

Usually just turn it off and open a window or sunroof, but if its a long journey or a hot day like today then its on.

When aircon is turned "on", it isn't on all the time...... It's impossible for it to be "on" constantly so just leave aircon on or on auto dependant on your system and let it work as designed.

Air-con is always switched 'on' in my car, and the climate control set to auto nearly all the time.

After parking up the car for 18 months a few years ago and spending several hundred to get the air-con back working, I prefer to take the minor mpg hit over the much bigger cost of repair.

And on days like today (about 25ºC around here) I don't want to drive without it!

Conventional wisdom suggests that the A/C causes less of a hit to mpg than the drag caused by opening the windows.

Mine is just about permanently set to Auto 68 F ... this past week or so in Pennsylvania it's been fluctuating between through the range of full blast cold and full blast hot - we hit 90 last Saturday, but had frosts the last couple of mornings!

Our old V40 does not have climate control, the A/C is either on or off, they're your options. It used to work, but we found it leeched so much power from our lowly 1600cc that it absolutely caned MPG figures. I mean, you could watch the needle plummet, it's that bad.

Having said that, I am coming around to the idea. Opening a window on a motorway is always noisy, so on hot journeys maybe it'd be useful then.

Set to auto and left unless rapid demisting/defrosting is needed.
Around our way sea mist can come in and temp plumit by 10degrees in 10 yards as was the case yesterday, that's when you need the heated windows and mirrors.

Paul.

If its fuel economy that bothers you then up to about 40mph[I think that's the quoted speed?]it's more economical to open a window,after that speed the balance tips the other way and the aircon becomes the more frugal option.Personally I've always got the drivers window cracked open a little-but then I smoke.I even used to drive the XJ like this and the aircon/climate was never turned off in that.

I only use mine when it is boiling hot tbh.

And to back up everything everyone has said about use it or lose it. Just put it on and it isn't blowing cold anymore, haven't used it since last summer.

In the C70 it's on all the time, just set the temperature & forget, everything else is taken care of. It gets turned off automatically when the roof's down. In the van I'll have it on apart from around town when I generally like to have the windows down. But yeah, even in Winter, it keeps the windows mist free.
I've travelled in the inlaws car & my MIL, sat in the front passenger seat, kept turning the A/C on & off, which after a while started to grate. I told her that all she need do is select "auto" & then everything is taken care of, all she then needs to set in future is the temperature. I still don't think it's sunk in.

My 1996 940 I had to change the condenser and used compressor and had AC for last summer.

The garage only put in 500g of gas and it takes 950g this lasted 5 months as now does not work as had slight weep from condenser clamp. Clamp damaged slightly and NLA from Volvo.

Going to retry the O rings and have it re- gassed again as like AC. I use it all the time in hot weather and it turns on automatically when you select demist.

I have just bought a Lexus IS 220D and it's going well so far. The ECC was only blowing cool and thankfully a re-gas has it nice and cold. I set the temp to 17 degrees both sides/dual and leave on auto. Best £45 spent to have a cool car! Especially Thursday as outside temp in sun saying 28 degrees!

James:thumbs_up:

I have mine regased every 3/4 years at dealers. The gas carries a lubricant and like all oils it needs changing occasionally. For what it costs I consider it preventative maintenance and certainly cheaper than repairing a broken system.

Paul.

Not entirely true, the oil, if needed, is added separately, not with the gas, also the only time the oil gets changed is if the compressor gets replaced. There is oil spread around the entire system but the majority is in the compressor.

Put the old beetles on today. First time in several years. Ice cold!!

Many thanks. I was going on what I had been told.
Seems car is connected to a machine that empties the system weighs the contents and adds new as needed. Seems the lubricant/oil keeps seals suple.
I know AC worked better after it was done last time and for what it cost am happy to have it done on a regular basis. Like anything used constantly you do not notice the gradual drop in performance.
A workmate buys the diy kits from halfords, guesses ambient temp and calculates psi needed from a table on the can and uses the gauge on the can adaptor to measure the pressure in the system. He swears it works as his AC is freezing. I prefer the more considered approach.

Paul.

I live in south west france which has the second hottest climate to the cote d'azur.
We can also get -10 in winter so the aircon is usually off then. Yesterday it was 36 degrees. It is usually on from march till November. But reading some of the posts maybe i should leave it on all year. I have a heated windscreen and tend to use that not the aircon to clear the frost.

I tend to have the roof down.. although i put the aircon on still the other day to just keep it all moving etc

Disnt realise it turns off with roof down?? Mine still blows cold :/

Mine was on with roof down yesterday. I have roof down most days it's dry X

Around 3kW to 6kW, depending on vehicle size

(4hp to 8hp for those living in the past and still using horses)

In the handbook it says that the A/C is 'subdued' with the roof down ...I took that to mean it's switched off. Never tested it TBH as I turn it off (along with the fan) anyway with the roof down ;-)

Subdued really seems to sum it up... it does still blow (hot or cold as appropriate) but not as strong

Ah, I stand corrected then :thumbs_up:

I only have mine on when it's hot. I find the D5 doesn't accelerate nearly as well when the A/C is switched on.

Having said that, my old BMW air con was working up until a few years ago. Had it re-gassed now it works for a week before giving up again. I think perhaps that was a lack of use and now a seal has failed somewhere.

Nice to see so many people use th air con as intended, and use auto. It's not just nice and cold on hot days but nice to have conditioned air all year round much more comfortable driving.

I personally could not have a car without it, it packed up on my last car and I could not fix it quick enough. Took some time finding the fault, sensor in the evaporator.

Always on auto in all our cars. I mean, why even think of switching it off?!

Saying that, wife’s old -99 Civic was a manual system and truly sapped all the power that little 1.5 had so only on when needed. The 780 system is always on but as mechanical do sap a lot of power and its really noticable! My guess is that ot looses 10-15bhp ;)

New cars use electrical systems and is hardly noticable.

How do electrical AC compressors work, I would have thought an electric compressor saps more power than a clutched pulley running off a belt?

The electrical power has to come from somewhere, and I would suspect the mechanical load of the compressor is transfered to the altinator.
Wether an electrical system uses less power I don't know. Certainly manufactures are changing to electric power steering to save power, only draws power when needed no recirculation of fluid.

Paul.

I have no idea. Could well be that they in fact take similar power. But I remember reading about it way back. Manufacturers were changing to electrical systems to save fuel etc etc etc. Whether true or not....