How cool are you?

After a wet spring, summer is finally here! With it have arrived the usual green fields, blue skies, and balmy afternoons. Now, most years this spurs me to think mostly of beer gardens, barbeques, and long hikes, but, this year, something else has come to my attention.

My air conditioning is rubbish. It takes an age to really kick in, it doesn’t cool down the car that much, and any benefit disappears as soon as I flick it off again. So far I’ve survived by opening a window, but I’m not convinced that that’s going to serve me well for much longer. That in mind, I’ve taken a look into how your car’s air conditioning works, and what you can do to make it better.

Air conditioning works by drawing in air from outside the car, reducing the amount of heat and moisture present in it, and then blowing it into the cabin. There’s quite a lot of science behind this, but it doesn’t have to be overly complicated. It does this by making the outside air flow over a series of refrigerated fins, that condense out any water in the air while lowering its temperatures. In this way it proves valuable in both summer and winter – keeping you lovely and cool in the former, and demisting your windscreen in the latter.

These fins are cooled themselves by a gas* that gets used up over time, and this is something that you can do something about.

Most vehicle manufacturers recommend that you have your air conditioning serviced (sometimes known as a ‘re-gas’) once every two years. This lets it reach a lower temperature sooner, so you don’t need to run it as long, reducing how much fuel you use. Particularly for those of you with kids (or a sweet tooth), it’s also worth noting that if your car is cooler, you’ll have fewer melted ice creams, and so less mess.

On top of that, having the air conditioning topped up reduces strain on the unit, making it less likely to fail on you. When the majority of cars’ air conditioning can be serviced for as little as £79, this can prove to be a massive saving.

Interested in having your air conditioning serviced, or just have a query about it? Just give our team a call on 01746 764200 and they’ll be happy to give you a quote and get you booked in soon. Alternatively, you can book online here. You can even tie this into our Service Plans to help avoid unexpected costs.

*The industry used to use a CFC (chlorofluorocarbon) for this, but they’ve phased this out following the damage it had caused to the ozone layer.