Re-gassing Car Air-conditioning on the cheap

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  CrazyHead on 02/06/2013 - 18:37

  You're supposed to de-pressurize the system and do a few other things first, not just put some new gas in. I paid $120 to get it done properly and just buying a can and DIY without any equipment will result in a system which is not working optimally and which may not last as long before requiring another re-gas.

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  pjcook on 03/06/2013 - 07:49

  +1

  Just a question about regassing car air conditioning?

  I had a refrigeration professional ask me years ago why would I want to regas my car a/c, had I ever regassed my refrigerator?

  His point was that if the car a/c had to be regassed, shouldn't you be looking for a leak somewhere as it is a sealed unit?

  • 

    marbss on 22/01/2022 - 11:26

    +2

    Cars move and vibrate. Fridges in house are stationary

  • 

    Hairy Nosed Wombat on 14/05/2022 - 17:27

    Fridges use metal hard lines. Automotive applications require rubber hoses to be used to cope with vibration. The gas molecule is small enough to pass through the rubber and will slowly leak out. Its the same reason your tyres slowly decrease in pressure over time.

    If a professional is asking you to explain it you should probably find someone who IS a professional.

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  OzzyOzbourne on 03/06/2013 - 10:12

  +5

  vehicle aircon systems are not perfectly sealed, over many years they can lose a little of the gas, so they don't operate at optimum efficiency any more. Of course, if all the gas is lost then you should have it checked for leaks and repaired. If it's lost most or all of it's gas, it's also best to have it evacuated to remove any moisture.

  The can of aircon gas is also available in most auto stores in the UK (and I think Europe and Japan). It's easy to use and comes with a pressure gauge and just takes a few minutes to top up.

  However, as you can't wipe your own bum without a license in Australia and as we don't want the aircon engineers having to compete for business, then we are forced to pay extortionate prices to them to have the system regassed. Who knows what calamities would happen if we did it ourselves. We might accidentally drink the stuff or spray it in our eyes!

  The carbon tax was just another excuse for them to increases the prices, which are now more than double what they were a couple of years ago, when it was about $100 to have it done by a mobile service. Assuming roughly $80 of that was the cost of the engineer's van, fuel, equipment, training, certification etc and $20 for the gas, the recent price hike to around $250 means the gas has increased by about 8 fold due to the carbon tax, which apparently must be deemed 'reasonable' otherwise it would be investigated as being a rort!

  You can't use the freeze spray you mention because;
  it doesn't have the right connector for the vehicle aircon
  it doesn't have a pressure guauge
  it doesn't contain lubricant
  it doesn't contain a coloured dye to trace leaks
  it's illegal to do it youself here

  ps. I've just been told you can actually wipe your bum without a license, apparently the rules changed last year. Oh well, I wasted $5k on a 3 day training course to gain certification in wiping my bum. Bummer hey!

  • 

    tonyjzx on 23/01/2022 - 10:56

    tbf thats just the way a lot of modern tech is

    i mean the mechanics I use are decent (obviously or I wouldnt go) but they wont do:

    alignments
    automatic transmissions
    air con
    diffs slash manual gearboxes
    tuning
    turbo repairs

    you see where i'm going with this… a lot of this stuff requires even more specialist equipment and why do it when there's guys who are trained and have the equipment and will do it cheaper than you???

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  zxtc on 24/01/2022 - 23:38

  We are so far behind in these things. Most guys just recharge the system and all good for a few years. STupid govt regs. We should have access the kits like you mentioned.

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  forged on 25/01/2022 - 00:58

  My AC compressor recently failed (it's completely seized). Mechanic says he doesn't see many compressor failures, and according to the previous owner, the AC had been regassed a couple of years ago. Related? Probably. Did the regas cause the failure? If the compressor oil leaked out with the refrigerant and wasn't replaced, then yes, it probably did.

  Get it done by someone who knows what they're doing.

  • 

    mini2 on 25/01/2022 - 14:38

    Maybe they've vacuumed all the gases outta there, done a flush and didn't add any PAG oil back in there?

    • 

      forged on 25/01/2022 - 21:54

      Entirely possible. Well now I've got to pay through the nose for a new compressor :(