Tag: car air conditioner elements

Things you Need to Know About Car Air Conditioner

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Do you know your Car Air Conditioner Components? Here is the Basic Guide for You

Things you Need to Know About Car Air Conditioner

No one wanted long hours of a road trip without an air conditioner. It is one of the car’s crucial parts. You might have felt and experienced a bigger air conditioner in your house or office. The car air conditioner works pretty much the same. Today we are going to cover the basics of a car air conditioner. Including the important elements and how it works.

Air Conditioner System

Air conditioner commonly works by converting high-pressure Freon gas to a high-pressure liquid that could be cooled down and then distributed to the car’s cabin. It consists of several elements, just like the regular air conditioner in your house. Each element works hand in hand to produce cool air. 

Air Conditioner Components

Refrigerant

An air conditioner wouldn’t work without its main element, the refrigerant. Also known as Freon, this element carries heat from inside the cabin and delivers it outside. It is the element that will change states from gas to liquid and back to gas throughout the cooling system. It will first absorb heat inside the car and then the heat is pushed outside. Then it will change back to the gas form and travel back inside to repeat the cooling process. This process results in the cool wind you feel in the car’s cabin.

Compressor

The first in the line of the air conditioner is the compressor. Compressor’s principle uses a combination of Boyle’s, Charles’, and Gay Lussac’s gas law. It will pressurize the refrigerant and therefore raise the temperature. Firstly it will squeeze the gas tightly together. The reason is to get the refrigerant’s temperature higher than the outside temperature. It’s important because we know that temperature flows from hotter to cold places. If your car ac compressor not turning on or what causes ac compressor to not turn on, guarantee the rest will not work either.

Condenser

The condenser is located in the front part of the car. You can pop the hood and see this component standing in front of the car’s radiator. It is the opposite of the evaporator. While the evaporator stores cold refrigerant, the condenser is in charge of storing the hot refrigerant. That’s why it is located in front of the radiator to facilitate heat transfer to the outside environment. It is also a part of the air conditioner that breaks easily because of the location in the car.

Expansion Valve

Before the refrigerant passes to the evaporator, it is cooled down in the expansion valve. It depressurized the liquid to also decrease the temperature. This component also controls the amount of refrigerant that goes into the evaporator. With an expansion valve, the car air conditioner could transform the liquid state of a refrigerant to vapor that will be managed by the evaporator.

Evaporator

The evaporator is the one that picks up heat from inside your cabin to transform it into cool air. It will depressurize the liquid refrigerant from the expansion valve and absorb heat. Again, it uses the principle of the second law of thermodynamics. This component also relies on the blower, which just as the name stated, will help blow air over the evaporator. As the refrigerant absorbs heat, it then forms a vapor.

That is all you need to know about a car air conditioner. This basic knowledge can help you to determine if there is a leak or damage in your car’s air conditioner system. It also helps you to communicate with the technician in an auto shop so they can fix the problem quickly for you. Knowing these is also important so you can check them up before going on a road trip. Always make sure to do a periodical check-up to keep your air conditioner system working well.

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How to Maintain Car Air Conditioner Condenser

Blog by tinpan

Want to take good care of your car air conditioner system? Here are all the things you need to know to maintain your car air conditioner condenser.

How to Maintain Car Air Conditioner Condenser

The air conditioner is a crucial element of a car. It is composed of many components that have their own job to blow cool wind throughout the cabin. We all know the air conditioner system works by converting high-pressure gas to high-pressure liquid. It then gets streamed to the Receiver dryer and continues its journey to the expansion valve. One of AC’s many components is the car air conditioner condenser.

Condenser Function

The main function of a condenser is to lower the temperature of the refrigerant. The refrigerant is first pumped by the air conditioner compressor. Condenser works to absorb heat in the Freon that has been compressed from the gas form into liquid form.

If you are wondering where this component is located, open up the hood of your car. Commonly, you can see it in the front of the car radiator. This position is risky especially since a dirty condenser could affect the cooling process heavily.

What Broke the Condenser?

From now on, you might want to drive more carefully. Car air conditioner condenser could easily leak from something very minor, such as dust and gravel. It might also be caused by bouncing pebbles if you drive too fast on the highway.

Another thing that could break the condenser comes from inside the condenser itself, naming slow fan rotation as one of the causes condensers can’t work properly. It is because the AC is used too frequently or could be on a long road trip where your car doesn’t even take a break. You also want to pay attention when you are filling out the Freon. Too much Freon can trigger excessive pressure. This means it can raise the room temperature and the condenser can’t produce cool wind because it’s warmer than normal.

Maintaining Air Conditioner Condenser

Now that you know this element breaks easily, you want to pay more attention. If your condenser is not working, it could also be because the car AC compressor not turning on ( car ac compressor not coming on ). If that’s the case, you might want to look up the whole AC system and get it fixed. But here’s how you could maintain the air conditioner condenser from damage.

Routine Check-ups

The first thing that might work is if you do routine check-ups. Every 3 or 6 months, take your car to the auto shop for a quick check-up. You could relay to the mechanic if you have any problems with the air conditioner and they will gladly check it for you.

DIY Clean-up

Another thing that you can easily do at home is to clean the condenser by yourself. First, you need to make sure that the car is not recently used. Make sure the engine is cooled down enough before the cleaning process. Then, you can uninstall the front bumper of your car. Open the hood first to locate all of the screws and bolts you need to remove. Before you move on to the next step, cover other engines with a trash bag to avoid them from getting contaminated.

The easiest way to clean the condenser is to brush off the dirt. For this process, you could use a clean brush or even a vacuum with a brush attachment. Then, you will need to spray a coil cleaner, followed by a rinsing process, and drying the condenser completely dry. You can use tools like a blowgun to fasten the drying process.

That is everything you need to know about the car air conditioner condenser. It is one of the AC elements that produces cool air in your car. You can do a periodical check-up to make sure it is still working fine.

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