A friend of mine alleges a friend of his had his aircon re gassed for £30 using a fitter who worked on milking parlour tanks. Says it works fine! The air con on my Rover needs regassed - best/cheapest?
Thanks
|
semi skimmed is cheaper than full fat aircon
|
|
Halfords now do a R134a regas kit for £40, you could try that?
|
>Halfords now do a R134a regas kit for £40
Is this what the Americans refer to as a death kit?
How much is any component of an AC system, e.g, compressor, evaporator, condenser?
I studied refrigeration in uni & learnt enough to know that it's not DIY stuff. Paying a competent technician with the right, expensive tools will be the cheapest option.
|
What makes you think it needs regassing?
If it does, fix the leak first.
|
|
|
|
|
I have used a friend who works for cellar services to regas my air con in the past or you can use industrial frig engineers its not rocket science a gas bottle and the correct fittings.And as Dave wrightly says fix the leak first.
|
Plenty of vehicle AC techs now working purely out of their vans, with quite low costs if you book them in advance, and out of the summer season. A good friend is doing just this (and has been for about 5 years, a qual. engineer) and is Oxford based. Let me know if you'd like his details.
Worth using a professional IMHO.
|
|
About £75 + VAT every three years for a professional job -- equivalent to one tank of fuel in one of my cars. Not worth the risk and hassle of DIY, no matter how confident you feel, I reckon.
|
>fix the leak first.
Doesn't aircon need periodic regassing anyway, regardless of leaks in the system?
|
|
I had mine regassed the other week. A flick through the Yellow pages and a few calls later, the cheapest were the mobile service guys at round the £50 mark.
|
My Focus hasn't had a regas and is still ice cold. It's around 5 years old too.
|
My Focus hasn't had a regas and is still ice cold. It's around 5 years old too.
Per Ford intructions it needs doing every 3 years or so 'for optimum performance'. Had mine done last year, at 4 years old.
Incidentally, if domestic fridges work on a similar principle, why dont they have to be re-gassed every so often?
|
"Domestic" fridges, deep freezers, pub bottle coolers etc have their refrigeration system joints brazed/silver soldered together from new. In theory there are few leakage paths for the gas to escape.
Car air con, supermarket multiplexed systems etc generally have more joints, a proportion of which are mechanical. There are also, usually on car air con, "rubber" flexible hoses between the compressor and the body of the car to allow for engine movement. These hoses can leak through their "skin".
The compressor on a car has an open drive to enable the aircon to be turned on and off. The compressor drive shaft has a seal which is a further possible leak point.
As a matter of interest, I read that about 70% of the refrigerant gas used in the USA goes on topping up existing systems.(all types, not just cars)
In my opinion, self diagnosis and diy on aircon is potentially dangerous. I also believe that the supplying of diy repair/regass kits is irresponsible.
|
|
|
Incidentally, if domestic fridges work on a similar principle, why dont they have to be re-gassed every so often?
Your fridge lives in the kitchen and isn't subject to being abused by traffic harming measures such as potholes and speedhumps.
|
|
|
|
|
VR6
About right. Had my car ac professionally regassed last week becasue it didn't seem to be working as well as it used to. Emptied, vacuumed for 20 mins to remove moisture and regassed and reoiled. £70 inc VAT. First time in 6 1/2 years, and actually not that low on contents. A good advert for never turning the ac off.
JS
|
|
If you're in the Surrey area, I can recommend a guy on HJ's list - Chilly Willy. My 1998 Xantia suddenly stopped blowing cold. He came to my home, checked for leakage and then regassed it. The job took a little over an hour and cost me £65 (or there abouts)
|
|
|
|
|
|
