Automotive Air Conditioning
Packard invented the auto air conditioner in 1939. It was quickly accepted and started becoming factory installed in cars the very next year, 1940. What the unit does is cools the air that passes through it and removes the humidity. It does this by using a compressor, condenser and evaporator. It’s commonly used to cool the air when it’s hot outside and when defrosting the windshield in the winter.
Automotive air conditioning or, A/C as it’s commonly called, is a component that most Pacific North westerners only worry about when the two weeks of warm summer hit since our average temperature is like 75*. This year though, the PNW is having a heat wave! The sun is out and everything is HOT! We are breaking records and having to be extremely cautious of our surroundings, including our homes, pets and automobiles. With this week’s temperatures maxing out at 94* here in Marysville we are seeing more and more vehicles in to have their AC serviced. Recharging your vehicles A/C is a normal maintenance kind of like topping off your oil. Some people think it’s a scam but we at Bud’s know that maintaining you’re A/C is a great way to watch for leaks and prevent missing a leak or issue that may cause need for an expensive repair. A full A/C service would include draining all of the old refrigerant and putting in all-new refrigerant. The name of the brand most commonly used is Freon. There are older versions like the R-12 and CFC12 and the newer types like R-134a and HFC-134a. There is a process and a very expensive machine that is used to test and service a cooling system. Hence the reason it’s not cheap and people don’t always maintain their units in this area. If your AC isn’t working or you would like to simply have it recharged, give us a call or click here to schedule an appointment!
Stay Cool!
Here is a picture of our A/C service machine, hard at work today!
