I have a laser distance measuring device, and the visiting cats (all outdoors) could chase that around, I suppose. I have no cats of my own. But as for temperature, I rely on a contact thermocouple that plugs into my DMM and gives a readout. We once met a dog-owner at San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf, whose dog chased a laser pointer. He had even appeared on TV on The Dave Letterman Show, as this was unusual at the time, for dogs to do it. Times change.
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Jeff Layman
It does - and more expense!
Are you sure that the the air passes the aircon heat exchanger /after/ the heater matrix? If you're trying to stop humid air reaching the screen you should remove it by condensing it out with the aircon heat exchanger whilst it's still cold. Once the water content has been reduced it doesn't matter if you use the heater to warm the dried air, as even if that air hits the cold screen it won't have water in it to mist up the screen. If you try to do it the other way round, it's much more difficult.
When the aircon is switched on you should hear / see some
If it's an old car I wonder what refrigerant will be used to regas it.
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Davey
I had the same thoughts when I read that. It's how air handling systems do it. It also allows for greater control of the final temperature and humidity.
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Harry Bloomfield Esq
Border collies here, and almost all will chase a laser spot, or in fact any moving bright spot.
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Theo
What vintage of Colt is it?
Not necessarily - it could be a control system fault. eg lack of power to the HVAC ECU means neither heating or A/C will turn on. Or 'something is wrong' and the ECU has decided to shut down - eg broken temperature sensor and it can't decide whether it's going to roast or freeze you, so it refuses to do anything.
It would be worth doing an OBD scan to see if the car has any idea where the fault might be, before diving in to poke wiring.
Theo
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John Rumm
No sorry - I wrote that backwards! It is usually setup to allow it to warm up cold dry air
There will be an info sticker somewhere that will normally tell you the gas used, and the mass of it required, often also what compressor oil to add.
If it has the "wrong" type, they can often recharge them with a more modern replacement. Some very old units may also need an adaptor to the recharge point fitting.
My car is a 2008 model and the label has HFC134a gas - the refiller had no problem with that - but possibly swapped it for HFO-1234yf. I think on my previous car (2003) they had to recover the
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The Natural Philosopher
The reverse Climate control ensures that you can run them together - vital for winter demisting.
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The Natural Philosopher
The reverse Climate control ensures that you can run them together - vital for winter demisting.
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Theo
If you have a very old car with an R12 system (early 90s or earlier), you can convert it to take R134a.
If it's later but pre 2017 it'll take R134a. If your car is post 2017 it'll take R1234yf.
It seems you can fill an R1234yf system with R134a, but not an R134a system with R1234yf. You need to vacuum out the system so there isn't a mix of gases.
In general a regas means vacuuming out the gas into a recovery cylinder then putting in the manufacturer's recommended weight of fresh gas - they don't reuse the old gas (it goes off to be reprocessed).
Cars with a belt-driven compressor usually take PAG oil, hybrids and EVs with an electric compressor use POE oil. Getting even traces of PAG oil in a POE system can burn out the compressor. This is why hybrids and EVs need to be gassed on a machine that uses POE oil.
Most garages only have a single machine which has had PAG in it, so you don't want to gas a hybrid/EV on them else you risk killing the compressor - getting a new OEM compressor can be a £1k+ part, although scrappies often have them for a lot less.
Theo
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Andy Burns
Wonder why car aircon isn't moving to R290 like fridges and ASHP? Presume that doesn't need recovery, you could just flare it off?
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Theo
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a mix of propane and butane, similar to fridges. (R290 = propane, R600a = isobutane)
In a car there's worries about flammability and leaks into the cabin, although you also have the fridge in your living space too. Possibly there's a higher risk of an ignitable concentration in the smaller volume of a car cabin than the average kitchen?
Theo
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