Air Con Regas

[deleted79651]

Wending our weary way back from Woodside Field Rally to Scotland via all points north has been quite hard work in the hot weather and the cab has struggled to get below 26 Celsius, and was between 28 and 31 degrees for most of yesterday. Then I had a thought; the aircon was pushing out cool air, but not air con cold standard. Brunhilde is a tad over 5 years old, and I cannot see any record of the aircon being regassed [and she was sitting on the Dealer's forecourt for 6 months from October 2020...]. Has anyone else bothered with the regas exercise?

Booked her in for regas tomorrow morning before we swan off out of Fife again for the remaining 4 weeks of the lunacy that is the local Funfair directly opposite our flat ... [infection rates risen over 300% since early July as riders scream and drop globules of spit and who knows what else onto the riders below and the spectators on the ground ... Brunhilde looks like she's been dragged through a hedge backwards, but we might have take her out in her present dishevelled state to escape the crowds with more money than sense ...

Fingers crossed for the AirCon Regas!

Steve

 

[Stag man]

We've got an 08 plate MH owned by us for 7 years. Last service I had the AirCon regassed.
Like yours, it had stopped working and was blowing air at ambient temperature.
Regassing sorted the problem

 

[The Coops]

As above!

 

[Landy Andy]

They will drain the system first before testing it, then refilling it. Doing this will show if you have problems and how low on gas you were.

 

[Richard n Ann]

When they're getting low sometimes 1 or 2 vents are cool and the others are just circulating ambient air. That would indicate a tiny leak though, usually there's that little gas in the system if there's a leak it all goes.

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[Russell's Dad]

They will drain the system first before testing it, then refilling it. Doing this will show if you have problems and how low on gas you were.

Go to a proper regassing place with the big machine as this adds lubricants as well as gas. Also this will check for leaks . When I tried to get my car done Halfords would only fire in some gas from a cylinder. Local autoshop had the big machine and not much more expensive. I had a leak so they put in leak detection fluid, found and fixed it.

 

[BouncyBoatFolk]

I added a curtain pole behind the cab seats at the bulkhead junction. I put a shower curtain on that which can be slid across to reduce the size of area trying to be cooled. It seemed to work fine on the way back from South Wales on Mon in 30deg heat, as a bonus, it also reduces the ambient sound levels to a low drone of clangs and squeaks.
Mike

 

[EuroTrotters]

Hi,

I have been servicing, repairing and even designed some automotive A/C systems fir 30 years.

I’m off to bed now. But will try and link some posts tomorrow.

or search under my username

 

[JockandRita]

They will drain the system first before testing it, then refilling it. Doing this will show if you have problems and how low on gas you were.

When we had our air con matrix replaced on the Hymer, a full drain down and complete refill using a pucker machine with guages and controls was carried out.
The results were excellent, with a much more noticeable drop in temperature from the vents.

Cheers,

Jock.

 

[deleted79651]

Aircon regas completed this morning at a cost of £79.95 and now nice and cold! Of course, the outside temperature has fallen from that of yesterday! Fingers crossed that the A/C is restored to permanent health and that there are no leaks or condenser problems et seq. Also refilled the new refillable gas system. Provided the cabaret for the other motorists at Morrisons, with loudspeaker commentary by the Cashier ...

'The customer using the LPG, please put the hose back and start again. It's timed out ...' And they all know who I am, 'cos you have to go into the kiosk to pay for LPG purchases ... It's the Walk of Shame ... Well, it would be were I not shameless ... I just tell them that they need me as a benchmark!

Steve

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[Guigsy]

How well should we expect the aircon to work in our motorhomes? I'd have thought that the systems were designed to cool the relatively volume just a van cab? Surely it's going to struggle with several times the internal volume of a motorhome? And especially for a-classes with the massive greenhouse on the front.

Tip: when it gets really warm, try turning on re-circ. It gives the aircon much less work to do on each pass. Slightly stale but cold air is a hell of a lot nicer than stuff freshly scooped off the melting tarmac that's only had a couple of degrees knocked off it.

 

[deleted79651]

How well should we expect the aircon to work in our motorhomes? I'd have thought that the systems were designed to cool the relatively volume just a van cab? Surely it's going to struggle with several times the internal volume of a motorhome? And especially for a-classes with the massive greenhouse on the front.

Tip: when it gets really warm, try turning on re-circ. It gives the aircon much less work to do on each pass. Slightly stale but cold air is a hell of a lot nicer than stuff freshly scooped off the melting tarmac that's only had a couple of degrees knocked off it.

Fair point re the volume of air, but we travel with the blinds closed to reduce the heat build up, and we had slept with the 3 vents open for overnight coolness. The main area of strain was the absence of a regas during the previous owner's ownership. I was invited to 'put your hand over the vent' in the final few seconds of the regas and could feel very chilled air ['pure dead Baltic' in Scotland!], rather than the previous day's valiant effort to produce some cool air.

Good tip for the recirc setting; thanks!

Steve

 

[Stag man]

Simpletons view……..
No aircon, blower bashing out warm air
Regas then,
Trip to Ipswich (about an hour) then….
Glorious cold air there and back

 

[Silver-Fox]

Fair point re the volume of air, but we travel with the blinds closed to reduce the heat build up,

How do you see where you’re going

Isn’t that a tad dangerous

 

[dunnah01]

I've had a few re-gasses by proper kit and none of them have found small leaks. They can only measure to a certain vacuum and pressure margin and small leaks don't get detected. The system usually loses enough of it's gas after about 4-5 days. They're pretty basic systems but unfortunately they tend to be some of the first bits fitted during manufacture so changing bits is usually a royal PITA