How to get the Maximum Cooling from your Car AC | Car AC tips & tricks

Car AC is the most useful invention ever done in the automotive space. Most of the cities in India or on global level experience high levels of heat during summers. Car air conditioners are really necessary but how to get the maximum cooling from your car’s AC?

Here we will talk about the tips, tricks and hacks that will help you extract maximum cooling from your car’s air conditioner. Most of the readers will expect that AC’s cooling depends only upon the service or maintenance of the equipment and the parts. It is not so! The amount of cooling done by your car’s AC depends upon many habits that you follow in your daily routine inside your car!

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Let’s start with the most commonly asked question

How can I make my car AC colder?

Confused about how to make your car’s AC colder? It’s a piece of cake! You just need to follow some steps and use your car’s ac in a proper and efficient manner. There are multiple factors on which your car AC’s cooling power depends. Starting right from the place you park your car to the level at which the components have been maintained, all of them affect your car AC’s cooling.

Without getting into the technical part, let us first have a look into the daily habits that can help you extract maximum from your car’s AC.

1. Park in a shade

   This is the best method to keep your car cool in the summer days. If you park your car in the shade, you will never have to worry about the sun heating your car up while you are away! If the sunlight heats your car up, you will have to wait till it cools down before you get in or start driving. This will eventually waste your time and fuel! Parking in the shade gives you an added advantage with your car’s paint protection. The sunrays have bad long term effects on your car’s paint and you can avoid them all by simply parking your car in the shade.

   

2. Drop down the windows

   In case you are not able to find a spot that’s in the shade, you can leave the windows open smidgen, enough to let fresh air circulate. This will help to reduce the greenhouse effect which would otherwise heat up your car. Alternatively, you can buy and use sunshades which will block the sunlight from entering into your car.

3. Ventilate the car

   If all of the above wasn’t possible for you then this one will surely work. When you reach your car after it has been parked under the sun for long then before you start driving, you must properly ventilate your car’s cabin. The hot air that has built up while you were away, needs to be eliminated before you start driving again. If you skip this one, then you will surely struggle before you get comfortable in the cabin.
   

   

What is the fastest way to cool a hot car?

The answer to this question is very simple. Just do as we told you in the last step above. Ventilating the car can cool your car down effectively. If you want this process to be fast, you can choose to fan the hot air out! This is really simple. Just roll down the driver’s side window and use the passenger side door to fan the hot air out. Alternatively, you can also roll down the rear windows and let the hot air escape. 

The sunroof proves to be of an added advantage because hot air rises up (the 8th standard gyaan!). Just open your car’s sunroof if you have it equipped and the hot air will escape automatically.

Now finally after all the above steps, we move towards switching on your car’s AC. 

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To start with, just remember that it’s a myth that if you turn on the AC at maximum speed in the beginning, then your car will cool down quickly or rapidly. Have a look at all the steps you should follow as you get into your car on a hot day. These tips will help you achieve maximum cooling from your car’s AC.

1. 1. Pump out the hot air
      

      A parked car on a hot day is nothing less than an oven. You won’t like to sit in an oven, obviously! So before you enter the car, make sure you ventilate it well before you enter the cabin. Roll down the windows and let the hot airflow. The hot air will automatically flow from your car’s cabin to the surroundings because the air inside the cabin is hotter than the air present outside.

      

   2. Pump out more hot air

      Start driving slowly and let the air, flow. You can make the hot air escape by simply rolling the windows down and start driving. Don’t just open the front windows as it won’t let the rear side of the cabin cool down.  Open all the windows of your car and let the hot air, flow. The hot air will escape and a nice airflow will be created. This will ultimately cool the cabin to a bit. If your car has a sunroof, open that too and the hot air will escape easily.

   3. Slow and steady wins the race

      Turning the AC on at the minimum speed will help you get better cooling. You already know that the temperature inside the vehicle is higher than the outside temperature when you get into the car. If you set the blower to the maximum speed then the AC will force the machine to take air from the passenger’s cabin. This will make the AC work harder to cool the cabin. So remember, start at the minimum speed. Just to let you know, the automatic air conditioning systems that are equipped in the cars nowadays, start at low speeds only. So if you have a car with the manual air conditioner, control it in the same way as the automatic air conditioning system does.

      

   4. Use the recirculation mode

      Once the AC starts blowing cool air, turn on the recirculation mode. This means that the AC system won’t pull the outside air and will use the air already present inside the cabin. This will help the system to cool the cabin down without putting in the extra effort.

      

   5. Shut down properly

      Once you have reached your location, make sure you switch the air conditioner off before you turn off the engine. You can let the fan running for a while. This will help it dry the evaporator and its surroundings.

Is it bad to start your vehicle with the AC on?

This completely depends upon your car. If your car has got an HVAC motor blower then you will end up damaging your ignition. This is because the HVAC motor requires a heavy load to start and if it will acquire this from the initial start, it will end up damaging the starter motor.

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This was all about the DIY tricks and tips that you can do to get the most cooling from your car’s AC. But as we all know only the DIYs won’t let your car’s AC provide perfect cooling until it’s serviced properly.

Coming to the service and maintenance part, there are a lot of aspects that can make your car’s AC lose its efficiency and not cool properly. Let’s now start with the maintenance part and begin with basic maintenance that all of you can do yourself.

1. Change/ Clean the dirty filter
   

   Your car’s ac comes equipped with a cabin filter which clears out the dirt before the air enters into the cabin. The cabin filter gets clogged with dust and dirt particles. Clogged AC filter badly affects performance and cooling. This is the most simple thing that you can do yourself to maintain your car’s AC. Just take the filter out and clean it regularly. If the filter is too clogged, you can go for a replacement.
   

   

2. Use your car’s AC every day

   Make sure you make your car’s AC work for about 10-15 minutes every week even if it’s not in use. The vents and other vents will remain to function well if this practice is followed. This way you will keep your car’s AC young for long!
   

3. Check the refrigerant level

   Make this a part of your car’s scheduled service. You should always ask your mechanic to check the refrigerant level in your car’s AC. This will give you an idea about how much refrigerant is still there and when you will be needing a refill. Running your car’s AC on low refrigerant levels also hinders the performance and the cooling. To obtain the most cooling from your car’s AC, ensure that the refrigerant is always at the correct level.
   

   

4. Get your car’s AC serviced regularly

   Just like you get your car’s engine serviced, the AC also needs to be serviced at regular intervals. The best time to get your car’s AC serviced is at the end of winters. This is because when the season is changing, you can avail the best prices and discounts. If the summers arrive the demands go really high and you will have to wait for long while you get your AC serviced and will also end up paying high.

   

What happens during a routine AC service?

The air conditioning system in your car deals with dirt and dust from the surrounding environment. Some parts like the condenser coil and the blower fan need to be cleaned. The dashboard of your car needs to be removed during this process and the bumper is replaced in some cases as well depending upon the car’s make and model. The condenser is responsible for releasing the heat from the cabin to the atmosphere. This is cleaned with a high-pressure wash which gets rid of the dirt present.

The cooling coil is also cleaned properly and all the foreign particles are removed so that it operates properly when fixed back into the car.

All the other possible blockages are cleaned and the electrical connections are restored. The last step is fitting the dashboard and bumper back into their respective places. After the things are put into their place, the vents and the dashboard are cleaned to make sure no dirt particle rests there. 

Just be careful with your car mechanic while you get your car’s AC serviced because removing the dashboard is a complex process and it involves removing all the electrical connections. The car mechanic needs to reconnect all the wires in order to make the connections work properly. Your car’s AC will surely work perfectly after the service but make sure you don’t compromise on the electrical connections.

How to get the maximum cooling from your car’s AC? | Verdict

This was all about how you can extract maximum cooling from your car’s AC. Some of the tips and tricks were to make sure that you enjoy a comfortable ride in the summer days. If you change certain things about your driving and parking habits, your car’s AC can definitely perform better.

In the end, here’s a treat for you! Watch this video and see how you can get the best from your car’s AC!