Watch this "Grease On Your Hands" video tutorial from the Washington Post to see how to check and charge car air conditioner properly. When servicing any automobile, you should always wear appropriate eye-protection as well as ensure your working environment is properly ventilated. When working underneath a vehicle, always secure it with a floor jack and jack stands or drive-on lift ramps. You're going to get greasy as well so keep a healthy supply of rags on hand to sop up the mess! Necessary Materials: A/C System Meter and R-134a Refrigerant & Oil Combo Canister (if your vehicle uses R-12, you will need to take it in to a service center since R-12 is not available for public consumption, due to its overly detrimental effects on the environment) 1. Turn on the Vehicle and switch on your A/C settings to maximum cold. 2. Locate your Low Pressure A/C spigot, located on the A/C line feeding directly into the A/C compressor (the unit with the belt on it). The spigot should be labeled with an "L" or "Low".

Do not use the High Pressure hose, it will likely damage your meter and might even cause damage to the entire system. should you cover your air conditioner unit in the winter3. Attach the meter onto the "Low" line spigot and determine if you need additional coolant. how to fix a ac unit fan4. If so, screw the canister onto the fitting of the meter/changer and add in refrigerant, constantly monitoring the pressure level to ensure that you do not overfill! best central air conditioner brand homeYou can seriously damage your system by overfilling. 5. After fully recharging the system, make note of the pressure level and recheck this in about a week to ensure your system contains no leaks. If you realize diminished cooling power or a loss in pressure, you probably have a leak.

Please allow a professional to service the system, sealing up any leaks you might be experiencing.So your vehicle’s air conditioning is blowing hot air. It is likely low on refrigerant. You can easily fix it yourself by simply adding refrigerant, but how much should you add? It’s not a hard question to answer, but it is an important one to get right. That’s because having too much refrigerant in your A/C system is just as bad as not having enough. This isn’t a case of “too hot” versus “too cold.” If you have too much refrigerant in your A/C system, it will actually blow hot air (the same as having too little refrigerant). To get the coldest air possible, the amount of refrigerant in the system has to be “just right.” If you want to know why having too much refrigerant results in hot air, you have to understand a little bit about how an air conditioner works. The R-134a refrigerant used in car air conditioners would normally be a gas (it boils at a frigid 15 degrees below zero).

If you compress it and pressurize it enough, though, it turns into a liquid. The compressor in your vehicle’s A/C does exactly that, so you have liquid R-134a pumping through part of the A/C system. When that liquid reaches the in-dash cooling unit (called an evaporator coil), it passes through a valve that lowers the pressure. The lower pressure allows the liquid to boil and evaporate back into a gas. It absorbs heat from the air in order to boil. With the heat removed, the air becomes cold. If you don’t have enough refrigerant, it won’t be able to cool the air. If you have too much, though, the pressure will be too high for the refrigerant to boil or for the compressor to work. Which means the system won’t cool at all, and you’ll still be left with hot air. Getting It “Just Right” Sometimes people wind up with too much refrigerant because they try to add a certain number of ounces or cans to the system without checking the pressure. Your goal isn’t to add the right number of ounces;

it’s to have the correct pressure. Putting the correct amount of R-134a in your car’s A/C system is simple when you use A/C Pro. Each can of A/C Pro comes with a pressure gauge built in to the charging hose, allowing you to check the pressure as you add refrigerant. The gauge shows the proper pressure range, and has an easy-to-use temperature dial to adjust the target pressure based on the current ambient (outside) temperature. (Higher temperatures cause the same amount of refrigerant to register a higher pressure; the dial provides a way to take this into account.) Simply add A/C Pro until the pressure is in the correct range, periodically checking the vent temperature (should be 20-30 degrees below the ambient temperature), and stop before it reaches the clearly-marked overcharge zone. It is not necessary to reach the top (or far right) of the “V”. When you reach a pressure in the proper indicated range, disconnect the can and check the temperature of the air blowing out of the vents.

If your car is back to blowing cold air, you’re done! If there is still refrigerant left in the can, it can be stored indefinitely or used to help charge another vehicle. By getting the refrigerant pressure “just right” with A/C Pro, you can get the coldest air possible from your car A/C. Feel free to ask the pro.Show All ItemsIntroduction:How Air Conditioners Work:Step 1: What You Will Need and What You Should KnowShow All ItemsWHAT YOU'LL NEED:PURCHASING GUIDE:: no, I think lb (pound) is a unit of mass (sometimes called weight) and psi (pounds per square inch), so if you get lbs/in2 (Inch square I mean) it's same like psi, or lbs/in2=psi no, I think lb (pound) is a unit of mass (sometimes called weight) and psi (pounds per square inch), so if you get lbs/in2 (Inch square I mean) it's same like psi, or lbs/in2=psi I am thinking this is the closest to the real scenario. Pounds is a unit of mass and PSI is also a unit of mass (it measures how much of something is IN something else) so the lbs/in2 would work to do this conversion