Low temperature manometer R22, R134A, R407C/b63mm without bridge

How and when you should charge your car's air conditioning

With summer just around the corner, more than one driver has started to tune up their vehicle to ensure trouble-free driving during these vacations.

Air conditioning charging is one of the most important tasks to check if we don't want our car to turn into a rolling oven.

First of all, you need to know that the pollen filter is what affects the air conditioning, since it gets dirty with use and filters worse. Also, if it's very clogged, it doesn't allow enough air flow, which damages the air conditioning capacity. Now, how is air conditioning charged? "Charging is performed using an air conditioning charging station," says León, "this station is programmed according to the car model, as the charge varies depending on the amount of refrigerant and oil in each vehicle, among other things". This apparatus is responsible for recovering the refrigerant fluid from the vehicle (fluorinated gas), cleaning it and dehydrating it, since moisture is the first enemy of air conditioning. "In vehicles of a certain age, the gases they come with as standard (R12) do not comply with current regulations, so it is necessary to dispose of them according to European protocol and charge a gas compatible with legislation," adds León. Although the charging procedure has not changed over the years, technology has evolved to adapt to the charging needs of the new gases currently used. "We work with gases at higher pressure.

In summary, these would be the steps to charge the air conditioning with the charging station: First, the high and low pressure hoses are connected to the vehicle circuit. The machine starts functioning with cleaning and recovery of the old gas and oil. When finished, the circuit is checked by vacuum to see if there are leaks. Finally, if there are no leaks, the gas and oil are charged. Once the process is completed, a check is made to ensure the air conditioning works correctly. Below we offer a video explaining how one of these charging stations works.