Back in the days when I worked in the quick lube industry, summertime was the time for a/c recharges.  People would turn their air conditioning on for the first time in several months and out comes warm air.  It seems that people's first reaction, after screaming at the vents, is to take their car in for an "Air Conditioning Recharge."  In my opinion, almost all consumers, who do not have an automotive related background, have no idea why their air conditioning can suddenly stop working and assume that having it recharged will solve the problem.  An analogy I would like to use for this scenario is going to a chiropractor.  When your back hurts and you decide to go a doctor who is going to crack your spine and "align" your body; by doing this you've made the decision to not resolve the problem rather put a bandaid on it.  Same thing with air conditioning. 

 

Air conditioning works by pushing a refrigerant called freon through various parts and pipes in your engine compartment and dashboard.  Freon is a chemical that can be either a gas or liquid depending on the amount of pressure being applied to it.  This gas is very cold, so cold that it causes instant frostbite when it comes in contact with skin.  Because freon is so cold, when you put a fan behind a pipe that is containing the refrigerant, you are able to blow cold air into the passenger compartment.  Kinda like putting an ice cube in front of a fan.  Unlike gasoline and even engine oil, freon does not get combusted, burned or used up in any way.  The only way your system could loose freon is if there is a leak.

 

Now, there can be several reasons why your air conditioning is blowing warm air and it doesn't necessarily mean because your freon leaked out.  There could be a faulty fan, the vents may not be working, there could be a clog, or some other electrical or mechanical malfunction.  An a/c recharge means that the technician uses a machine to suck out all of the freon that may be in the system to the point of creating a vacuum.  How fast the vacuum looses pressure determines how big the leak may or may not be.  If the machine is unable to create a vacuum in the system, the the leak must be very big.  If the vacuum holds for a long time, and it was determined only a small amount of freon leaked out, then the leak is very small.  If the leak is small enough, the customer can authorize to have the freon put back in the system plus what ever extra amount is needed to fill to capacity.  However, the freon will eventually leak out again and you will need to recharge again, just like a chiropractor.

 

Sometimes it is cheaper to recharge a system that has a small leak rather than repair the problem since a/c repairs can become very costly.  If the car or truck is old and a leak is discovered, but is very small, it might be work the $100 to recharge each summer until its time to buy a new vehicle.  Depending on what is leaking or what needs fixing, a/c repair can cost upwards $400-$1000.

 

 

Here's the trick.  You see signs for "Free A/C Inspection" everyone when it gets hot, and I'm going to tell you how the pros inspect your air conditioning so that you can do it yourself.  Ready?  Sit in your car or truck, turn on the engine and turn the air conditioning on.  If it gets cold, your fine.  If it doesn't get cold, then you have a problem.  See, nice and easy, and that is all they do.  If your a/c is working fine, then you DO NOT need a recharge.  In fact, recharging is a terrible term because you aren't recharging anything.  If it ain't broke, don't fix it.