Air Con / Climate Control Top Up's Warning

Many kits for topping up your air con / climate control gas are coming onto the market and many see these as a cheap way of topping up the system as the gas degrades over time, and the climate becomes less effective, DO NOT USE THESE KITS AS THEY ARE DANGEROUS and can permanently injure you.

Air con / climate control systems contain two major components, these are the lubricant and refrigerant, and both need replacing, they are measured by weight and introduced to the system when done by professionals. In addition a professional will vacuum your system to remove everything, dispose of it legally and corrretly, and test it before even thinking about introducing the refrigerant gas and lubricant.

Kits work on pressure and not weight, weight is the only sure and certain way of ensuring the correct amount is in the system, and using pressure can introduce more weight of gas then is recommended, this can cause considerable and expensive damage to many parts of the system which could result in a bill for ££££££thousands to repair the damage.

So apart from the dangers of damaging your system, what are the other dangers:

If you come into contact with the refrigerant gas, it will freeze any part of the body it contacts quicker then you can remove it, you cannot see the gas so extensive injuries often requiring amputation wil be done, and if you get the gas into your eyes it will blind you instantly, and both these injuries will be permanent.

What are the costs of these top up gas kits? around £35 from many popular retailers, and this is for just the gas; locally we have air con experts who will vacuum, pressure test, replace refrigerant and lubricant, and introduce a detection dye for any leaks for around £45-50. In addition to this there is the little matter of allowing any refrigerant into the atmosphere being illegal, so you could not only be severely injured, but prosecuted as well, try denying a case in court if you have such injuries, you cannot.

Good point on that;

When I first got my Terracan and had a full service inc climate control, upon getting my vehcilce back & driving my vehicle with the Air Con on, It set of my asthema, this happened twice and I know enough of my condition that something was wrong.
Took the vehicle back to the garage (Hyundai) and they admitted that there was someting wrong with the A/C unit service and assembly that they serviced 2 days before. Needless to say Terracan Jas was taking names and got a full fefund on the service.
They told me that It was a fault with the service pack that they fitted, which it could have been. But im still convinced from my time at that garage that the persons serviceing the A/C unti was incompetent and/or not qualified to do the job correctly.

Never had air-conditioning, then again unless they were export models, not many Range Rover Classics did. Personally I detest air-con, much rather have all the windows open and catch the breeze. Yes, I realise that when travelling slowly through a city air-con can be a real boon (especially when humidity is high), but still i would rather 'suffer' as the natural air tempreature, smells and sounds are all part and parcel of the experience. I must add though that I love the sun, high tempreatures and 'being sweaty' - it's a reaction I suppose from too many miserable british summers and miserable winters - but not everyone can cope well in hot climates.

The only time I have ever been thankful of air-con was when the sun got too much one day in Malaysia. Feeling feint with heat-stroke the combination of an ice cream and a cool Pajero was sheer heaven!