Most car manufacturers recommend recharging your car’s air conditioning every two years at a minimum. However, if your car begins to blow warm air or only works intermittently, you may need to recharge it sooner rather than later.
What Air Con Gas Does My Car Use?
The majority of car air conditioning systems prior to 2014 will use a R134A gas. However, due to stricter guidelines, all cars manufactured after the 1st of January 2017 use the more environmentally friendly R1234YF gas.
Regardless to which gas your car uses, most of the garages are equipped ready to recharge both types of gases.
What’s A Fair Air Con Recharge Price?
Depending upon the refrigerant that your car uses will determine the air con recharge price. For an air conditioning system that uses R134A, the cost of a recharge can be between £40 to £50.
However, if your car uses the newer R1234YF gas, you can expect to pay between £120 to £140 for the recharge. It’s worth pointing out that the prices may fluctuate depending upon your location and the garage that you use.
My Air Con Recharge Didn’t Work
If you have just had the air con recharged and it didn’t work or it only stayed cold for a few days, there are a number of potential causes that can include:
- It needs resetting with a car diagnostic tool
- There is a leak and the refrigerant has escaped
- Blocked or broken condenser
- Faulty air con compressor
- Damaged cooling fans
- Electrical fault or internal obstruction
The majority of reputable garages offer a “recharge or no charge” guarantee and they are garages that we would recommend that you visit. If you notice that there are some odd smells, this isn’t a fault but an indication that the system needs to be cleaned. If this is the case, we would recommend using an air con cleaner, which takes minutes to get to work and removes any foul smells blowing into the cabin.
DIY Recharge Kits
If you are looking to reduce the cost of an air con recharge, you may have looked at the various DIY kits available. Although cheaper, the amount of effort required for a small saving simply isn’t worthwhile.
Another drawback of using a DIY kit is that it doesn’t remove all the old gases, oils and moisture. Also, if you don’t know what you are doing, there is the potential to cause damage to the system too.
Conclusion
Fully functioning air conditioning is an essential for many drivers during the summer. It can also be beneficial in the winter to demist your windscreen with dry warm air rather than air from outside of the car. Therefore, for the small cost of an air con recharge, it’s a worthwhile investment that can last at least 2 years in most cases.
