CAR AC in Phoenix?

[ElizaTeal]

Originally Posted by sheena

I'm in that boat right now myself. I may just get an icepack to tie around my neck on the way home from work

Thanks for that visual image. I can't get it out of my head. DPS should hand out those ice packs to commuters when traffic is at a stand still.

[hanpepreading]

I've been shopping for another car in Oklahoma City. 1999 3.6l 6cyl. Buick LaSabre blew cold air and on high it was actually too cold. 2007 Chevy Aveo and Cobalt blew cool air on high not quite as good as the Buick did on low. 2002 VW Superbeetle 1.9l 4cyl. turbo diesel didn't have much umph to its AC either. Still looking.

[QuirkyBound]

Originally Posted by jgunn72

No A/C can keep up with the heat gain of untinted windows in arizona.

This is a very good point. You could probably reduce it all to a mathmatical formula with temp gain through the windows vs. cfm of air at given temp through the vents to find out the final interior temp of the vehicle.

Along those same lines, an inlet air temp of say 45* averaged against a 90* starting point car interior can very quickly net you a comfortable cabin air temp. Average that against a 125* cabin air temp and it takes a lot longer to reach 70* inside the car.

A second point though beyond the temp of the air coming through the vents is the volume of the air. A weak or insufficient blower moving very cold air through small or blocked vents isn't going to push enough volume of that cold air into the cabin to bring the temp down enough.

A couple of additional tips to get the most out of your AC system. Start with the 'fresh' setting on the AC. Then switch to the recirc function after a couple of minutes. When you first get to your car the inside temp is going to be higher than outside (greenhouse effect). Starting with the re-circ setting means you are trying to cool hotter air than you have to. After the cabin temp drops below outside temp you'll want the re-circ setting as it is going to be easier to make the now 80* air colder than for the system to continually work with 100* 'fresh' air.

Make sure you're cabin air filter isn't clogged and reducing flow.

In some AC systems the blower and/or evaporator can get clogged with debris over time (not just the under hood part but the actual part behind the dash inside the car). This debris can severly reduce flow across the evaporator and bring the efficiency down as well.

Hope that helps some.