Aircon gas recharge

[bombur]

Used a Groupon deal and Top Cashback to get my AC recharged at ATS today for £30. No AC before now like a fridge Was told the Z3 has 1kg of gas which is a lot and more than the average 600/700 on cars, think there was about 100 in mine!

 

[t-tony]

A Z3 does have 1kg. If it had only 100g left it probably has a slow leak so don’t be surprised if it loses the “icy” feel. Remember it’s only a 2 seat car with a small cabin, so doesn’t require a huge amount of refrigerant.

Tony.

 

[bombur]

A Z3 doesn’t have a kilo of gas in them I’m sure. If it had only 100g left it probably has a slow leak so don’t be surprised if it loses the “icy” feel. Remember it’s only a 2 seat car with a small cabin, so doesn’t require a huge amount of refrigerant.

Tony.

yes was thinking that myself about a possible leak. how easy (or not) is it to find one?

 

[t-tony]

The recharge ought to contain a dye which, using a UV light is easily spotted.

Tony.

ps. I was sceptical about a Z3 holding 1kg but having checked on Autodata , they say it does. I’m surprised at that my Z4 only takes 750g.

 

[bombur]

The recharge ought to contain a dye which, using a UV light is easily spotted.

Tony.

ps. I was sceptical about a Z3 holding 1kg but having checked on Autodata , they say it does. I’m surprised at that my Z4 only takes 750g.

Shouldnt they check if there is a leak prior to recharging? they took about 45min in total

 

[t-tony]

No they won't do that as the machine has to create a vacuum in the system.prior the filling the gas. A small leak is unlikely to be detected by the machine creating the vacuum so they will assume all is well. It could last a good while, hope it does.

Tony.

 

[motco]

The place I took mine to commented on the surprisingly large size of the charge.

 

[Shelly]

I had my aircon recharged a few weeks ago
It worked for the first week and then it stopped working
I took it back to where I had it done , they said I’ve got a leak but it didn’t show up because it was too small for the machine to pick up on
They gave me my money back , which was good off them

 

[bombur]

Maybe I can check at ZedShed Cymru next week @colb? ...thats if there is any gas left by then lol

 

[Nodzed]

That's poor, very poor. They should do a pressure dye test first as they did with mine and found a condenser leak. As a AC engineer told me, the only non mechanical reason for AC failing is a leak, the gas just doesn't evaporate.

 

[t-tony]

People rely on the vacuum creating to find a leak, use it as a short cut.

Tony.

 

[DrWong]

Just looked at the Groupon page. Small print says a pressure test is carried out prior to recharge and if a leak is detected, the recharge doesn't proceed and Groupon issues a refund: ATS Euromaster - Up To 40% Off | Groupon

I may have to move on this as well, seems like a win/win

 

[bombur]

Just looked at the Groupon page. Small print says a pressure test is carried out prior to recharge and if a leak is detected, the recharge doesn't proceed and Groupon issues a refund: ATS Euromaster - Up To 40% Off | Groupon

I may have to move on this as well, seems like a win/win

I guess they could tell me the leak (if I have one) wasnt detected as was small.

 

[miller1098]

This worked for me and enough to do 2 or 3 and so simple

 

[bombur]

Back in having a Inspection of the A/C. They said machine has been playing up so could be that or a leak. Pressure test done again and all fine so filling it back up. Said they have put the uv dye in this time (I thought that was standard practice? )

 

[bombur]

Here's the print out