Purcell: We'll keep you moving

Car Air Conditioning & AC Services

Car air conditioning is basically a refrigerator with a different layout. It's designed to move heat from one place (the inside of your car) to some other place (the outdoors).  

Major components we can repair in car ac units include:

• The compressor, which compresses and circulates the refrigerant in the system

• The refrigerant, (on modern cars, usually a substance called R-134a, older cars have R-12 Freon which is becoming increasingly more expensive and hard to find, and also requires a license to handle) which carries the heat

• The condenser, which changes the phase of the refrigerant from gas to liquid and expels heat removed from the car

• The expansion valve (or orifice tube in some vehicles), which is somewhat of a nozzle and functions to simultaneously drop the pressure of the refrigerant liquid, meter its flow, and atomize it

• The evaporator, which transfers heat to the refrigerant from the air blown across it, cooling your car

• The receiver/dryer, which functions as a filter for the refrigerant/oil, removing moisture and other contaminants

Understand the air conditioning process: The compressor puts the refrigerant under pressure and sends it to the condensing coils. In your vehicle, these coils are generally in front of the radiator. Compressing a gas makes it quite hot. In the condenser, this added heat and the heat the refrigerant picked up in the evaporator is expelled to the air flowing across it from outside the vehicle. When the refrigerant is cooled to its saturation temperature, it will change phase from a gas back into a liquid (this gives off a bundle of heat known as the "latent heat of vaporization"). The liquid then passes through the expansion valve to the evaporator, the coils inside of your vehicle, where it loses pressure that was added to it in the compressor. This causes some of the liquid to change to a low-pressure gas as it cools the remaining liquid. This two-phase mixture enters the evaporator, and the liquid portion of the refrigerant absorbs the heat from the air across the coil and evaporates. Your vehicle's blower circulates air across the cold evaporator and into the interior. The refrigerant goes back through the cycle again and again.

For AC services you can trust, visit Purcell Tire today. Our experienced professionals are highly qualified and eager to help you find relief from the heat!