Do you have to get your air con re gassed?

[Jones886]

Hi all just a quick one and might of been asked but do you have to get your Aircon re gassed as your would in a petrol or diesel car.



Can't find any info anywhere and help would be appreciated.


Normally have it done at the two year point and it's now two years old .

 

[Cuprakash]

Yes,normal regas at a garage.

Once fixed, remember to either leave it on all the time (it really hardly effects your range and keeps the cabin moisture free) or at the very least use it weekly to keep the seals from drying out.

Personally,I never turn mine off and in all the cars I've owned with air con,they have never needed a regas

 

[Alb]

There is no need to re-gas every two years on any car if you don't have a leak.

 

[Jones886]

Thats great thankyou both for the advice

 

[johnb80]

There is no need to re-gas every two years on any car if you don't have a leak.

On an ICE car the compressor has a seal around the driveshaft coming into it, leakage of refrigerant is inevitable on them. On an EV the compressor is a sealed unit like a domestic refrigerator and has no such shaft seal, so much less leakage. There is still some leakage from flexible hoses that are permeable to the gas but not much. Great care should be taken with regards to regassing, some EV's need a very specific lubricant to be added with the gas, not just standard fridge oil.

 

[Gomev]

On an ICE car the compressor has a seal around the driveshaft coming into it, leakage of refrigerant is inevitable on them. On an EV the compressor is a sealed unit like a domestic refrigerator and has no such shaft seal, so much less leakage. There is still some leakage from flexible hoses that are permeable to the gas but not much. Great care should be taken with regards to regassing, some EV's need a very specific lubricant to be added with the gas, not just standard fridge oil.

I sold my Toyota Avensis last year after 15 years ownership. Never re-gassed it and AC was still ice cold. Guess I was lucky

 

[johnb80]

I sold my Toyota Avensis last year after 15 years ownership. Never re-gassed it and AC was still ice cold. Guess I was lucky

Some cars have a much bigger quantity of gas in them, they can lose quite a bit without the AC failing. Maybe you were lucky, go out and get yourself a lottery ticket if your luck is that good

 

[awbugritt]

Never regassed our Meriva in the 7 years we had it.

 

[Petriix]

Yes,normal regas at a garage.

Once fixed, remember to either leave it on all the time (it really hardly effects your range and keeps the cabin moisture free) or at the very least use it weekly to keep the seals from drying out.

Personally,I never turn mine off and in all the cars I've owned with air con,they have never needed a regas

'Hardly affects' is quite subjective - up to 4% of the battery per hour under maximum load. I prefer avoiding wasting energy where possible. In any case, I can't be bothered to try to guess the temperature to set the HVAC to so that it uses the minimum energy so I have it set to 'lo' with the AC off unless I really need heat or cooling.

 

[jpvdheijn]

I do remember you have to really know about regassing. My previous Tesla I had it checked and re-gassed only at tesla. These electric AC's are different from gas engine AC's in general with a, the refrigerant and b, the oil used in the refrigerant. Therefore gassing it up with a machine that has had other gas cars serviced contaminates the system with all kind of failures as a result. Be aware that in your ev the AC system is also used for the battery cooling. So be safe and take it to MG for its AC service or a company at which you know uses the right equipment. It might be more expensive but saves costs in the longrun.

 

[Gomev]

'Hardly affects' is quite subjective - up to 4% of the battery per hour under maximum load. I prefer avoiding wasting energy where possible. In any case, I can't be bothered to try to guess the temperature to set the HVAC to so that it uses the minimum energy so I have it set to 'lo' with the AC off unless I really need heat or cooling.

Where do you get that figure of 4% per hour ?
When I turn on my AC depending on the SOC it reduces the range (GOM) by relatively few miles, approx 10-15 on a full charge., and provided I have charge left at the end of the journey, switching it off gives me a few miles back on the GOM.
I think the consensus on here is that AC uses relatively little power, heating uses significantly more.

 

[Petriix]

Where do you get that figure of 4% per hour ?
When I turn on my AC depending on the SOC it reduces the range (GOM) by relatively few miles, approx 10-15 on a full charge., and provided I have charge left at the end of the journey, switching it off gives me a few miles back on the GOM.
I think the consensus on here is that AC uses relatively little power, heating uses significantly more.

It's from empirical observation based on running the car purely for cooling for a period of time. Cranking the AC up to full seems to use about 4A at 400V initially so up to 1600W. I guess that includes the fan and just running the car, so maybe I'm slightly over estimating. But multiply it by the whole life of the car and you're paying for thousands of extra kWh of electricity. Like I said, it's subjective whether you care.

 

[johnb80]

But multiply it by the whole life of the car and you're paying for thousands of extra kWh of electricity. Like I said, it's subjective whether you care.

Do you have heating on during winter in the car and in your home? Are you not paying for thousands of extra kWh for this?

 

[Deep purple]

On a trip today which I do frequently I had the aircon on for the first time (on ECO) and it knocked about 10% off my miles per KWhr in mixed driving. Not as bad as heating which is basically just a heating element, as the CoP of aircon which is a heat pump is about 4.
Note that the impact of aircon will be greatest if you are crawling along and least if you are on motorway as it is a fixed drain on the battery rather than speed dependant.

 

[Gomev]

It's from empirical observation based on running the car purely for cooling for a period of time. Cranking the AC up to full seems to use about 4A at 400V initially so up to 1600W. I guess that includes the fan and just running the car, so maybe I'm slightly over estimating. But multiply it by the whole life of the car and you're paying for thousands of extra kWh of electricity. Like I said, it's subjective whether you care.

I understand your observations, but can't agree with the conclusion. Firstly if it's pulling 1600w then in 10 hours it pull 16kWh. That represents 28% of the LR battery, so would only be 2.8% per hour not 4%. That's the simple maths bit. Even the SR is is only 32% of battery or 3.2% per hour.
Also why would you have it on 'full' all the time, once the car is cooled sufficiently then if manual turn it down a bit or if climate controlled it will do that anyway.
If using empirical information may I add some. Here is a screenshot of a recent journey of mine with AC on all the way. Even by my maths without the AC on I would have to add back 5.3 hrs at 2.8% per hour so 15% of battery. That would have meant that I had 26% left after 215 miles, an extrapolated range of 290 miles.
This is not an isolated journey, it reflects my motorway/long journey figures with AC on, so you can probsbly understand why I think that AC uses relatively little power but makes the journey in hot weather so much more comfortable... a price worth paying for me.

As a side note from my post immediately above which was my journey home, the figure for the outbound journey when I stopped to recharge - in order to have something in the tank for when I arrived - were almost identical. However one big difference, AC was not used for the entire journey as not needed, see the temperature.
Also when using the heater or AC I leave the controls set at 20 degrees summer or winter, so for me the HVAC is more or less off or on. I fail to see the attraction of boiling in winter or freezing in summer, or vice versa.

 

[johnb80]

I understand your observations, but can't agree with the conclusion. Firstly if it's pulling 1600w then in 10 hours it pull 16kWh. That represents 28% of the LR battery, so would only be 2.8% per hour not 4%. That's the simple maths bit. Even the SR is is only 32% of battery or 3.2% per hour.
Also why would you have it on 'full' all the time, once the car is cooled sufficiently then if manual turn it down a bit or if climate controlled it will do that anyway.
If using empirical information may I add some. Here is a screenshot of a recent journey of mine with AC on all the way. Even by my maths without the AC on I would have to add back 5.3 hrs at 2.8% per hour so 15% of battery. That would have meant that I had 26% left after 215 miles, an extrapolated range of 290 miles.
This is not an isolated journey, it reflects my motorway/long journey figures with AC on, so you can probsbly understand why I think that AC uses relatively little power but makes the journey in hot weather so much more comfortable... a price worth paying for me.

View attachment 18289

As a side note from my post immediately above which was my journey home, the figure for the outbound journey when I stopped to recharge - in order to have something in the tank for when I arrived - were almost identical. However one big difference, AC was not used for the entire journey as not needed, see the temperature.
Also when using the heater or AC I leave the controls set at 20 degrees summer or winter, so for me the HVAC is more or less off or on. I fail to see the attraction of boiling in winter or freezing in summer.

View attachment 18290

What cost for comfort? it seems madness to me to not use AC because it costs a little to run. I have AC at home and the number of neighbours that complain during these hot times is incredible 'wasn't it hot last night, couldn't sleep', 'Phew I feel worn out with this heat'. It's not mega expensive to install and it is literally pence per hour to run, ours overnight in the bedroom costs less than 10p.
You have AC on your car, use it, exactly as Gomev has shown it uses very little energy.

 

[Petriix]

I've never suggested being uncomfortably hot or cold, though I do have a range of tolerance rather than insisting that the car needs to be exactly the same temperature all year round. Put the AC or heating on as required to maintain the temperature you desire, but also dress appropriately for the conditions.

I was really responding to the suggestion that you should leave it on all the time. Much as I only heat my home to the minimum comfortable temperature when wearing sufficient layers of clothing, I only spend energy adjusting the car's temperature when it's actually outside tolerance. Anything from about 16 to 22 degrees is fine for me so my default is 'lo' with the fan on its lowest setting and, for about half the time, I can get away with the fan off altogether and just have passive airflow.

I'm really not a fan of climate control because it wastes loads of energy bringing the temperature up or down when it's perfectly comfortable without.

 

[Cuprakash]

The thing is,air con isnt just about temperature,it also reduces moisture in the cabin,a problem that a lot of motorists who don't use it regularly complain about.

A lot of modern climate control systems are set up to run with AC permanently activated and it's actually quite difficult to turn it off...presumably for good reason if the makers have set it up that way.

I personally find that climate controls once set to a temperature aren't constantly moving the temperature up and down,in fact once up or down to temperature,there then seems to be very little noticeable activity in the system which I much prefer to old fashioned manual controls.