Best place for an air con regas?

[Luke.]

My Outback needs a regas and ATS and Kwik fit are both 2 mins from near me.

Do they do a decent job or should I look elsewhere?

Cheers.

[joebongo]

I recently has a regas from KF with what was a fractured condenser it later turned out. They took my money and told me it passed both leak and pressure tests. It was a big leak and the refrigerant leaked all out in less than one day.

wasn't impressed by this but if your system is ok then they're fine.

[s m]

Luke. said:

My Outback needs a regas and ATS and Kwik fit are both 2 mins from near me.

Do they do a decent job or should I look elsewhere?

Cheers.

I suspect it depends on your local Kwik-fit perhaps.

Here's my recent experience.

Noticed my air-con wasn't as chilly as it had been - picking my sons up one day on a very hot afternoon ( Fri 25/05/2012 - about 26/27 deg C ) I asked what they thought of the temperature and they said that it didn't seem great. Last itme I had it done was in 2007

Thought I'd try the Kwik-Fit offer at £49 ( if they can't make it chillier you don't pay ). Went in about lunchtime on the Saturday (26/05 ), no appointment, quite a hot day so I'd had the aircon blasting for a while and although it was colder than outside it wasn't really great.

The guy at the desk was up front with me. Said they could't fix it if there were leaks which might be the case on a 14 year old car.....but that I wouldn't pay in that case etc etc. Said it would be about an hour ...did I want to wait etc

Gave them the keys, sat outside in the sun, a young Kwik-fit girl came and picked up the car, pulled it into the bay by the aircon machine and flipped the bonnet. She connected up the pipes etc and then went off for a bit to help out on another job.

About 50 minutes later ( I'd been sitting in the sun looking at the net on phone ) she drove the car out. I wandered into the reception bay and the guy on the desk said it had been a success, it was icy cold now and they'd managed to get more gas in. Gave me the guarantee thing and said it was £49, if I wasn't happy with it etc etc.

Drove it up the road and it really was cold. I feel the heat but after a few mins I had to reduce the fan setting. Took boys to a party in afternoon and they both commented without prompting how nice and cold the car felt. One month on, it still feels great - Wednesday was quite muggy and warm up here ...but the aircon still works great.

I'm not really sure what the 'guarantee' covers to be honest ( presume if I wasn't happy in the few days after paying I could take it back ) but on the basis of my visit I can recommend the Abbey Foregate branch in Shrewsbury. I don't normally visit them at all but they were convenient for an aircon recharge

[Luke.]

Sounds good, cheers.

Do you need to book an appointment or can you just tip up?

[rallycross]

Luke. said:

Sounds good, cheers.

Do you need to book an appointment or can you just tip up?

You can turn up and leave it or book a time slot (but they are unlikely to do it on the exact time you booked). The machine takes less than an hour to do the re-gass.

I often use kwik fit for a/c re-gass they are pretty good, they use the same machine that lots of other dealers use, if the car has a serious leak or fault they dont charge.

Down side is if its a slow leak but gasses up fine (eg 24 hr leak) then you have paid for gas and will need to take it somewhere that fixes rather than just gasses them.

[LuS1fer]

I paid a mobile guy to come and do mine - it was £60 or £70 with the dye. It turned out I had a holed pipe which he misssed but I took it off and he repaired the pipe for £30 and then gave me a free re-gas so, overall, it was good service.

[Neezer]

Kwick Fit were really good for me, well honest at least. Took my car in for a re-gas and it turned out I had a leak in the system. No charge. Leak now being fixed..

[Roop]

On a slight tangent, how often should you service / re-gas your a/c system...? Both SWMBO's car and mine are coming up for three years old. A/C still seems pretty good but not sure if we would benefit from a re-gas. It hit 35°C here yesterday so it needs to work well.

[s m]

Roop said:

On a slight tangent, how often should you service / re-gas your a/c system...? Both SWMBO's car and mine are coming up for three years old. A/C still seems pretty good but not sure if we would benefit from a re-gas. It hit 35°C here yesterday so it needs to work well.

Hi Roop,

I'm not sure to be honest - I honestly don't know if there's an expected loss per annum or not.
Mine was done in early 2007 and seemed OK up till this year when we had some 26/27 degree temps at end of May. I did check that the compressor was kicking in before I took it for a re-gas and that the electric cooling fan for the aircon rad was cycling properly. It still was reasonably cold after 5 and a half years but it is now as good as it ever was

[Roop]

s m said:

Hi Roop,

I'm not sure to be honest - I honestly don't know if there's an expected loss per annum or not.
Mine was done in early 2007 and seemed OK up till this year when we had some 26/27 degree temps at end of May. I did check that the compressor was kicking in before I took it for a re-gas and that the electric cooling fan for the aircon rad was cycling properly. It still was reasonably cold after 5 and a half years but it is now as good as it ever was

Thanks for the info - Maybe I need to check it out.

[Mr-B]

I did read somewhere that A/C systems lose about 15% a year of their gas so after 5 years you would be down to less that half of original. Don't know if that's an accurate fact but I believe manufacturers recommend a re-gas every two years.

[Roop]

Mr-B said:

I did read somewhere that A/C systems lose about 15% a year of their gas so after 5 years you would be down to less that half of original. Don't know if that's an accurate fact but I believe manufacturers recommend a re-gas every two years.

Thanks for the info. Just need to find somewhere round here that don't charge the earth. Not easy...!

[FoundOnRoadside]

Aircon stopped on my last car. Went to KF, they regassed it, still didn't work. They discovered it was an electrical fault, so I didn't have to pay. Got home, found the short in the wiring, new fuse, instant freezing cold aircon. Basically got a free regas.

[S50B32]

rallycross said:

I often use kwik fit for a/c re-gass they are pretty good, they use the same machine that lots of other dealers use, if the car has a serious leak or fault they dont charge.

Do you know if there are superior machines / gasses, or if it's much of a muchness? I had suspected I had a leak somewhere late in the system as my car tests okay on their machine and stays cold for a while, but seems to need attention every summer. I was gearing up to have the system properly checked, when a friend said he'd had a re-gas there with similar results.

I'm now wondering if they use a lower spec gas which needs far more regular use to keep it happy (the M3 only gets occasional use, the aircon even less so - I know, my fault).

LuSifer, was the mobile outfit you used part of a chain? A leak-check at home would be great.

[LuS1fer]

S50B32 said:

LuSifer, was the mobile outfit you used part of a chain? A leak-check at home would be great.

No but just check out mobile air-con specialists in your area. Mine came from 20 miles away so had a 40 mile round trip and came during the evening. Nice VW van too so it's clearly profitable.

[dave_s13]

An I'm under the impression, rightly or wrongly, that using the aircon all the time will greatly increase it's useful life? Something to do with the circulation of fluid in the system keeping the joints in good nick which in turn retains the pressure for longer?

bks? Y/N?

[LuS1fer]

dave_s13 said:

An I'm under the impression, rightly or wrongly, that using the aircon all the time will greatly increase it's useful life? Something to do with the circulation of fluid in the system keeping the joints in good nick which in turn retains the pressure for longer?

bks? Y/N?

Yes, apparently circulates the lubricant and keeps the seals from perishing.

[aw51 121565]

dave_s13 said:

An I'm under the impression, rightly or wrongly, that using the aircon all the time will greatly increase it's useful life? Something to do with the circulation of fluid in the system keeping the joints in good nick which in turn retains the pressure for longer?

bks? Y/N?

N - deffo

There is oil in the system which the seals need to stop them drying out. Only way to circulate this oil is to use the AC regularly (DON'T leave it unused for weeks and especially months at a time ) .

[varsas]

Mr-B said:

I did read somewhere that A/C systems lose about 15% a year of their gas so after 5 years you would be down to less that half of original. Don't know if that's an accurate fact but I believe manufacturers recommend a re-gas every two years.

That does sound reasonable however my mum massively abuses her air-con system. It's never been serviced/re gassed in the 7 years she's had the car, she never uses it during the winter (so it goes months without being used) and yet it works incredibly well, much better then the air-con in my E36, which had a new compressor/regass when I bought it and is regularly exercised.

I would be surprised if air-con systems are allowed to be leaky by design, given that the refrigerant is quite polluting.

[Mr-B]

varsas said:

That does sound reasonable however my mum massively abuses her air-con system. It's never been serviced/re gassed in the 7 years she's had the car, she never uses it during the winter (so it goes months without being used) and yet it works incredibly well, much better then the air-con in my E36, which had a new compressor/regass when I bought it and is regularly exercised.

I would be surprised if air-con systems are allowed to be leaky by design, given that the refrigerant is quite polluting.

Indeed that's what I thought. I think the info came from a firm that did regassing/servicing of A/C systems so not exactly impartial in their advice I do think that the systems lose their effectiveness through whatever reason though, my A/C is definitely not as cold as it could be so a regas maybe on the cards.

Anyone tried those DIY canisters from Halfrauds? Heard they were a pile of...