5 Tips to Get the Most Cool From Your Car Air Conditioning

When summer gets hot, sticky and uncomfortable, the last thing you want is to have to drive around baking in your overheated car. But, when it’s so warm out, your car’s air conditioning is going to be working overtime.

To make sure you’re getting the most out of your air conditioning without burning too much fuel, follow these five car air conditioning tips.

1. Clean Your Filter

It’s important to regularly maintain your car, including its air conditioning system. Your vehicle has a cabin air filter that should be cleaned and replaced on a regular basis.

Over time, it accumulates dust and gets dirty, which reduces airflow and forces your air conditioning to work harder.

If you have a newer car, this filter is likely behind the glove compartment and is fairly easy to access and replace yourself. However, it may be best to have your car air conditioning service completed by your mechanic annually.

2. Don’t Waste Your Gas

It’s easy to think that you should turn on your car's air conditioning and let the car cool down before you get in and go anywhere.

The truth is that your car's air conditioning is much more efficient when your car is moving. The reason for this is that the faster your engine turns, the faster the air conditioning compressor runs, which is what lets the system cool more effectively.

If the inside of your car is really hot, you can crank up the fan and open the rear windows for 10-20 seconds as soon as you start driving. This action will force all of the stuffy, hot air out of the car, so that it cools faster, with less work.

3. Choose Whether to Recirculate

Your car’s air conditioning system will have a recirculation mode which takes air from the front and pulls it back through the system to cool it further.

If you have no one sitting in the back, this option can help cool your car more efficiently.

However, if people are seated in the back, they’ll be stuck with the stale, hot air while those up front feel cool. So, when the car is full, it’s better to turn off the recirculation mode.

4. Set It As Low As Possible

Your car’s air conditioning is designed to run at the lowest possible temperature available.

The most efficient way to cool your car is to keep the setting on the lowest temperature and adjust the fan to make it colder or warmer. The standard setting is 38 degrees Celsius, which will dry out the air less and use less fuel.

If you choose a higher temperature instead, it means forcing your car to re-heat the air and then cool it again, which requires more effort. If your car has automatic climate control, it will adjust the temperature and fan automatically, which is even more efficient.

5. Turn Off the Auto Stop/Start

Some newer cars come with an auto start/stop system, which can be helpful for stop-and-go traffic. However, this feature will also turn off your air conditioning every time it stops the engine.

If your air conditioning compressor continually shuts off and turns back on it has to work harder. Plus, it makes it harder to keep the car cool, since your air conditioning keeps shutting off.

Want to find out more about how you can save fuel and get the most out of your car air conditioning this summer? Call Climacool Air Conditioning on 1300 379 334 and speak to one of our air conditioning service professionals today.