cabin/pollen filters
in [Car Maintenance]
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From: Dave Plowman (News) on 20 Jun 2010 05:49 In article <8842qbFiliU1(a)mid.individual.net>, DavidR <curedham(a)4bidden.org.uk> wrote: > > Can you fit either depending whether you want to > > spend more on the carbon one or save some money and get one without, > > or do certain cars require one or the other? > Is a filter even necessary? Once upon a time nobody bothered. Then you could use the system without them. Personally I find it nice not getting dust in my eyes. ;-) -- *When you've seen one shopping centre you've seen a mall* Dave Plowman dave(a)davenoise.co.uk London SW To e-mail, change noise into sound.
From: DavidR on 21 Jun 2010 16:44 "Pete M" <pete.murray(a)SPAMFREEblueyonder.co.uk> wrote > Clot wrote: >> DavidR wrote: >>> "Pete M" <pete.murray(a)SPAMFREEblueyonder.co.uk> wrote >>>> DavidR wrote: >>>>> "Robert" <robert(a)locumpoint.com> wrote >>>>>> I see that you can buy cabin filters with carbon and cabin filters >>>>>> without carbon. Is it that the carbon removes smells? >>>>> What kind of smells do you want to remove? Bear in mind that the >>>>> worst smells develop on the aircon heat exchanger and the cabin >>>>> filter is in the wrong place to do anything about it. >>>> Ah, that only happens if you're daft enough to buy a car fitted with >>>> AC and then not use the AC >>> Is it an option? >>> >>>> If you run the a/c regularly you don't get the nasty smells. >>> Please explain your reasoning. >>> >>>> If you don't use your A/C, then you're going to get a far bigger >>>> bill from fixing it than you ever would from using it. >>> If you think someone is "daft" not to use it, wouldn't you consider >>> them even dafter if they went and fixed it when it broke? >> >> True! > > Put it this way, if I have the choice between two identical cars to buy > secondhand, both the same, but one has working a/c. There's only one I'm > going to buy unless I can chip the price of the A/C repair off the other > one - and I'm not talking about a �30 regas, more like �350-500. > > I doubt very much I'm the only person who thinks like this. Obviously. Though, while aircon is nice to have, it's not something I would consider so essential to be worth fixing on a discounted purchase. Now, failure to work after extended non-use is understood but you also made a statement to the effect that smell has something to do with light use. I asked you to explain but you haven't come back. (It doesn't make sense at face value, btw.) Interesting that when Googling for "aircon smell" every man and his old wife seem to have a different solution. One suggestion, to dry it out by switching it off some time before stopping the car and not leaving it in recirc, seems the most logical.
From: Chris Whelan on 21 Jun 2010 16:57 On Mon, 21 Jun 2010 21:44:22 +0100, DavidR wrote: [...] > Now, failure to work after extended non-use is understood but you also > made a statement to the effect that smell has something to do with light > use. I asked you to explain but you haven't come back. (It doesn't make > sense at face value, btw.) In even moderately humid conditions, water will condense on the evaporator. (That's why you see puddles under cars with A/C.) If the system is only used infrequently, for short periods of time, the condensed water doesn't dry out and encourages bacterial growth on the outside of the evaporator. This is what smells. It actually makes perfect sense, and IME, does happen. Once you've got it, it's also really difficult to get rid of. > Interesting that when Googling for "aircon smell" every man and his old > wife seem to have a different solution. One suggestion, to dry it out by > switching it off some time before stopping the car and not leaving it in > recirc, seems the most logical. The reason being that it gives the evaporator a chance to dry out before you switch off. Chris -- Remove prejudice to reply.
From: DavidR on 21 Jun 2010 18:26 "Chris Whelan" <cawhelan(a)prejudicentlworld.com> wrote > On Mon, 21 Jun 2010 21:44:22 +0100, DavidR wrote: > > [...] > >> Now, failure to work after extended non-use is understood but you also >> made a statement to the effect that smell has something to do with light >> use. I asked you to explain but you haven't come back. (It doesn't make >> sense at face value, btw.) > > In even moderately humid conditions, water will condense on the > evaporator. (That's why you see puddles under cars with A/C.) If the > system is only used infrequently, for short periods of time, the > condensed water doesn't dry out and encourages bacterial growth on the > outside of the evaporator. This is what smells. It actually makes perfect > sense, and IME, does happen. It dries out when switched off while the car is running. See below. Therefore the above only makes "perfect" sense if "infrequent" means the car is used for mainly short journeys - ie, it is the large number of airflow interruptions causing the problem and has nothing to do with light usage over a high mileage. > Once you've got it, it's also really difficult to get rid of. > >> Interesting that when Googling for "aircon smell" every man and his old >> wife seem to have a different solution. One suggestion, to dry it out by >> switching it off some time before stopping the car and not leaving it in >> recirc, seems the most logical. > > The reason being that it gives the evaporator a chance to dry out before > you switch off. Indeed.
From: Chris Whelan on 22 Jun 2010 04:48
On Mon, 21 Jun 2010 23:26:37 +0100, DavidR wrote: [...] > It dries out when switched off while the car is running. See below. > Therefore the above only makes "perfect" sense if "infrequent" means the > car is used for mainly short journeys - ie, it is the large number of > airflow interruptions causing the problem and has nothing to do with > light usage over a high mileage. It has nothing to do with mileage, or the length of journeys, and everything to do with the amount of time the vehicle is left unused between journeys. Chris -- Remove prejudice to reply. |