Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2012 18:37:34 -0700
Reply-To: chris and/or ruth <populuxe59@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: chris and/or ruth <populuxe59@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Maintenance
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My wife has a habit of "accidentally" running the AC all year. I can hear the AC compressor when she pulls in the driveway during the winter. When I explain that the AC is on (and it's about 20 degrees out) she replies that maybe that's why it seemed so drafty in the van during a 120 mile round trip to here mother's house in Wisconsin. It was a multivan and like the camper, the vents are all in the back, so pretty useless for defogging front windshield.
My current Ford car, a 1999, has AC designed to run whenever the defrost is on. Doesn't seem to have hurt the compressor in 13 years. And, it does run even though it is 20 below zero (f).
Chris 3
---- JRodgers <jrodgers113@gmail.com> wrote:
With an OAT below freezing -
> what's the point in running the AC. The air is going to be to dry to
> hold fog forming water droplets anyway,
I've seen many winter days with temperatures way below freezing, ice fog precipitating on surfaces. I see lots of fogged or frosted windows in winter with low air temperatures. There are definitely times when the temperature is quite low and yet windows fog up and even frost over on the inside. We are breathing critters, and we exhale a lot of water.
Yes, I know about warm and humid winter days. they occur here. But not everyone can run the AC in winter -- unless he wants to kill the compressor.
>
>
> John
> On 10/4/2012 9:58 AM, mcneely4@cox.net wrote:
> > I know we are told this. But what happens when you turn the AC on when the temperature is way down below freezing, which it is in some places most or all of the time in the winter? Won't the compressor pound itself to death? We don't turn on home AC in winter to save seals. We keep it off to protect the compressor from destroying itself. Just wonderin'. I generally do try to run automobile AC occasionally in winter when it is warm enough that I think the compressor can manage, as advised. But I have had automobiles go all winter without running the AC. It still works on my Honda, no bad seals, and the thing is now 15 years old with 200k miles. Since the AC on my camper has been rebuilt, I can't say that it has had no bad seals. It probably did, but I can't see how one can run the AC when the outside temperature is down around 0 F, or even 30 F, without beating up the compressor.
> >
> > McNeely
>
--
David McNeely
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