Summer Special: Five ways to make your car’s AC super effective

With temperatures hitting peak levels gacros the country, most people have already started switching on the AC’s to 11. Here are a few tips to maximize your car AC’s performance

Park your car in the shade

This is the most obvious tip to keep your car cool. Parking under a tree or if possible, in a basement parking will surely help to keep your car cool while it is parked. This in turn will reduce the load on the AC when you start driving.

Windscreen reflectors & blinds

This one is taken from what people used to do in the olden days. Put a reflector on the windscreen. Heat mainly enters through the front and rear windscreen due to the large surface area. What a reflector does, is reflects the heat back thus drastically reducing the amount of sunlight entering the vehicle.  Put it up on all the windows if possible. This will surely help maximize your AC performance.

Leave windows a little open

Do this only if your car is parked in a secured location. In a car with closed windows, the heat enters it but is unable to exit the car thus acting like a green house. If you leave your windows a tad bit down, it will enable air circulation which will keep your car cooler.

Roll down windows before turning on the AC

Unlike what may seem most obvious, if you have parked your car in the sun, roll down the windows for a few minutes while driving before turning on the AC. The temperature inside a parked car is always more than the outside temperature due to air circulation. While you are driving, the hot air present inside will escape the car. Switching on the AC after that will make it more effective and cool the cabin down more quickly.

Get AC serviced

Like you get your house AC serviced before summer kicks in, the same should be done with your car AC system. You should take your car to either your authorised service center or someone highly trained to carry out this service.

This service usually involves the following:

1. Air vent temperature check
2. Replacement of AC gas
3. Replacement of AC filter
4. Adjustments of drive belts and pulleys
5. Operation of valves and thermostats
6. Leak tests of system and components
7. Cleaning the condenser fins
8. Sanitizing the system

This is a time consuming process. Spare at-least half-a-day for this.