Thread: Aircon. That old chestnut

Originally Posted by land864

Thanks People

Geez Rove I didn't think I had posted that many threads about aircon or do you mean about me being a tight arse in general

Being a tight ass in general

DIY prices without DIYing leads to crap results

Demist works its best with aircon. My Freelander 2 has a demist button that switches aircon to cold and directs all air to the front windscreen while also turning on the rear demister. My Peugeot has a similar setting. Aircon for demisting works very well.

Originally Posted by manic

Oh I was hoping the dehumidified air from aircon would demist the window, never tried cold AC for demist tho.
.

Only thing that will work better than cold dehumidified air from the AC, would be warm dehumidified air

It will demist better than heat with no AC

Originally Posted by manic

Then I had an idea for a cheaper 'out of sight' option..

The other day I took off the heater unit from the bulkhead because the matrix/core was leaking. I bypassed the heater and now have the whole unit on my garage floor. Got me thinking.. could you not just put an evaporator matrix in place of the heater matrix!? Sure you would loose your heating but Id much rather drive with a jacket when it gets cold than drive in a rage, sweating and dizzy when its a 30C+ day!!

In my mind it shouldnt be difficult to hook the compressor, condenser, receiver/drier etc under the bonnet so that it passes the refrigerant through an evaporator housed in your existing blower unit.

You would then use your existing blower controls on dash to control fan speed and mix outside air with cooled air (warmer/colder) . You would only need to add a switch to the dash to turn the compressor on/off

The air would come out of the standard holes, unfortunately that means cold front window and toes. You could modify the vents that are directed to your feet so that they blow upwards or maybe even find some directional vents that can be made to work.

If this is cheap/easy to do then the drawbacks are:
- no heater
- external air only - no recirc - not filtered
- land rover blower not the most powerful!
- box limits evaporator size, I'm no expert but could be too small to get properly cold output?

I'm liking this idea. I'll be looking for options for my 130 dual cab shortly and I really don't want the increased height and wind drag of a unit on the roof. Not having a heater in Queensland is no big deal; not having A/C is (more so for SWMBO than me anyway ).

I'm hoping to get to an air conditioning specialist shortly to discuss options with them so I'll run this idea past them and report back.


James.

Being a tight ass in general

Hey , I resemble that remark

I was talking to a guy on the weekend who had previously done a custom install that worked really well.
He modified the unit from an old Ford and mounted in under the cubby box between the seats. Had to make a smaller cubby box.
Only had the outlets facing forward, but he said the cold air then circulated off the dash and gave good cooling in general without frozen knees etc.
Condensation drain would just go down thru the seatbox, pretty easy to run the pipes to etc. Sounded like a good option to me.

Steve

Do you know which old model Ford Steve?

the demist with air/conditioning works with fresh air.
with recycle air you need heater.demist button on most cars opens the outside air vent.

most euro cars you have to shut of the face vents to get air flow through the demister as these are not ducted to the heater.often you dont have to as it works the same.

old systems up to the mid 80's the demist thermostat temp was set higher.newer cars the coil temp is preset.

using A/C without heater on a cold day fogs up the outside of the glass.I often have to drive with the wipers going untill the engine warms up.