Don’t waste another $20!
Often people will call us and tell us “I need my AC recharged” when the cabin air temperature isn’t as cool as they’d like. Auto parts store sell cans of refrigerant for around $20. Compared to what we charge, it might seem like a deal, but think first about this….
For $69.95 we inspect your AC components.
We put a vacuum on the system and check to make sure all these components (individual machines with their own individual jobs) are working properly. If they aren’t working properly, adding refrigerant (either at your house or at our shop) wouldn’t make sense. ONLY if your car passes this inspection will we talk about adding refrigerant.
If your vehicle passes this inspection, we’ll add refrigerant ($28.95 per pound) and dye ($10). But wait… there’s more! Once the refrigerant is added, there’s one more spoke in this “cool cabin” wheel…. We ask that you use your AC as much as you can for the next few days, then swing by the shop for a quick visual inspection (free!). We’ll check, really quickly, to see if any of the refrigerant is leaking by looking for that dye spitting out in places. Most frequently we see splashes in the condenser or evaporator ‘fins’… places that are too small to see with the human eye on that first visual inspection.
Very often we see that someone’s cabin isn’t cool so they add a can of refrigerant. The air doesn’t seem any cooler, or only feels cooler for a day or so. Finally they come to us, and we extract (and capture!) all the refrigerant first (as part of the inspection, so that we can measure it) and find that there is far too much in there. That’s a sure sign that one of the components isn’t working… and that you’ve wasted twenty bucks on a can of refrigerant. We sometimes hear that the can only made it blow cooler for a day or so, which is a sure sign that there is a leak somewhere, and you’ve just released AC refrigerant into the atmosphere and wasted $20.
The $69.95 inspection is your insurance that your machines are working properly… and that’s why you use us for all your other auto repair needs, right? Because we know what we’re doing, we charge a fair price, and we work together to keep your cars in tip top shape, safe, and cool.
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