For many people, fall is a welcome break after the summer heat. The air conditioners are already turned off for the season, but others still have several more weeks before they can give the A/C a break. But if you’ve found yourself asking ‘Should I cover my A/C unit in the winter?’, we can help.

In this feature, we’ll look at:

  • How and why air conditioners can break down over winter.
  • How to prevent air conditioning failure.
  • How A/C Pro® can help.

How and why air conditioning can fail at winter

It’s not uncommon for car air conditioners to break down over the winter months. Clearly, they’re not breaking down due to overuse, since the A/C is rarely even on during the cold winter months.

Instead, the problem is usually caused by lack of use. Without refrigerant and oil flowing through the system, rubber seals or hoses can become dry and brittle. When that happens, the refrigerant can leak out, leaving you with no cooling power when the summer rolls around again.

How to prevent air conditioning failure

Luckily, the main way to prevent this problem is simple: run your air conditioner during the winter.

Sure, that might seem counter-intuitive. However, we’re not talking about having it on all winter, just a couple of minutes every few weeks will circulate the system and help keep it from drying out.

The A/C does more than just cool the air. It also serves to dehumidify the air, which can be handy when your windows fog up with moisture on a cold winter day. In fact, many cars automatically run the A/C system when you turn on the defroster for that very reason—which means you may already be running the A/C periodically without realizing it.

If your car doesn’t do this automatically, you can still manually turn the A/C on when defrosting to accomplish the same purpose, without freezing yourself in the process.

How to prevent air conditioning failure

Of course, we can’t guarantee that this simple trick will keep your A/C from going bad over the winter. There are other things that can go wrong, and sometimes the rubber components just get old and dry out, even if you’re running the A/C consistently (and even during the summer). But if you do find that your car’s A/C is low on refrigerant, you can always use A/C Pro® to get it running cold again.

Plus, A/C Pro® includes the lubricants and conditioners needed to rejuvenate old rubber components, to keep the refrigerant from leaking back out (and keep you from having to replace any seals or O-rings).

If you have any questions, please contact us at A/C Pro®.