To not know that the air con in my car needs cleaning?!

[SmiledWithTheRisingSun]

Do you know about this? Am I the only one who didn't?

What? I've never done this. How do you even clean it?

I didn't but I do now, because when my air con didn't work properly I was told by my garage that it probably needed servicing.

I'm sure it's not just you and me OP. Although, I bet most MNers will post to the effect that, of course they do, everyone knows that.

It needs to be serviced by a garage pontiouspilates

The garage does it every couple of years. I think they re-pressurise it or something.

It also needs to be re-gassed when it runs out. This was something I only found out in the past few years, but everyone in Australia knows about it! (obviously more important there).

I knew, but only because I take my car to the main dealership for servicing and they always try and upsell the service.
What I didn't realise until recently was that you can use the air conditioning as a heat source and that you should run it occasionally through the winter so that it doesn't smell manky.

Our local ATS has posters up in the summer advertising this.

Yes. I work in this field.

Over time, due to condensation forming around a working air conditioning system-usually during warm weather- bacteria can reside in the condenser. You may notice an off or 'wet dog' smell coming from your vents when you turn the air con on.

Air con 'bombs' are available from any motor factors (think Halfords) or even online. They are aerosols which you deploy into the cab of the vehicle when the engine is running and the air con on full chat.
They run through the system neutralising the bacteria and giving the cabin a fresh smell. It might be worth doing this once or twice.

An air con regal is a different matter. This is done by a garage with specialist equipment to re has the system with R134A Tetroflouroethane (the refrigerant) and will probably cost somewhere in the region of £40-£60 depending on the capacity of your vehicle's system.

They are mutually exclusive issues, although can be carried out together, as good practice.

*regas

The air con bombs are usually £8-£10 a canister.

I have never serviced our cars' aircons. Longest we had a car was 12y. Aircon never gave us any problems. I did know that you have to run it at least once a month all year round, but that's because I'm one of those boring nerds who reads the manual.

You don't HAVE to have it serviced or regassed. It is a sealed system and not detrimental to your car's safety or performance, just passenger comfort.

It might require a freshen at some point due to bacterial build up in the condenser. It might never smell.

The system is a chain of interlinked pipes and rubber 'o' seals, often, one or more of these seals will start to deteriorate leading to a leak of the air con gasses and inefficient air con. These are easily replaced and the system regassed.

Some cars never really need this.

I had my previous car for 12 years and never had the air con serviced.

Only learned about it with my current car when it was about 4 years old and the air con started no working properly.

Clearly not all air con systems are created equal.

Someone told me that the bacteria is really bad for you if you don't have it cleaned then you're breathing it in!

I have lived abroad where this was necessary for house and car! I don’t think it matters that much in the UK unless you use your air con every day. The garage should offer it as an extra to the service.