Air Conditioner Question for the winter

Dec 16, 2003 5 Replies
M

I live in Southern New England where it gets fairly cold in the winter, down in the single digits.



I noticed on my 97 Maxima, the air conditioner compressor runs when ever the car is set to defrost.



Is this normal?? Will this shorten the life of the unit running it in really cold weather???



Should I consider putting in a toggle switch to disable the compressor in the winter???



There are probably two schools of thought:


1) It destructive, the cold is bad for the seals with the oil being thick from the cold, seals fragile, etc.


2) It's good for the compressor, because it keeps the compressor lubricated from time to time.



Air Conditioner professionals what would you do?


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D

The compressor runs on defrost so the windshield won't fog up.

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B

The compressor works as designed. Your second school of thought is accurate. The compressor is used to remove humidity from the air as well as allowing the circulation of the oil in the a/c system to make sure all seals keep from drying out/dying/leaking.

-Bruce

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M

On the cars I owned when I lived in the frozen north the compressors would come on only when the temperature was below about 40 degF. Either something is not working correctly or they saved some money by not having an ambient air temperature sensor.

"David L. Foreman" wrote:

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B

The system is working as designed.

Dehumidified hot air (provided by the a/c unit) clears a foggy windshield much faster than regular hot air.

Also, running the a/c in the winter provides lubrication for the seals, otherwise they'd dry out & leak by summertime.

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R

Most likely, despite the light coming on, it doesn't actually run when it gets below a certain temperature because of the low system pressure. Unless you can actually feel it kicking in..

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