When the summer heat comes, you may be using your car’s air conditioner intensively, as every driver does. But you should not forget that in time, some negativities may arise regarding air conditioners, which are indispensable for sweltering summer days. The most common of these is bad odors from the air conditioner. When you run your air conditioner, you can smell mold-like odors or if you think that your air conditioner is not working as effectively as before, you can understand that it is time to clean your air conditioner.
“ How to clean car air conditioner ?” Before proceeding to the answer to the question, it is necessary to talk about the misuse caused by this type of odor. Like every driver, if you turn off your air conditioner when you are going to turn off your vehicle, it is quite normal to observe odor formation over time. Because the biggest cause of bad odors from air conditioners is bacteria. After long and intensive use, the humidity and temperature in the air conditioner radiator create a perfect breeding ground for bacteria. On the other hand, the steam in the airways of the air conditioner turns into liquid when the cars stop, causing bacteria to form in the channels over time. Therefore, it is necessary to turn off the air conditioner approximately four to five minutes before stopping the vehicle in order to prevent bacterial substances from breeding.
Now let’s come to the answer to the question of how to clean the car air conditioner …
Car air conditioner cleaning in 2 steps
If you want to both breathe healthier air and save significant fuel in your vehicle, you must have your air conditioner serviced. If you are wondering what are the benefits of car air conditioner cleaning and how to clean air conditioner, here are two easy steps to cleaning car air conditioner:
- Pollen filter cleaning
You don’t have to smell bad to realize that something is wrong with the air conditioner. You can prevent possible problems and bad smells by checking the pollen filter of your air conditioner frequently. Especially when sufficient performance is not obtained, the pollen filter in car air conditioners needs to be changed. Although the location of the pollen filter varies from car to car, it is usually located under the dash or dashboard.
When installing the new filter, you must be sure to set the airflow direction correctly. The pollen filter must be changed every 10 thousand kilometers. In this way, you can benefit from your air conditioner in a healthy way and reduce fuel consumption.
- Air duct cleaning
Another way to get rid of musty odors caused by bacteria is to clean the air ducts. Your air conditioner may be getting fresh air from outside; However, when this air transferred into the vehicle passes through channels filled with bacteria, it loses all its properties. To clean the air ducts, you first need to get one of the air conditioner cleaning sprays available in the market.
Before starting the cleaning process, you need to put your air conditioner in the heating mode for about five minutes and run it at the highest speed. With this application, you can make the air ducts ready for cleaning application. Then you have to turn off the air conditioner and the vehicle and spray the sprays into the ventilation holes. You can use the long spray heads to go deeper.
After spraying all the holes, you need to put the air conditioner in hot mode and run it at the lowest speed. In this way, you can ensure that bacteria in the air ducts are destroyed more quickly. However, at this point, you should note that the internal circulation mode is turned off.
After completing all the procedures and keeping your vehicle’s air conditioner turned off for half an hour, you can be ready for an air conditioner performance away from bad odors. If you live in a hot climate, the growth of bacteria in your car’s air ducts may be easier than you think. For this reason, you can prevent bad odors caused by bacteria by repeating the duct cleaning process every 6 months.
