It can be said that overall that the most important aspect of air-conditioning service is the maintenance of pure and adequate charge of refrigerant in your air conditioning system. A refrigeration system cannot function properly if a significant percentage of the charge is lost. Leaks are common as a result of the severe vibration and vibrations that both a frequent and common occurrence with most vehicles in everyday or worse hazardous and more default driving conditions on the roads and byways of the USA, Canada and Mexico. The jolts and bumps along the roadsides can easily cause sufficient cracking or loosening of the air condition fittings. As a result the extreme operating pressures of the air conditioning system force the vital refrigerant out. It's all very similar to a pop bottle being left open and the fizz disappearing.

Looked another or alternate way, the problem and situation can be understood by considering what happens to the air conditioning system as it would operate with a steady and continuous leak. Refrigerant fluid leaks out, what is left begins to boil or vaporize. There is not enough refrigerant to complete the system, as if it a flow of liquid in a constant and regular ongoing cycle. The refrigerant fluid cannot flow in a constant and consistent manner in a regular flow. Thus the air conditioner cannot take away the heat , it cannot do ?its job? and you now remain sweltering in a hot , rather than cool vehicle , much as would expect and like to.

Whets the answer ? preventative maintenance of your air conditioning system long before summer's heat arrives. Simple as that.

However it used to be a simple matter to simply visit your local mechanical garage, service station, automotive factory dealer or even a big box large retail store. It used to be ? the key word is ?used to be? as in the past, not the present, a most simple matter and procedure for a ?top up? of air conditioning refrigerant. The process was to add additional air conditioning refrigerant to your sealed air conditioning system ? much like you would add air, from a service station or auto dealer's compressor air hose, simply to pump up your tire to adequate and safe vehicle tire air pressures.

Not so today. With concerns about the Ozone layer and layers high up in the atmosphere and the knowledge that loose fluoro-hydrocarbons in the atmosphere (in this case your evaporated and released air conditioning fluids), this is all a very different and very serious matter. It's not a simple matter as before, and indeed a very serious offense if the procedure is not properly by trained and accredited mechanical auto refrigerant staff along with highly specialized auto air conditioning refrigerant equipment and tools.

The summary is that now is the time to take your vehicle with its air conditioning system, for a routine inspection and testing at a reputable and accredited automotive repair facility ? be it a garage, service station or automotive factory outlet where they have the trained accredited staff and proper equipment, as well as the luxury of time to inspect your auto's air conditioning system and bring it back to snuff it need be ? all long before the hot sweltering summer. Why roast in the hot summer weather in your care when you can be safely driving in comfort? Take the time to visit your garage, service station or auto dealer now.