Aircon disinfection

A dealer here was offering a free aircon check and, for $59, disinfection to rid the system of bacteria and moulds. I guess the check would mainly be just seeing how much the temperature of the air coming into the car is reduced. Disinfection may be just a matter of spraying a suitable agent into the air inlets to hopefully kill off the bugs breeding in damp corners but does anyone know what is used, where to buy it and how to use it?
I wonder, too, how often the cabin air filter really needs replacing - not easily accessed in our modern car. Our 40+ year old cars have great heating/ventilation systems but no filters, and there is an interesting layer of dust visible in the inlet ducts. We avoid using their heater fans at high speed to avoid getting face-fulls of pollens and other irritants.

2 years max on your cabin filter, 1 year is ideal. Otherwise you can have microbes growing on it that are not ideal for health.

I disinfect my vehicle heating/cooling system with my steam cleaner which may be how the dealer is doing it. It's very effective and will remove the smoke smell from the vents of s smokers car too.

Hope that helps.

Aircons leak gas thru their seals, they can check how much has leaked.
Cabin filter, if its not been changed you probably do want to swap the burnt toast looking grit filled with mold spots for a brand new soft butter yellow concertina rippled, new car smelling one.

Mine, on trade me $15, superepco $45. Cheap multi deals from Aussie.

I once high pressure washed in inside of the engine bay of my car, water must have got into the aircon unit.
It started to smell musty in a few days, in a week it was near unbearable, the smell got in my clothes and, well 'lingered'.

I sold the car for $50 a few weeks later with its chattering CV joint.
They drove around in it with the windows down until the police gave the car a sticker.….

Wurth do a product. It is a can with a long skinny hose and a tiny head on the hose it's designed to be inserted up the drain and sprayed around inside the heater box over the condenser. It smells like alcohol.

Ask them what it includes, it could be just spraying something in intake with fan running.
For household a/c, i use this eucalyptus smelling product
http://catalog.dcne.com/catalog/WebCatPageServer.exe?PROD_FULL&ProdInfo=00155011212
which i rinse off with water (for a car, running on cold would cause condensation to form and so help rinse off perhaps?)

Probably alcohol and iconic surfercunts

thejazzpianoma wrote:
2 years max on your cabin filter, 1 year is ideal. Otherwise you can have microbes growing on it that are not ideal for health.

I disinfect my vehicle heating/cooling system with my steam cleaner which may be how the dealer is doing it. It's very effective and will remove the smoke smell from the vents of s smokers car too.
Hope that helps.[/quote

I wonder what the microbes did before we had cabin filters?

A good product, have used it in the past.

They would have spread out in the car, your clothes and out the rear vents, windows etc.

What the filter does is collect and accumulate the microbes in a very small space, where potentially they can start to breed as well. Then you flick on your heater fan and bam. microbes to the face!

This btw is why I was quite angry that we were not having the Japanese remove engine and cabin filters from their cars before shipping them here after Fukushima. Filter systems in cars are about the best possible way of amassing and concentrating radioactive hot particles. (Thankfully most are now inert)

It's so effective that's exactly how the Russians tested areas of their countryside after Chernobyl. They would put a new filter in a truck and take it for a drive through the area they wanted to test. Then pull the filter out, slap some photographic film over it and develop the film. Any radioactive particles would show up beautifully and could be counted straight off the film. So nice and quantifiable if you keep your trip distance information etc.

Anyhow, those Japanese car filters of which plenty it would be safe to say in my opinion would have had dozens of hot particles in them. They would arrive here, mechanics would blow them out with compressed air and breathe the particles in. Car dealers and owners would change the filters and drop them on the carpet which would then be vacuumed with the house vacuum cleaner etc. It just wasn't good enough. Once you breathe in one of those particles they lodge themselves into you soft internal tissues (lungs etc) and stay there for life. Sure they are not overly radioactive in that you could hold one in a gloved hand safely. But. lodged right in to your soft tissue fore life. yeah nah. Anyway, those deaths will likely be put down to passive smoking, smoking or some such. Much like problems with cars resulting from biofuel blends (in my opinion), you don't necessarily think "biofuel caused this" when your fuel gauge stops working or high pressure pump fails etc. You just assume the part failed for some other reason.

Useless information for you.
I LOVE the smell of a soapbox in the morning!

what I was getting at was, what harm did the microbes do before cabin filters? I have been in cars for way too long and as far as i can tell, the microbes have not done any harm. dust and pollen are a different item and the filter helps me with these. radioactivity is a another worry, maybe

Yes bill -robinson you are correct, All this clean stuff is making our immune systems very weak, in a circulating air conditioner most of the particles are in fact from your body anyway, do a test on room airconditioning and you will find this information out.

Microbes don't really do any harm if your car is regularly venitlated and doesn't leak. However, if you want to catch dust and pollen in a cabin filter you get a buildup and concentration of microbes as well it just comes with the territory. Same sort of deal as a water filter in your house, you want to flush the first bit through before using it and change it regularly for exactly the same reason.

Radioactive hot particles are not quite such a concern now as most were short life. However it was still incredibly stupid of our Government and used car industry. Profit before sensibility.