Anyone living in SE Asia with similar temp / humidity to my location in Thailand can tell me just how good their Air Conditioner is in this climate?

Mine won't cool the car adequately, I'm hot and even my wife who is Thai doesn't think it's very cold. Tested pressure today and idling is at 45 psi dropping to 25 psi at 2000 rpm. Seems to be working OK and the A/C specialist here said these cars aircon is meant for cool countries like EU and isn't up to scratch in Thailand. And at the moment it isn't even hot here, and the sun isn't out !

Just curious, and HOT...

Keith

I am in Houston Texas with temps that hit over 100 regularly and humidity as high as 70-80% and my car's AC gets so cold that it must be turned down or my ears freeze!!!

recently in temps of high 90-100 and humidity very high no problem cooling car!

i would suggest cleaning out the condensor in front of the rediator and possibly even installing a afetmarket pusher fan in front of the condensor to help increase heat transfer.


is your condensor or evaporator made of Copper tubing? this is much less efficient than Aluminum. Aluminum systems are colder than copper.

Dan

I've had trouble with my A/C, and I'm in North Florida, where it's plenty hot and plenty humid too. I would suggest getting a cheap thermometer...even a meat thermometer will do, and put it in your vent to determine the temp coming out at different times. Here's what I've found...

On a cool day....78-84 deg F outside....I get about 50-55 deg F in stop and go, and mid 40's when there's no traffic.

On a hot day....95-100 deg F outside.....I get about 65 deg F in stop and go, and 55-60 deg F with no traffic. The numbers continue to drop as the car cools down though.

I hope this helps....I had a 'bad' evaporator put in a couple of months ago and the numbers were dramatically different, so that's when we started showing the thermometer to the shop and telling them they didn't fix it right.

Thanks - most useful.

I have a thermometer and what I get is pretty much the same as you, that is with the recirc flap closed and no fresh air coming in .... However the air inside gets stale quickly with several passengers and I usuall open the vents. Then the cooling is pretty awful, and we feel hot. Most of our driving is in hot, polluted Bangkok traffic, mostly stop not much go :-))

Nearly all Japanese cars here including the cheapest Toyota taxis have much better aircon - too damned cold in fact, so what is the design fault with the 850 aircon unti ?


KP

According to climatic data Thailand is no hotter than some locations in USA but humidity is much higher though, but the higher humidity should not impact your A/C heat rejection capacity all that much. I don't know what pressure Volvo's A/C should run at (normal operating pressure for R134a is around 50 psia (compressor suction) and around 400 psia (compressor discharge)) but lack of performance usually indicates a leak in the system.
BTW, I run A/C in South Carolina when temperature was hitting 110F and humidity was around 40% and cooling was excellent.

Doing a search on ac will throw back tons of information. I know I've seen pressure specs posted before but don't remember where they were.

My car's AC blows at about 37 degrees F (give or take a few) at the vents.. at times TOO cold for me here in the southern US..
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'94 855 5spd 'Drew' 203,000 Miles -Currently laid up getting a good internal cleaning and tomorrow a nice used head, new wires, seals and stuff-

Thanks Rarity !

I have many, many specs from many, many boards and sources, mostly they agree that the pressure I am seeing is OK. My question is - is the 850 aircon simply not up to the job here in Thailand with temperatures higher than 90 deg F and humidity 90% +

I find it hard to believe Volvo would get this wrong, as Volvos are among the best selling "luxury" cars here in Thailand.


KP

Maybe the pressure is up to par... but could the actual liquid r134 be low? I have heard somewhere that can happen if not recharged right. Also something about too much or too little liquid r134 and it won't cool properly. I would go and have someone that knows what they're doing and knows volvo exacuate the system and put in the correct amounts.

Another thought would be to inspect the condenser in front of the radiator and make sure it isn't clogged with bugs, dirt, etc.

If you know for sure that everything is 'right'... then I'd suggest getting your car's windows tinted as that helps keep the car's interior cooler. You don't need to get dark tint to feel the difference either.
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'94 855 5spd 'Drew' 203,000 Miles -Currently laid up getting a good internal cleaning and tomorrow a nice used head, new wires, seals and stuff-