Auto A/C Repairs Portland ME

Repairing air conditioning systems as a profit center can be quite rewarding - provided you're quite knowledgeable when it comes to systems, environmental concerns and government regulations. Otherwise, you may be cooling your heels in an empty shop.

By Bob Leone
7/1/2000

Many of the most versatile collision shops incorporate air conditioning (A/C) and heating service as a stand-alone profit center. Who has a better opportunity to retrofit a vehicle in need of a condenser or a compressor -- thanks to physical damage discovered at the pre-estimate inspection -- than those who'll replace these major components during a collision repair procedure? Transferring a system from the outdated and environmentally harmful R-12 to the EPA-accepted R-134 is a profit center built into the description of the collision shop itself.

But finding ways to better understand today's climate-control systems can be challenging for even the most accomplished service technicians. To get you started, we'll look at some of the hills and valleys that currently exist within the confines of A/C service when maintaining an A/C profit center.

Reviewing Basics
The first auto air conditioner was installed in a Packard in 1940. Since then, a lot of change has come about, but the physical principles remain the same. Any time we cool, heat, re-heat, dehumidify, clean, filter, circulate, re-circulate and/or change the quality of air moving within the vehicle's interior space, we should understand that...