I live in Las Vegas and the temps outside have been into the 110's. My air conditioner is working perfectly fine. My temp at my vent is around 55, and this is perfectly fine and normal with normal outside temperatures. When the outside temps are high at 117, it's hard for the ac to keep the cabin cool. Is it safe to use household hvac foam insulation like the stuff used on HVAC line sets to keep the ambient temperature from affecting the line set temperature? I was thinking of adding it after the receiver dryer to as close to the firewall I can get it. This is for a Mk IV Jetta 2.0. Your thoughts are greatly appreciated. Having the refrigerant cooler would also benefit not having to run max AC all the time as well.
Thanks,
Jay
You want to insulate the cooled compressed, high pressure, liquid refrigerant between the receiver/dryer and the expansion valve.
Your theory is the ambient air temperature combined with the underhood temperature is "reheating" the liquid refrigerant that's leaving the receiver/dryer before reaching the expansion valve.
If you want to experiment that way, why not insulate that line all the way from the condenser to the receiver/dryer as well as from the receiver/dryer to the expansion valve?
I can't see that it would hurt anything.
But you're talking temps above 115 degrees. At that point the AC is probably doing all it can.
If you do it, let us know what you find out. I like the premise.
