air con cleaning products

[marinabrid]

has anyone used any of the air con cleaner disinfect cans ? some you leave car running and it sucks it into the system and some you spray down the centre vent and leave it not running for a while, seen a german one on ebay designed for porshe bmw that seems to be a good one for sanitising the system

[insanitybeard]

I have used one the amusingly named 'air con bombs'    which like you say are an aerosol can which you let off in the vehicle with all the doors and windows shut and the air con switched on (which obviously requires the engine to be running) and in recirculate mode, which in theory circulates the contents of the can through the air con evaporator and blower ducting as thoroughly as possible to clean out any mould and nasties.... be warned, the smell hits you when you open the door for the first time and get in after 'deploying' it (you don't sit in the vehicle whilst the can is emptying it's contents!) and it sure lingers for a while!

[marinabrid]

saw that type     wondered if the  "spray down vent " type was better   or if they all do the same job

[marinabrid]

with the dual air con  would i have 2 evaporators to clean  or would one can do both ?

[insanitybeard]

Yes, if you've got rear air con (which yours must have if it's got all the toys installed) then there will be an evaporator core and blower ducting up into the roof lining from the rear blower box also (behind the nearside rear quarter trim).

I don't know which of the two types of cleaner work best, I'd be inclined to say maybe the aerosol type you let off with the air con operating because this way the contents of the aerosol are repeatedly circulated throughout the blower ducting and air con evaporators by the action of the blower motor, whereas if you just spray it down the vents it's only going to make it so far into the system.