As others have complained, my A/C just does not quite cut it in the 110+degree AZ heat. After being told my truck with within spec at the dealership, I began searching on how I could improve it myself. After looking at the A/C lines I noticed big portions of the "cold" side lines were not insulated. Here is my truck, 2012 xlt ecoboost.


I went out and got some baseline temp numbers 2 days ago, the testing was done on the same stretch of highway for 15 minutes to get everything as cool as it would get, I had set cruise at 70. I used a digital thermometer in the driver side right vent. For this test the A/C was on max with the fan speed as high as it would go and it was 109 degrees outside. As seen below, the coldest it would get was 44.4 when the compressor was on, as soon as it shut down it would jump to 51.1 before cycling on again.

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On to the project, you will need 3 feet of foam pipe insulation and 10 or so zip ties, both found at any home improvement store. You will need snips and a razor knife.



Your goal is to cover as much of the fat silver "cool" line as you can.




I did the run up to the firewall first, it was about a 14" piece. followed by 3 additional runs trimming around corners and the fill nozzle.





Next for the test run, it was 111 outside (2 degrees warmer), same speed and same stretch of road after 15 min my compressor on temp drooped to 42.2 and on the compressor off cycle the highest it would get 48.3 before cycling back on.

In summary for about $8 in material I got 2.2 degrees cooler on the compressor on cycle and 4.3 degrees cooler during the compressor off cycle.
*Keep in mind it was also 2 degrees warmer outside during the after the insulation install test.

 

Keep in mind your truck is a dark color so that will skew things to some extent.

I personally haven't had issues with cooling and it's been 105 here recently. Thanks for the write up though, I may do this anyway just to make things more efficient.

 

Insulating that line isn't a good idea. While it may have helped in cooler weather there could be refrigerant in a liquid form in that line. It uses the engine temp to boil it off, this to keep liquid from the compressor. Also the suction line is simply carrying the gas back, once the refrigerant goes through the evaporator it is serving no purpose til its compressed again.
Being in Arizona this may have no effect on your truck. But I would take it off if you ever have it in the dealer for ac issues.

 

I also installed the silver insulation with the bubble plastic on the cold lines. Works very good. I am in San Diego.......

 

If you want colder AC why not just put the largest electric fan you can fit on the front of your condenser. Wire it to a manual switch inside the cab. It would also help cool the motor too.

 

A wiper nozel and a spray of water would work good too.

 

Lots of vehicles have this line insulated from the factory including the lincoln navigator. Its partially insulated as it is.

 

I like this.
It gets hot (105's also) in DFW and find that if I park in the shade or a parking garage the difference in cool-down time is enormous vs parking out in the sun. This seems like a quick fix for cheap though. I like it. Nice find.

 

LS1POWERED, Thx for the great write up. I did this quick easy mod this morning. I used Armacell (rubberized) 1/2" self seal pipe insulation & some zip ties for the edges and corners. Here is how it turned out.
Before:


Old crappy insulation:


New insulation:

 

Nice idea but the only thing that insulation is going to do is keep the condensation off. That line is leaving your evaporator going back to the compressor

 

If you are trying to keep the fluid inside the pipe cooler, then eliminating condensation on the pipe would show that you've done just that.

 

How can this make a difference? More tests!!

 

This won't make any difference, the low side line carries the refrigerant back to the compressor, at this point the heat removal is done. The only thing it may do is cause liquid to flood the compressor, and stop it from dripping.

 

There is no liquid in that line it is gas going back to the compressor. What he did is going to do no harm but its not going to make any difference ether . It will just stop the sweating.

 

Seems to me that Ford just didn't make (or buy) a good enough air conditioner! How is a/c on Ram, GM, Tundra? Hey, I like cool!