All air conditioning systems work in the same basic way, relying upon the principles of evaporation, condensation, compression and expansion, and consist of the same seven major components: the compressor, condenser, recover-drier, orifice tube or expansion valve, evaporator, hoses and of course refrigerant. A graduate from Collins in automobiles may know how this works, but lets have a read..

The refrigerant which is now HFC-134a (R-134a), boils at around-15.9F, which means it is typically a gas under standard atmospheric pressure. One of the basic principles upon which an A/C system operates is Latent Heat of Evaporation, which means that the refrigerant must be able to evaporate, so it must first become a liquid. If you’re unfamiliar with the Latent Heat Principle, it’s the same idea as how sweat helps regulate your body temperature on a hot day.

When you sweat, the moisture evaporates from your skin, absorbing heat in the process and creating a cooling sensation. With R-134a, to raise the boiling point high enough for the refrigerant to condense to a liquid at more realistic ambient temperatures, it must be highly pressurized.

The A/C system is a continuous loop that is split into a high pressure side and low-pressure side by the compressor. The high pressure created by the pumping of the compressor pushes the now heated and pressurized gaseous refrigerant through a hose into the condenser, where much of the heat causes the refrigerant to condense into a liquid state. The still-highly-pressurized liquid then flows into the recover-drier, which contains a filter to remove any debris within the system as well as desiccant material to remove any moisture or impurities from the refrigerant. (Moisture combined with refrigerant can form a corrosive acid)