1979-1993 & 94 Conv [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
As I kind of like heat and it's winter anyway here my interest is more academic, but I'm kind of wondering, what the heck is the difference in cooling power between running the hot refrigerant thru either a series of parallel tubes or thru one long serpentine tube, if in both cases they're aluminum tubes thickly finned with aluminum through which ambient temperature air is being forced and if they're roughly equal in area?
I hear KeithG saying they work great but what's the science or else the sales rationale at least that says one is better than the other?
Nothing off you Keith but one guy's subjective judgment or even the collective judgment of a whole cult of aftermarket tinkerers doesn't mean to me that it's necessarily a better condenser at condensing R134.
I can see that it might be easier to manufacture parallel tube condensers in that the question arises, how do you get a long S-shaped coil through a stack of skinny fins, as compared to poking a bunch of straight tubes through. But then I'd guess the tubes need to be welded into a plenum chamber at each end and that's a lot of work and a lot of seams where future leaks could happen, compared to one long seamless tube in Saab's design.
I can see a NEW condenser of any design being possibly a little more efficient than the original. But you can brush, hose and use a mild detergent to get the dead bugs and road grime out of the fins of your condenser, comb straight any crushed areas, and do a solvent flush as detailed on the Townsendimports site, probably easier than you can adapt an aftermarket condenser to fit in its place. And then you're back to like-new efficiency I'd say.
Are we talking bigger or thicker than Saab's condenser? And if it's longer, taller, shorter or narrower than Saab's, do you get full airflow?
posted by 70.16.108...
No Site Registration is Required to Post - Site Membership is optional (Member Features List), but helps to keep the site online
for all Saabers. If the site helps you, please consider helping the site by becoming a member.
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |