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Aluminum vs Copper Condenser?

philoprof on Fri June 14, 2013 12:06 PM User is offline

Year: 1981
Make: Mercedes
Model: 380sl
Engine Size: 380
Refrigerant Type: 134
Country of Origin: United States

I was wondering whether there's a big difference between the cooling capacity of older copper condensers and the newer aluminum units.

A company near me showed me an aluminum Silla that I can buy for around $100, but it is about 1/2 the thickness and weight of the OE condenser on my Mercedes. However, the guy's telling me that its cooling capacity is as good, if not better than the OE.

Is that true, possible, or wrong?

Thanks in advance for the info.

94RX-7 on Fri June 14, 2013 12:29 PM User is offline

Quote
Originally posted by: philoprof
I was wondering whether there's a big difference between the cooling capacity of older copper condensers and the newer aluminum units.



A company near me showed me an aluminum Silla that I can buy for around $100, but it is about 1/2 the thickness and weight of the OE condenser on my Mercedes. However, the guy's telling me that its cooling capacity is as good, if not better than the OE.



Is that true, possible, or wrong?


Plausible.

It depends on how the metal is arranged more than the actual choice of metal. There are 4 major designs: parallel flow, piccolo, serpentine and tube and fin. Parallel flow being the most efficient (and most recent "invention"), tube and fin being the least efficient (and has been around the longest), and piccolo and serpentine falling somewhere in the middle (I think piccolo might be more efficient than serpentine, but not sure).

philoprof on Sat June 15, 2013 5:20 AM User is offline

Thanks for the info. I came across this website, which explains the difference pretty well:

http://www.angelfire.com/biz7/johnsresume/Condensers.htm

iceman2555 on Sat June 15, 2013 11:04 PM User is offlineView users profile

Brass and copper condensers will not perform as well as the aluminum units. The B/C units are typically sold as a 'cost' alternative for the market. Often these are sold in the pic configuration to replace the PF alum units and both pressures and temps will suffer. Several years ago, exchanged a B/C unit on a 1998 Dodge truck that had been involved in an accident. Naturally the insurance company bought the cheaper unit, the B/C and the body shop installed the unit. Naturally the customer was very unhappy with performance and the FL summers can be a bit intense. A simple recover, change the condenser, evac and recharge solved the problem. The body shop was happy, his customer was happy and the body shop repaired the paint damage to my truck and now everyone was happy.
B/C unit will not be made in a PF design or at least never have encountered one. They are produced in tube/fin and Pic configurations. Had the same problem years ago when the aftermarket was supplying replacement evaps made in the B/C tube and fin design. Finally stopped using the darn things. It was better to pay the extra cost of a factory replacement unit.
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