A car AC basically consists of 5 major components that are responsible for cooling your car in summers and warming it up during the winters. These components are:

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1. Compressor

2. Condenser

3. Receiver Dryer or Accumulator

4. Orifice Tube or Expansion Valve

5. Evaporator

Compressor

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It will compress the refrigerant gas which is commonly known as Freon. As the kinetic energy of the gas increases due to compression, it becomes hot.

Condenser

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The hot and pressurized gas is then passed through a series of coils which use the air from the outside to cool the gas down. This, in turn, will lead to condensation of the gas into a cold liquid. There are two types of condensers available:

1. Non-serpentine Condenser: It is a parallel style one. It cannot be flushed thus it must be replaced if not working.

2. Serpentine Condenser: It is a better one as it can be flushed using the car AC flush kit.

Receiver Dryer or Accumulator

You must have got the idea of what this canister does from the name. The basic job is to dry the air. There is a desiccant to absorb the moisture.

Orifice Tube or Expansion Valve

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This valve provides resistance to the flow of refrigerant. This causes the refrigerant to change from a high-pressure liquid into a low-pressure mist before it enters the evaporator.

Evaporator

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The low-pressure liquid refrigerant mist flows through the evaporator where a blower motor pushes air across the cold tubes of the evaporator to send cooled air into the passenger compartment of the car.