What Is The Purpose Of Your Air Conditioner’s Power Chill/Quick Cool Feature?

Last Updated on 28/11/2020

Power chill, also known as quick cool, is a common air conditioner function that is used to cool an area in the shortest amount of time. The most optimal situation for the quick cool function is when there is hot or warm ambient indoor temperature and a long period of the air conditioner being off.

When the aircon isn’t being used, the temperature in the air will get warmer immediately. The indoor air is warmed up or replaced by outdoor warm air that seeps inside. The indoor air temperature will eventually match the outdoor temperature, and it can happen in minutes or hours. This will happen at a faster pace as the outdoor temperature becomes warmer.

How Does The Power Chill Function Work?

Each aircon model or make has a temperature setting that is colder than all the others, and when power chill or quick cool is activated, the aircon starts on this setting. A range of 16 to 18 degrees Centigrade (Celsius) is usually used for this setting. While the air conditioner is in power chill mode, it works hard to produce a noticeable ambient temperature drop that only takes a few minutes to feel.

The aircon’s abilities, along with the size of the room it’s in, are factors that determine how fast it can cool an area. Aircons that aren’t suited for a room size or aren’t big enough won’t perform as well as aircon that are the right size for an area and are top of the line.

After running for so long, usually, the aircon will stop operating in quick cool automatically and shift to a 20 to 25-degree operating temperature. This automatic feature isn’t found in all aircon, as some will only move to normal operation after reaching a certain temperature or when the quick cool is turned off manually.

Rather than waiting for the aircon to automatically turn quick cool off, it’s better to turn it off when the room temperature drops. There are a few important reasons why this should be done.

Why Is It A Good Idea To Turn Off Quick Cool?

A lot more energy than usual is used for the aircon to produce maximum output at the lowest available temperature to quickly cool a room. Producing cold air at a faster rate and working harder means more electricity must be drawn. A noticeable decrease in your power bill will occur if you stop using this function after using it regularly.

Since quick cool draws a lot of power during operation, often it is recommended that you avoid the feature entirely. If you have to use quick cool, you’ll be able to save money and power by running quick cool long enough for a significant temperature change to occur, and then shutting it off before the lowest temperature is reached or before the automatic timer turns it off. A few minutes in quick cool mode is the advised length of operation, followed by normal operation at a moderate temperature.

An increase in wear and tear due to working harder is another reason to avoid using the quick cool feature often or for long periods of time. It is recommended that an aircon gets serviced after 3 months, but when quick cool is used more often, the aircon will more than likely need service sooner than that.

The aircon may also provide a subpar performance in regular mode and may become more likely to malfunction and need repairs. Limited quick cool use is recommended to ensure that the aircon has a long life span and that the chances of higher service costs and unexpected repairs and lessened.

What Should You Do if Power Chill or Quick Cool Isn’t An Optional Setting On Your Air Conditioner?

Quickly cooling the indoor ambient temperature can be done even if your aircon doesn’t have a power chill or quick cool setting. Although modern aircon generally have this, it’s more of a convenience than a necessity. The same results that are produced by the quick cool setting can be achieved by running the aircon at the highest output with the lowest temperature.

If the quick cool setting doesn’t exist, then the aircon won’t be able to shift to normal function after the air has cooled enough or after a period of time. This means that you’ll have to manually change the temperature to a higher setting.

Just like when the quick cool mode is being used in a room, the recommended run time for an aircon at the maximum output and the lowest temperature is no more than a few minutes. During operation at the highest fan speed and lowest temperature, a lot more electricity is used, and the internal parts will go through more wear and tear than usual.

If An Air Conditioner Has Power Chill Or Quick Cool, Should You Buy It?

Air conditioners with the power chill or quick cool feature are the same as ones that don’t have it. The only thing that separates the two is that one will automatically turn off quick cool, while the other will need to manually have its fan speed reduced from the highest setting and its temperature raised from the lowest temperature when cooling a room.

Although it’s convenient to have a quick cool or power chill feature in an aircon, it’s not a requirement. There should be no significant difference in price between aircon without the feature and ones with it. When choosing an aircon, the power chill or quick cool feature isn’t necessary to have.

If you want to cool a room quickly and often forget to adjust the setting on your aircon, you may want to look into getting a model that has quick cool as a setting.

There are other features on aircon that can be useful, such as automatic temperature changing and sleep modes. Aircons with these features can be even more beneficial than ones that rely solely on the quick cool feature as a means of cooling a room quickly.