First off, I can't really remember how the Air Con was when I got the car 6 years ago, so I can't really compare. But...

The air con doesn't really seem to get as cold as I expect. Don't get me wrong, it does get cold. If I put my hand by the vent it seems significantly colder than ambient. But even on fan speed 4 with recirc on, the cabin doesn't seem to get that much colder unless it's cold outside too.

I did get it regassed the other week, as it's not been done before in my ownership. I can't really say it's got much colder since then (definitely takes less time to get cold though). I'm still open to the idea that the recharge was done a bit dodgy (I admit it was an impulse-buy as I was driving past - I went to Kwik Fit).

But I was wondering how cold everyone else's air con gets. And whether it's just normal or whether there's anything else that may help.

I've also changed the pollen filter as I've heard that may help airflow. But nothing noticeable.

It never really gets artic cold in mine... but definatly generates nice cold air.

I find that on 4 it's almost too much air flow. It seems to get cooler when on 2. I'm not clear on how aircon works but it at the slower speed logic tells me it spends longer, moves slower, going through the chiller?

My Air Con was completely empty when I last got it re gassed.. Doubtless to say I noticed a massive difference, lol!

In the manual it recommends to use it on re circ, directed to the dash vents and to point them all up towards the roof and get some convection happening as the cold air falls back down. This does seem to work well.

get them both re-gassed

Even KwiK Fit can't really get the re-gas wrong, as it's all done by an automated machine. It weighs the extracted gas and oil, holds the system in deep vacuum to detect leaks and purge moisture. You can use a spot thermometer to measure the AC vent temp, as follows. Set heat control to minimum, and vent control to face vents. Close all but one vent and set fan speed to 4. Measure temperature of air coming out of the vent with the spot thermometer, it should be 4c or less after a few minutes.

Also check BOTH engine bay fans are on, with aircon running.

Aircon looses roughly 15% of it's gas per year, so really needs to be re-gased every 2 to 3 years, or the seals dry out and leak.

Even KwiK Fit can't really get the re-gas wrong, as it's all done by an automated machine.

That's what I thought, but looking at the invoice/receipt a few days afterwards, my vRS is a 1.4 and my mileage is actually 24k rather than the 60k the dash says. So I have no doubt the guy could happily have typed in Alfa Romeo Mito to the machine before walking behind my car for a fag. Do all the Fabia's have the same amount of gas/oil in them? Is the compressor the same?

Aircon looses roughly 15% of it's gas per year, so really needs to be re-gased every 2 to 3 years, or the seals dry out and leak.

I did wonder if this may have happened, as it's been so long. But, as I said, it happily gets cold (and was getting cold before the regas) and is 'working'. Just not as much as I expect. But my expectations could just be too high I guess.

Suppose I'll wait and see if it gets worse, and live with it otherwise.