Dual evaporator air conditioning system and method of use

A dual evaporator air conditioning system (20) and method for use therewith to cool air in front (10) and rear (12) portions of a cabin (14) of a vehicle (16). The dual evaporator air conditioning system (20) includes primary (28) and auxiliary (30) HVAC units to cool the air in the front (10) and rear (12) portions of the cabin (14), respectively. The dual evaporator air conditioning system (20) also includes a control system (116) having cooling (118,119) and non-cooling (120,121) modes for each of the HVAC units (28,30). The control system (116) automatically activates a heating element near the auxiliary evaporator (36) in response to the auxiliary HVAC unit (30) being in the non-cooling mode (121) while the primary HVAC unit (28) is in the cooling mode (118). The heating element heats the refrigerant in the auxiliary evaporator (36) to prevent accumulation of liquid refrigerant and lubricating oil in the auxiliary evaporator (36) when the auxiliary HVAC unit (130) is in the non-cooling mode (121) while the primary HVAC unit (28) is in the cooling mode (118).