Thank you for your video! Very informative, easy to follow and short enough :). I have customers with walk-in coolers that are running on R-22 TXVs. Because these are my customers and I have to clean/maintain/service this equipment I do usually evacuate the system, replace TXVs if necessary and charge it with a refrigerant (r-22 substitute). Thus, I can adjust TXVs and control the refrigerant charge. However, this is an ideal kind of story... :). With new customers you would never know what is inside of that A/C or walk-in cooler. Once I was working on a walk-in cooler with the condenser on the roof. So, there were several empty refrigerant containers; R-134, R-407c, R-422B, R-404, R-407A.... and both TXVs were acting pretty crazy.. :) The condensing unit was 15-16 years old with reciprocating compressor charged with Mineral oil! So, what refrigerant did I recover? What do I say at the store when I exchange the recovery tank? :)
Thanks! I don't play the algarethem game or do any self promotions. Im just providing information for those who want it. I do appreciate the support. There are many other great ones out there, Craig with AC service tech LLC, Bryan Orr with HVAC school, Chris's with HVACR videos and countless more. I'm just glad to be able to help.
Thanks for your great videos, if I pulled out all refrigerant from the system, many times, is it pulling the oil away? How I know the system need an oil ?
Thank you for your support. That's a great question. Typically not a lot of oil is coming out. With residential systems it is very difficult to know how much oil is in the system. Only way I know is to pull the compressor, drain it, and flush the lines and coils and collect what is flushed them measure it. Then look up the manufacture info to find out how much oil the system should hold. It's a real pain. Commercial systems a lot of times has a sight glass at the compressor.
Thanks for the video about this. So if I’m understanding what you read correctly. What’s the problem with recovering my refrigerant into a clean tank through a filter drier and reusing it? It would seem that should be totally fine to reuse. Yet every ac person tells me oh no don’t do that.
You can absolutely reuse it, now especially since the prices have skyrocketed. Just more steps involved. 1 use an inline filter drier. 2 pull a deep vacuum on the recovery tank, the recovery machine and as much of the hoses as you can. 3 recover then then check the tank temp and pressure with a PT chart for purity. 4 when recharging use another online filter drier. Then your good to go!
I pully tank down to 250 microns before I use them. From the supply house they are usually such a poor vacuum. Recovery from the unit officially the EPA recommended levels. I like to run until the ice is gone from the compressor so I know I got the liquid out.
Different oils... that's why I've been washing my condenser coils every cooling season and never had to call a tech. Evaporator was always clean when I looked at it.... changing filters on time. My systems are pushing 18 years old now and I'm thinking about replacing before they quit on me. Mr cool universal looks promising. A lot more efficient than my current 10 SEER. Thank you for your awesome videos btw.
Do you ever think that the new recovery tank could possibly already be contaminated from the manufacturer from the get go? I guess there's no easy way to tell.
I believe so. I don't think they check them but every 5 years. They mostly check the contents then pull it out and down to a bit of a vacuum and send them back. Buy a new tank and possibly have better results but then there is still the issue of contaminants and oils in the system your recovery.
@@love2hvac If i bought multiple tanks at a time (like a big hvac company would (Bryan)) i would randomly cut open one every now and again just to satisfy my curiosity. And the way your running through your series is awesome for me. I've been a fan of yours for what seems like a couple years now. They should have a "HVAC Teacher of the Year Award" i'd damn sure vote for you! Thanks again.
I wouldn't think you had different oils in that cut open tank as much as the same type "mineral" oil with just different levels of contamination. Oil w a high acid contamination will have different characteristics as the same oil with moisture contamination that maybe hasn't progressed into that high of an acid content yet. Also some of the systems you pulled from could have overheated,burned out,ect. All which will change the viscosity characteristics of that oil and it could be as simple as the water is on the bottom, then the heaviest oil,then the 2nd heaviest,ect. Still all mineral oil but at different levels of breakdown/ contamination.
A tenant that worked for an hvac company left a recovery bottle full of unknown refrigerant when he moved. How can I find out what refrigerant is in the bottle?
I agree with you but man, a coil wash in a newer system where a pump down only gets no below 40 psi. A tech needs to recover in a typical residential system at least 3 lbs. It increases the price of that coil wash if he need to recharge those 3 lbs!
I understand what your saying but let's look at the bigger picture. Compared to the amount of work involved 3lb of refrigerant is dirt cheap. If you have to pull and clean you are already looking at the compressor running in severe conditions. In the old days of 22 and mineral oil it was fine but now in the era of POE oils and blended refregerant those rules just don't apply. Can you grantee the installer pulled a proper vacuum. Can you garantee all the people that put games on and off have left did something contaminating. Or did they bleed across the manifold and push all the into the system. Doing air conditioning to be the cheapest is a race to the bottom that nobody wins. I never want to be known as the cheapest. I would rather make more money doing fewer calls. Let cheap companies fight over the cheap customers. Cheap customers never have loyalty or respect for the work of a tradesman anyway. Now let's look at the bigger picture, the coil should not need to be pulled and cleaned. If the system was installed with the proper filtration and surface area the coil will never get dirty even when the filter does.
most HVAC supply houses will take it but they might charge you a disposal fee. A friend of a friend told another friend to return it and say its which ever has more of. He said not to disclose that when talking to the other person. I would never recommend doing such tings ...
Honestly, it will probably be fine if you put it back in an r134a system. R12 works fine in an r134a system, so a mix should still work. Assuming it's not contaminated with anything else, I'd reuse that refrigerant in my personal car ac. I would never put that mixture in anything I don't own.
Who is they? I don't know anybody that works in HVAC that does this for free, everybody has bills that need to be paid, everyone is doing it for money, some more than others. A refrigerant analyzer is just a tool. Nobody is making anybody buy it.
Have a quick ? On a furnace it's a Lenox 80%. It's not sensing the flame sensor. I cleaned it and check it with my meter and still no reading. Do you think the control board is bad or something else.?? Or is it just a bad flame sensor? I find it hard to believe it's that.. Any ideas??
How did you clean the flame sensor? 1 I would clean it again, no sand paper, use abrasive both like follow pad. 2 Double check the porcelain for anny cracks. 3 check the wire frnthe control board to the FS. Esp where it goes from the lower cabinet to the upper cabinet, and connections at both ends 4 check for proper grounding Ground wire from control board to the furnace cabinet, and any other grounds wires that may have been cut disconnected or loose like frnthe burners to the cabinet and the pigtail . 5 check 115v polarity. 6 all that good, then I would look at the control board.
@@love2hvac cleaned it with abrasive pad.. The furnace is alittle damp but I didn't check the ground side. I'll do that when I go back.. And the Volt side is good.. Thanks I'll let you know what I find out...
Went back and checked all grounds.. They where around .6 to1.3ohms.. I let the furnace do it's thing 5 times then it goes into a code that says on the board it's a " unwanted flame" so now iam lost.. Any ideas??
If it's sensing an unwanted flame and the wire to the FS and the porcelain is good it's a good chance it's the baord. Pull the board and look for any age in the back side or shorts.
@@love2hvac I tested the flame sensor for resistance from tip to prong and its good. Also isolated just the wire going to the fs and that's good also.. I did look at the back of the board yesterday and don't see anything.. So I quess I'll just get a board and see what happens. Thanks again. And I'll let you know if that fixed it..
what if the valve is broken /Tee handel broke off my 30lb bottle? I can open it with a screwdriver but it ain't gonna' work like that long (20lb still in the tank) can I put it in another tank and use it legally any where?
Proper answer return it to a supply house. I'm not recommending to use a manual ball valve on the port and manipulate the valve handle. I'm not recommending using a tap out tool or bolt extractor to open the valve one time. If somebody was going to do that there would be a hazard of the valve breaking inside and the gas coming out of the Handel. If that was to happen you would need safety classes, face shield thick rubber coated cloves and welding apron to protect you.
@@love2hvac Ha! I took it to the a supply house that I patronize ,they sell the same brand, even brought them lunch. But they said that they called the Canadian bottle filler/ manufacture and they said it was "to old". I'm not sure exactly what wholesaler I got the bottle from ( it has been in the rack in the truck for a few years) I try to sell new stuff. But there is still always a situation to use 22. I would never heat up the end of a 6 in one and press it into a plastic broken valve stem while standing behind a pice of plywood with holes cut for arms and eye balls to work through. Or wear gloves and eye protection. Thank you very much.
The EPA should change the vocabulary and stop using Reclaim how they are using it. In English reclaim means to take back. The act of sending it in for renewing it with special equipment should be called Renew, Reprocess, or Remanufactured, or Recertify. Any of those implies you are actually doing something EXTRA after you take it out of the system.
The EPA could be doing a lot of things better. I 100% agree with you and your absolutely rights. Poor choice of words from the begining. Over all of all the things I want to change it's low on the list.
Its fascinating to me to observe these people that goes greats lengths to obey the law.. I only obey laws like dont be an asshole, dont vent to the atmosphere and crime without victims isnt crime.
@love2hvac it's not a belief. it's a fact. Comercial AC units can leak 15%/yr without requiring repair. Thats hundreds of pounds venting to the atmosphere legally for just one large grocery store or office buildijg, and you are worried about a car owner venting a pound and a half from their car. Stewpid beyond belief.
I think he explained the hazards and dangers pretty well. So the rules/laws don’t really seem ”stuwpid” (don’t see how autocorrect fucks that one up) once you understand them.
Thank you for your video! Very informative, easy to follow and short enough :).
I have customers with walk-in coolers that are running on R-22 TXVs. Because these are my customers and I have to clean/maintain/service this equipment I do usually evacuate the system, replace TXVs if necessary and charge it with a refrigerant (r-22 substitute). Thus, I can adjust TXVs and control the refrigerant charge. However, this is an ideal kind of story... :). With new customers you would never know what is inside of that A/C or walk-in cooler. Once I was working on a walk-in cooler with the condenser on the roof. So, there were several empty refrigerant containers; R-134, R-407c, R-422B, R-404, R-407A.... and both TXVs were acting pretty crazy.. :) The condensing unit was 15-16 years old with reciprocating compressor charged with Mineral oil! So, what refrigerant did I recover? What do I say at the store when I exchange the recovery tank? :)
Greatly appreciate you taking the time to comprehensively cover these details. Cheers 👍
It's not favorite subject by far for sure but it's important to cover.
How do you not have more subscribers? You are a standard in this field
Thanks! I don't play the algarethem game or do any self promotions.
Im just providing information for those who want it. I do appreciate the support. There are many other great ones out there, Craig with AC service tech LLC, Bryan Orr with HVAC school, Chris's with HVACR videos and countless more. I'm just glad to be able to help.
@@love2hvac I have become an instructor within my company. I use your videos for some explanation and I send out links to the guys to watch your stuff
I know right.
I've shared his videos but my contacts are mostly Appliance rapairmen, and they find his videos very informative.
Thank you for cutting that tank open
Thanks for your great videos, if I pulled out all refrigerant from the system, many times, is it pulling the oil away?
How I know the system need an oil ?
Thank you for your support.
That's a great question.
Typically not a lot of oil is coming out.
With residential systems it is very difficult to know how much oil is in the system.
Only way I know is to pull the compressor, drain it, and flush the lines and coils and collect what is flushed them measure it. Then look up the manufacture info to find out how much oil the system should hold. It's a real pain.
Commercial systems a lot of times has a sight glass at the compressor.
@@love2hvac thanks for this explanation. cheers.
Excellent info! Thank you
Thanks for the video about this. So if I’m understanding what you read correctly. What’s the problem with recovering my refrigerant into a clean tank through a filter drier and reusing it? It would seem that should be totally fine to reuse. Yet every ac person tells me oh no don’t do that.
You can absolutely reuse it, now especially since the prices have skyrocketed.
Just more steps involved.
1 use an inline filter drier.
2 pull a deep vacuum on the recovery tank, the recovery machine and as much of the hoses as you can.
3 recover then then check the tank temp and pressure with a PT chart for purity.
4 when recharging use another online filter drier.
Then your good to go!
How much will go in vacuum? Thank you Mr. Ty.🌹
I pully tank down to 250 microns before I use them.
From the supply house they are usually such a poor vacuum.
Recovery from the unit officially the EPA recommended levels.
I like to run until the ice is gone from the compressor so I know I got the liquid out.
Different oils... that's why I've been washing my condenser coils every cooling season and never had to call a tech. Evaporator was always clean when I looked at it.... changing filters on time. My systems are pushing 18 years old now and I'm thinking about replacing before they quit on me. Mr cool universal looks promising. A lot more efficient than my current 10 SEER.
Thank you for your awesome videos btw.
Don't do it😂
Thanks again for the video!
🍺😎👍🏻
Does the same rule apply to blended refrigerants (R410A)? We have a customer who’s adamant you can’t recover and reuse blended refrigerants.
Nice job Ty.
Do you ever think that the new recovery tank could possibly already be contaminated from the manufacturer from the get go?
I guess there's no easy way to tell.
I believe so.
I don't think they check them but every 5 years. They mostly check the contents then pull it out and down to a bit of a vacuum and send them back.
Buy a new tank and possibly have better results but then there is still the issue of contaminants and oils in the system your recovery.
@@love2hvac If i bought multiple tanks at a time (like a big hvac company would (Bryan)) i would randomly cut open one every now and again just to satisfy my curiosity.
And the way your running through your series is awesome for me.
I've been a fan of yours for what seems like a couple years now.
They should have a "HVAC Teacher of the Year Award" i'd damn sure vote for you!
Thanks again.
Thank you for 60FPS
May you use TH-cam chapters please
So we can share each chapter
I will look at how to do chapters
@@love2hvac
In description
0:00 first chapter must start with
3 chapters at least
10 seconds at least for every chapter
Thats fine and all but as a refrigeration tech i work with 10+ different types of refrigerants on a regular basis
I wouldn't think you had different oils in that cut open tank as much as the same type "mineral" oil with just different levels of contamination. Oil w a high acid contamination will have different characteristics as the same oil with moisture contamination that maybe hasn't progressed into that high of an acid content yet. Also some of the systems you pulled from could have overheated,burned out,ect. All which will change the viscosity characteristics of that oil and it could be as simple as the water is on the bottom, then the heaviest oil,then the 2nd heaviest,ect. Still all mineral oil but at different levels of breakdown/ contamination.
I need a refrigerant analyzer.
Me too, I'm finding contaminated and mixed refrigerant every day now 😡😡😡😡😡😡😡
Please explain or direct me to the use of recovery bags. This seems so prone to fugitive emissions. TY.
You can't even get them anymore. I tried to find one just to make a video and they are just not available.
Never was a good idea imho
does the same law apply to smaller air conditioner units like window air conditioners?
Yes
A tenant that worked for an hvac company left a recovery bottle full of unknown refrigerant when he moved. How can I find out what refrigerant is in the bottle?
Measure the temperature and the bottom of the tank, measure the pressure at the vapor valve, match it to a refrigerant on a PT chart
I agree with you but man, a coil wash in a newer system where a pump down only gets no below 40 psi. A tech needs to recover in a typical residential system at least 3 lbs. It increases the price of that coil wash if he need to recharge those 3 lbs!
I understand what your saying but let's look at the bigger picture.
Compared to the amount of work involved 3lb of refrigerant is dirt cheap. If you have to pull and clean you are already looking at the compressor running in severe conditions. In the old days of 22 and mineral oil it was fine but now in the era of POE oils and blended refregerant those rules just don't apply. Can you grantee the installer pulled a proper vacuum. Can you garantee all the people that put games on and off have left did something contaminating. Or did they bleed across the manifold and push all the into the system.
Doing air conditioning to be the cheapest is a race to the bottom that nobody wins. I never want to be known as the cheapest. I would rather make more money doing fewer calls. Let cheap companies fight over the cheap customers. Cheap customers never have loyalty or respect for the work of a tradesman anyway.
Now let's look at the bigger picture, the coil should not need to be pulled and cleaned. If the system was installed with the proper filtration and surface area the coil will never get dirty even when the filter does.
@@love2hvac thank you for repling. I agree.
I have always missed that filtration situation.
I potentially recovered r12 into a r134a tank while working on a vintage car. Where/how can I dispose of this tank.
most HVAC supply houses will take it but they might charge you a disposal fee.
A friend of a friend told another friend to return it and say its which ever has more of. He said not to disclose that when talking to the other person.
I would never recommend doing such tings ...
Honestly, it will probably be fine if you put it back in an r134a system. R12 works fine in an r134a system, so a mix should still work. Assuming it's not contaminated with anything else, I'd reuse that refrigerant in my personal car ac. I would never put that mixture in anything I don't own.
The refrigerant analyzer is just more money down the drain. The whole shenanigan boils to money.
It would not be needed if people were not mixing refrigerants.
It comes down to lazy people costing everyone else more money somewhere down the road.
@@love2hvac I hâte to say it pal , but they keep twisting things just to get more money outta us techs.
Who is they?
I don't know anybody that works in HVAC that does this for free, everybody has bills that need to be paid, everyone is doing it for money, some more than others.
A refrigerant analyzer is just a tool. Nobody is making anybody buy it.
Have a quick ? On a furnace it's a Lenox 80%. It's not sensing the flame sensor. I cleaned it and check it with my meter and still no reading. Do you think the control board is bad or something else.?? Or is it just a bad flame sensor? I find it hard to believe it's that.. Any ideas??
How did you clean the flame sensor?
1 I would clean it again, no sand paper, use abrasive both like follow pad.
2 Double check the porcelain for anny cracks.
3 check the wire frnthe control board to the FS. Esp where it goes from the lower cabinet to the upper cabinet, and connections at both ends
4 check for proper grounding
Ground wire from control board to the furnace cabinet, and any other grounds wires that may have been cut disconnected or loose like frnthe burners to the cabinet and the pigtail .
5 check 115v polarity.
6 all that good, then I would look at the control board.
@@love2hvac cleaned it with abrasive pad.. The furnace is alittle damp but I didn't check the ground side. I'll do that when I go back.. And the Volt side is good.. Thanks I'll let you know what I find out...
Went back and checked all grounds.. They where around .6 to1.3ohms.. I let the furnace do it's thing 5 times then it goes into a code that says on the board it's a " unwanted flame" so now iam lost.. Any ideas??
If it's sensing an unwanted flame and the wire to the FS and the porcelain is good it's a good chance it's the baord. Pull the board and look for any age in the back side or shorts.
@@love2hvac I tested the flame sensor for resistance from tip to prong and its good. Also isolated just the wire going to the fs and that's good also.. I did look at the back of the board yesterday and don't see anything.. So I quess I'll just get a board and see what happens. Thanks again. And I'll let you know if that fixed it..
Love it!!
👍🏼
what if the valve is broken /Tee handel broke off my 30lb bottle? I can open it with a screwdriver but it ain't gonna' work like that long (20lb still in the tank) can I put it in another tank and use it legally any where?
Proper answer return it to a supply house.
I'm not recommending to use a manual ball valve on the port and manipulate the valve handle. I'm not recommending using a tap out tool or bolt extractor to open the valve one time. If somebody was going to do that there would be a hazard of the valve breaking inside and the gas coming out of the Handel. If that was to happen you would need safety classes, face shield thick rubber coated cloves and welding apron to protect you.
@@love2hvac Ha! I took it to the a supply house that I patronize ,they sell the same brand, even brought them lunch. But they said that they called the Canadian bottle filler/ manufacture and they said it was "to old". I'm not sure exactly what wholesaler I got the bottle from ( it has been in the rack in the truck for a few years) I try to sell new stuff. But there is still always a situation to use 22. I would never heat up the end of a 6 in one and press it into a plastic broken valve stem while standing behind a pice of plywood with holes cut for arms and eye balls to work through. Or wear gloves and eye protection. Thank you very much.
Just waiting on the lesson electric on HVAC 😢
It's just taking a little longer than I expected.
@ty branaman same here, but still a world of information in learning through the other videos, so it's still worth the wait 👍
This video should be called " why not to reuse refrigerant "
The EPA should change the vocabulary and stop using Reclaim how they are using it. In English reclaim means to take back. The act of sending it in for renewing it with special equipment should be called Renew, Reprocess, or Remanufactured, or Recertify. Any of those implies you are actually doing something EXTRA after you take it out of the system.
The EPA could be doing a lot of things better.
I 100% agree with you and your absolutely rights. Poor choice of words from the begining. Over all of all the things I want to change it's low on the list.
They're NOT laws they're rules and regulations. The EPA can only make rules and regulations.
It is literally law
Its fascinating to me to observe these people that goes greats lengths to obey the law.. I only obey laws like dont be an asshole, dont vent to the atmosphere and crime without victims isnt crime.
The laws are ridiculously stewpid
Why makes you believe that?
@love2hvac it's not a belief. it's a fact. Comercial AC units can leak 15%/yr without requiring repair. Thats hundreds of pounds venting to the atmosphere legally for just one large grocery store or office buildijg, and you are worried about a car owner venting a pound and a half from their car. Stewpid beyond belief.
I think he explained the hazards and dangers pretty well. So the rules/laws don’t really seem ”stuwpid” (don’t see how autocorrect fucks that one up) once you understand them.
👍