How to Charge an Air Conditioner That is Low On Freon ~ AC 101
January 31st, 2012 . by admin
How to Charge a split system Air Condition with Dupont R-22 Freon Refrigerant by Kung Fu Maintenance youtuber James H. Klovach. www.kungfumaintenance.com
this would be a great vid if you muted it and then went back and narrated it. I did learn something though. Thanks
how many lbs did you charge for i didnt see a scale anywhere
To lanceditzler,
This one was just a bit low on freon and took about one and a half pounds to reach proper charge of ambient plus thirty degrees on the high side. It was a hundred and five degrees and climbing up on the roof that day. It just makes sense to calculate refrigerant usage by taking a before and after reading with the scale. No need to lug the scale up on the roof.
so you use outside ambient, and not inside ambient? My furnace is in my basement, and the A/C unit is obviously outside…so I would go with outside temp, not what my basement temp is? Thanks, I know its a noob question.
To Pbour, Yes ambient outside temp + 30 on the high side is what your looking for as a general guide. However some systems have design differences. Use your feel and judgement. The suction side line should flash ice cold along the length of the suction line to the compressor. When it cold sweats a little you know your good. The general proofs though are 40 degree temperature at the evaporator coil and fifteen to twenty degree split between air temperatures at an inflow and an outflow register.
how do you take off the hoses without the r22 going everywhere?
ToTheATLAdventure,
Using quick connect fittings will prevent the refrigerant from going everywhere unless you have a leaking schrader valve. You can see the quick connect in the video with my right hand I am using a quick connect fitting from about 1:01TO 1:16. When you disconnect the quick connect it quickly cuts off refrigerant flow.
i need to add refrigerant to a semi hermetic what side do i use low or high
To dianemarie909, there are actually quite a bit of different methods and varied schools of thought as to what is the most accurate method. I like to add the gas little by little through the low side or suction side and monitor temperatures and pressures. Some people weigh in refrigerant by calculating manufacturer specs. and adjusting for length of plumbing with the compressor off through just the high side as a liquid and some through both sides.
Good straightforward charging. Hope you secured that dangling capacitor.
Thanks johnnyrotten52,
I show how to secure capacitors in my “Air Conditioner Not Cooling” troubleshooting video.
Informative, but at 48 sec in the video it says the blue gauge is for liquid! I don’t see a lot of our maintenance guys purging their lines and is probably the reason we do so many compressor changes and due to overcharging because they only know the “beer can method.”
I like to poor a couple cups of water on the compressor when its running too. This helps to cool down the bearings and greatly increases the life of the electrode diffusers inside the valves. allows them to get nice and cool and oils them up. Great Job Jedi. Best Damn video i’ve seen in a while.
Glad you enjoyed it mrsokla. Thank you (o:` much!
@rsgarnerthree Yikes you are so right. My bad, my bad, my bad. I have done what I could to fix it. Whoops 0:48. The high side is the liquid line and the low side the vapor.
@mrsokla I only learned about the electrode diffusers in trade school last month. I didn’t know that keeping them cool makes such a big difference in the service life of this type of equipment. I know that suction line superheat is used for determining heat transfer on the evap and subcooling for the condenser, but that tells nothing about those electrode diffusers. And what the hell is discharge superheat all about?
What about superheat?
@eagletek1 Oh Yeahhh, SuperHeat and SubCool the finer things I would like to get into more. More accurate measurements are needed when working with more complex and sensitive equipment and systems. Capillary tube and fixed orifice systems allow for some variance but other advanced systems require more precise charging.
Another great vid ! Thanks again!