Do I restore my AC or?

[fast 99]

Many old compressor front seals were designed to leak. Recharges were a fairly common yearly maintenance item. Can't blame the backyard mechanic on this one. Back in the day R12 cost $1 a can. Customers wouldn't fix anything if system held a charge for the season. I stood in basically one place for days at a time recharging AC, $20 labor $20 refrigerant.

Banning R12 was and still is a joke. Now they want to ban 134A. In this state can't buy 1lb cans and need certification to buy 30#.

 

[AuroraGirl]

There will be plenty of opposition to this:

I used to think that recharging A/C would be difficult and require a bunch of skills, and fancy tools and gauges.

Nope.

I have recharged A/C systems many many times, using R12 and 134A.

I have never used the gauges that measure the high and low pressure side. Never vacuumed out the oil oil or air from the system. Some people are appalled by this, saying that I MUST get the air out of the system and that I must used the fancy gauges.

Others can say what they want, and I will say what I want. You read all the posts and decide for yourself.

Cost to recharge system: $20.
Time needed to recharge system: 10 minutes.

I have used the same procedure on dozens and dozens of cars and this was the result:

Pump cycles on and off properly - just the way it was designed to.
Very cold air comes out of the vents.
System never has any problems and continues to work properly for years.


First fix the leak.

This is how simple it is to recharge it:

moisture in r12 WILL (not maybe, WILL) destroy the system

 

[AuroraGirl]

Many old compressor front seals were designed to leak. Recharges were a fairly common yearly maintenance item. Can't blame the backyard mechanic on this one. Back in the day R12 cost $1 a can. Customers wouldn't fix anything if system held a charge for the season. I stood in basically one place for days at a time recharging AC, $20 labor $20 refrigerant.

Banning R12 was and still is a joke. Now they want to ban 134A. In this state can't buy 1lb cans and need certification to buy 30#.

i mean.. the hole in the ozone was real, and not having it now is cool. maybe you could argue we are over-enforcing the sale/use considering its healthy now, but reducing CFCs lost helped fix it

 

[edgephoto]

If the hack method works for you, keep doing it. It is totally wrong and half assed but it is your vehicle not mine.

You are not vacuuming oil, you are boiling water out of the system and pulling air out of the system.

When I learned A/C in the mid-80s we were taught to drain the system by sticking the hose in a bucket and letting the charge out. The bucket was to catch oil. If the system had a charge and was only open for a short time we would just "purge" the system instead of pulling a vacuum. Just blow a couple pounds of refrigerant through the system. We flushed using R11 because it was liquid at room temp. We used a dial-charge to get the correct amount, purging off the gas. We used a propane torch to find leaks.

The good old days!

 

[Grit dog]

The whole regulation thing is silly. If you are trying to prevent it from hitting the atmosphere then stop selling 1 lb. cans at Walmart. As @Ricko1966 said the problem is not the pros, it is the backyard idiots who keep recharging a leaking system. Well them and the less the scrupulous repair shops.

Get some real gauges and a vacuum pump. Unless you want a project just buy a cheap one off Amazon or at Horror Freight. As long as it can pull a vacuum of 30 in.HG then you can boil off the water. I would do 30-60 minutes just to be 100% sure you give it enough time to boil all the moisture out of the system.

Surprised your state hasn’t outlawed selling refigerant retail, WA has. Had to buy parts store AC recharge kits in Idahoo a couple years ago.

 

[Scott91370]

Would that also require a different pump?

Sorry, I don't normally get on the computer during weekends.
As mentioned, I would upgrade it as well.

 

[AuroraGirl]

Surprised your state hasn’t outlawed selling refigerant retail, WA has. Had to buy parts store AC recharge kits in Idahoo a couple years ago.

Oh thats scary.. those things are FULL of dye, stop leak (might as well be cholesterol for HVAC components like lines and orifice tubes and compressors), and random universal oil of who knows what and then a tiny bit of refrigerant

I had one in my 1977 LTD When i got it from the late 90s, its contents were 20 oz iirc ,and the 12 oz refrigerant cans had more refrigerant
Idk what most of them end up with these days , ive never considered it, but thats gotta be a lot of pressure if you were to charge a system from empty and not just "top up"
On top of being the veins of morbidly obese 75 year old in heart failure in other stuff lol

 

[Kheughens]

If charging yourself, you'll want real gauges so you can see high side and low side,and a vaccum pump. You can make a vacuum pump from an old refrigerator compressor. As already stated switching to r134 is easy and cheap,replace your hoses,orings,and oil. As for not selling freon to end users,not stupid at all and hack mechanics brought it on to everyone. It was/is so common that your backyard guy will just keep recharging a leaking system because it's cheaper and easier than finding or fixing the leak.Why are they charging it? It probably has a leak.I am certfied I can't do that,I have to fix it or send it with no freon.No one should be able to just keep recharging a leaking system,so how do they stop that? Take the freon away from the general public,the good ones and the bad ones. And even at that, a well meaning homeowner charges their system,and there's an obvious leak,where's his recovery equipment? He doesn't have any,does he? Nope it just goes into the atmosphere.

This is exactly what I did on my 1973 C20, hoses, condenser, seals, refrigerant (R134) and the system works great.

 

[Grit dog]

Oh thats scary.. those things are FULL of dye, stop leak (might as well be cholesterol for HVAC components like lines and orifice tubes and compressors), and random universal oil of who knows what and then a tiny bit of refrigerant

I had one in my 1977 LTD When i got it from the late 90s, its contents were 20 oz iirc ,and the 12 oz refrigerant cans had more refrigerant
Idk what most of them end up with these days , ive never considered it, but thats gotta be a lot of pressure if you were to charge a system from empty and not just "top up"
On top of being the veins of morbidly obese 75 year old in heart failure in other stuff lol

I don’t understand…scary because it came from Idaho?
Whatever… it charged up the old Durango with ice cold AC for a summer before selling it. After replacing a damaged condenser. Didn’t seem too scary.