Re gassing a Waeco unit

[Daverw]

Seems a lot of money to spend on a one off job, vac pump will be very poor and unlikely to last very long, gas will do the job once.

I just did a friends boat and gas used cost me £15 charged him £20 to do it all. You should easily find a ref engineer who will do it for lots less than £140.

Not sure what you mean by safe, no safety risk at all, most of the work is in a vacuumn and when pressurised only 5/6 bar at standing pressure and if it fails the small quantities involved last no more than a minute or so, it's the illegal bit that your missing.

 

[superheat6k]

Seems a lot of money to spend on a one off job, vac pump will be very poor and unlikely to last very long, gas will do the job once.

I just did a friends boat and gas used cost me £15 charged him £20 to do it all. You should easily find a ref engineer who will do it for lots less than £140.

Not sure what you mean by safe, no safety risk at all, most of the work is in a vacuumn and when pressurised only 5/6 bar at standing pressure and if it fails the small quantities involved last no more than a minute or so, it's the illegal bit that your missing.

Whoa Trigger !!!

 

[Heckler]

Even a small amount of water can cause serious problems, if it freezes in the pipework it will cause a blockage. Any form of refrigeration (including air-con) should be vac'd before a complete re-gas. If it's just a "top up" you can get away without it. But, topping up is not really the correct way to do it. If refrigerant is low the system should be evacuated and held under vacuum for a while before recharging with the specified quantity of refrigerant. There's no way of telling how much refrigerant is in a unit, other than emptying and refilling.

With my pedant hat on, not quite true? You can gas a system without emptying and refilling. The pressures and temps will give a definitive idea of how much is in there, ie is there enough or not! The guages have a lot of the info on them.
Stu

 

[Daverw]

Only really with the system running, and if you understand refrigeration principles when compressor off the standing pressure is not related to gas volume

 

[Heckler]

Only really with the system running, and if you understand refrigeration principles when compressor off the standing pressure is not related to gas volume

I do, and I have done it. Its not black magic.
Stu

 

[Daverw]

But suggest that most people don't