Recovery cylinders left in a vacuum.. "Opinions"

[nineball]

The company I work for emptys all our recovery cylinders for us and pulls a good vacuum on them.. So we can just drop full ones and pick up empty ones with a holding vacuum..

They are considering changing the proceedure by adding nitrogen to them while they sit on the shelf.. How does everybody feel about that? Good, bad or indifferant

1. Me, I could really care less what the state of the cylinder is when I pick it up unless its full of oil..
2. It is more convenient for me to have it already in a vacuum when I pick it up.


On the plus side it will keep moisture out while being stored!:D

[otto]

Probably better with nitrogen to be absolutely sure it's dry. If stored in a vacuum I would cap the ports lest the valves leak.

[makinmoney]

You are gonna need both anyway. Dont you pull a good vac on the system before you recharge? You will never pull a good enough vac on a cylinder to pull all the refrig out of a lareg system. My opinion is that they are wasting their time.

[jayguy]

filled with a pound or two of nirtogen is probably best...20 psig would be even better. with the higher pressure, you would be able to blow out more oil or crap when you go to use it. at least with pressure, you would know if it had a leak...no pressure equals a leak. with a vacuum, you would really only know if it had a leak, if it were at atmosphere. if you decide to implement a policy...make sure that everybody knows what pressure every tank is going to be pressurized to...that way you know if you have a good tank or not.

i pull a micron level vacuum on every tank that i am going to use just before i use it...it may not "hold" a micron level vacuum...but it at least gives me a chance to get rid of any moisture that may be in it from sitting in a vacuum...better than nothing.

[nineball]

filled with a pound or two of nirtogen is probably best...20 psig would be even better. with the higher pressure, you would be able to blow out more oil or crap when you go to use it. at least with pressure, you would know if it had a leak...no pressure equals a leak. with a vacuum, you would really only know if it had a leak, if it were at atmosphere. if you decide to implement a policy...make sure that everybody knows what pressure every tank is going to be pressurized to...that way you know if you have a good tank or not.

i pull a micron level vacuum on every tank that i am going to use just before i use it...it may not "hold" a micron level vacuum...but it at least gives me a chance to get rid of any moisture that may be in it from sitting in a vacuum...better than nothing.

Thanks for the quality reply Jayguy! :) 20psi sounds good to me too.. Would be real easy for everyone to check cylinder pressure with a stubby guage! :)

[51fitter]

I like the nitrogen idea too. I got an "empty tank" from a supply house. I allways pull a vac on them before use because they only pull them down to 12" around here. well 17 inches and 1 gallon of nasty oil later the tank was empty. Thats what came out of one of those ready to use reclaim tanks. I wouldn't recommend using them to recover then dumping the used gas back into any system. No telling what they had in them.

[nineball]

I like the nitrogen idea too. I got an "empty tank" from a supply house. I allways pull a vac on them before use because they only pull them down to 12" around here. well 17 inches and 1 gallon of nasty oil later the tank was empty. Thats what came out of one of those ready to use reclaim tanks. I wouldn't recommend using them to recover then dumping the used gas back into any system. No telling what they had in them.


Yeah, some of our tanks get some pretty nasty oil built up in them. Wish they made the tanks with an oil drain valve on the bottom :p Even better maybe have them store the tanks upside down for a day then open the vapor port and blow the oil out..

[trozum]

Before I begin recovery I like to pull a vacuum on the tank(s), recovery machine and all hoses first. I prefer tanks left under pressure because it is impossible to leak contaminants into a leaking tank under pressure but but it is unavoidable if a cylinder is in vacuum.

[acrtech]

I've heard of some guys depressurizing the recovery cylinders and taking out the allen key plug, dumping in some methol hydrate, swishing it around, dump out and repeat two more times. purge with nitrogen, pressurize to 50 psig let sit over night, purge cylinder and pull the cylinder into a vacuum to say 200 microns, break vacuum again with n2 and pressurize cylinder with about 5 lbs. of N2 and it's all clean inside. anybody else hear the same?
I wonder if it would work and clean out the bottom of the cylinders.??