My first manifold

[Jesse Miller]

Good day to all of you gods of the HVAC world. I am a student of the HVAC trade and I am taking some refrigeration classes here in Portland, OR at a local community college. I just bought my first 4 valve manifold today and I am excited. The question that I have for all of you is what extras should I by for my manifold? I was thinking about buying a set of ball valve adapters for the end of my hoses or a set of sealright adapters. I also was thinking about buying a heavy duty permeation resistant hose set because I do not know how good the stock hoses are since I am a NOOB! Please give me some wisdom?


Cheers
Jesse

[DPSwitch]

I hate to say it but you might want to steer away from low loss fittings and use ball valves,(or at least for liquid line connection) I love LL fittings but they have let me down repeatedly. I don't know what gauges you got but you want good quality ones, or you'll just wind up replacing them all the time. I go through so many hoses I cant recommend any.

The real question I have with anything is "can it survive ME for 10-12 hours of hard use bad conditions and me getting mad?"

Most things can't, so those that can are my prized tools.

[SkullMonkey]

Congrats! You might want to buy a pair of the rubber boots that protect the manifold gauges.

[Jesse Miller]

I bought the Imperial Delux 4-valve High capacity manifold.


Cheers
Jesse

[DPSwitch]

Congrats! You might want to buy a pair of the rubber boots that protect the manifold gauges.

Nahhh just try to develop your technique so when you sling them in the back of the van after a bad call they dont land on the gauges.

[bustawrench1]

Nahhh just try to develop your technique so when you sling them in the back of the van after a bad call they dont land on the gauges.

LOL! :D

[bustawrench1]

I like the 5' hoses that United sells, they last about a season unless something bad happens to them. Get the LL hose for the high side ( I really HATE freezeing my fingers) and the standards for the other three. That's all you really need to get going. You can add more toys later depending on what your doing day to day.

[Jesse Miller]

I have noticed a lot of manifolds have all of the copper threads covered with plumbers tape. Do you think That I should use plumbers tape on all of the threads? I see a lot of people who do this.