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Excellent, thank you.

Yes. I buy it in one gallon jugs. Johnstone part H85-588.

Does Appion sell their oil in bulk? I see where they offer 24-packs of cartridges but I'm talking jugs. I would assume it would save costs to clean and refill my own cartridges. It looks like a great setup and I look forward to owning one in the very near future along with the accessories.

Why I love this site as well.....Im a believer! But sadly not an owner of a TEZ8 or megaflow yet.

Thanks Chris, love my setup and the time it's saved me. If you guys ever need a product tester let me know...

We've done some pseudo-scientific tests to see what kind of time you'd be looking at IF you managed to freeze moisture in the system. We put about a full ounce of water in a mock-up system, with huge connection ports to ensure fast enough evacuation to get the water to freeze. On the equivalent of a 1 ton system, this added about 15 minutes (from 1 minute totally dry to 16 minutes) until we had fully sublimated the ice and dropped to a stable vacuum below 200 microns.

The hardest part about this test was getting the water to freeze in the first place... the thermal mass and 65º ambient kept the water liquid long enough to boil it off each time, so to get the water to freeze we pre-cooled our rig (got it to about 40-45º), and put 3/8" connections on it. Even then, we had to get to about an ounce or more of water in one place before the stuff would freeze.

Thanks for a definitive answer Jim, everywhere I go people keep telling me I'll freeze the moisture in system. Glad I finally have a solid reply for the non believers!

Thank you for the reply Jim.

It is the thermal mass and the far above freezing temps that will keep that from happening during A/C season. If you were evacuating a refrigeration unit with a cold box, or a heat pump in the winter with a moisture issue you might freeze moisture if it was present in the system. There is no disadvantage a rapid evacuation during a typical install or service. If you have that much liquid (moisture) in a system you better figure a better way that evacuation to remove it as it could takes hours if not days to completely dry it out.

To be fast enough to freeze the moisture.
I also triple evac with nitro which makes a considerable difference from 1st pull to final pull.

SBKold,

I assume you're referring to the fact moisture in a system will freeze when pulling vacuum too quick.
From what I've read, the mass of the air in a typical system will prevent the freezing. I think I would have to evacuate a 1 ton system in 50 seconds

Originally Posted by SBKold

You do need to study up on what can happen when you use a pump setup like that. Pulling to a micron you stated in the time..

You save yourself time and immeasurable grief?

You do need to study up on what can happen when you use a pump setup like that. Pulling to a micron you stated in the time..

Holy crap,
I am very, very impressed with the TeZ 8. & megaflow kit.

Running the setup like you are supposed to with the tree and every hose attached I've evacuated systems to 300 microns in 3-4 minutes.
It's been invaluable to catch up on time for those jobs that go over for the unexpected **** you never bid for...

Picking up my new appion Tez8 tommorrow and it feels like Christmas!
Already gOt the megaflow evacuation kit, sped up vacuums to the point I can leave jobs on time or even early and do a better quality job.
Adding the tez 8 will help out no end when evacuating big systems.

Originally Posted by Appion-ChrisP

The short answer is that our oil will work in any vacuum pump that can use mineral oil. However, I don't want to get too far into a "sales pitch" conversation, as you can call or email us directly at the factory for details on where and why to buy. Our website can also provide additional information.

If you'd like more information along these lines, please feel free to contact us directly.

Christian Pena - Appion Inc.

This is what makes this the best HVAC site around.

Originally Posted by BobTheBull

This has been a very informative thread. I can only second everything said. Probably 90% of good evacuation is in technique and equipment used, not the pump itself. I too have a homemade brass manifold, 3/8", and do remove the cores. At present I am still using 1/4" hoses, although I cherry picked them by testing them for the best vacuum after 2 minutes, and this has greatly improved both the time and quality of my evacuations. Soon I will step up to 3/8" hoses and will spend a few extra bucks for the Appion hoses. I use 3' hoses as the shorter the hose the better as well as the larger the better. Do the Appion hoses come in lengths other than 6' and where can I get them? Does the Appion oil work in JB pumps and where can I get that?

A couple more points. Appion has established a reputation for cutting edge, along with heavy duty, design and high quality manufacture. Therefore their products are very rugged and durable. Also, they are designed to be rebuilt in the field and parts are readily and reasonably available.

Don't own any Appion products yet, but am shopping for some used ones due to my budget. Considering their track record used equipment should be a good investment.

The short answer is that our oil will work in any vacuum pump that can use mineral oil. However, I don't want to get too far into a "sales pitch" conversation, as you can call or email us directly at the factory for details on where and why to buy. Our website can also provide additional information.

If you'd like more information along these lines, please feel free to contact us directly.

Christian Pena - Appion Inc.

This has been a very informative thread. I can only second everything said. Probably 90% of good evacuation is in technique and equipment used, not the pump itself. I too have a homemade brass manifold, 3/8", and do remove the cores. At present I am still using 1/4" hoses, although I cherry picked them by testing them for the best vacuum after 2 minutes, and this has greatly improved both the time and quality of my evacuations. Soon I will step up to 3/8" hoses and will spend a few extra bucks for the Appion hoses. I use 3' hoses as the shorter the hose the better as well as the larger the better. Do the Appion hoses come in lengths other than 6' and where can I get them? Does the Appion oil work in JB pumps and where can I get that?

A couple more points. Appion has established a reputation for cutting edge, along with heavy duty, design and high quality manufacture. Therefore their products are very rugged and durable. Also, they are designed to be rebuilt in the field and parts are readily and reasonably available.

Don't own any Appion products yet, but am shopping for some used ones due to my budget. Considering their track record used equipment should be a good investment.

If faster or better versus noise....I'd prefer noise.

If faster or better requires noise ...I'd prefer noise. I was just excited to get a factory response and typed nonsense.

And a great reply ( Appion - ChrisP ) , I forgot to say " thanks " as well.

Originally Posted by Appion-ChrisP

I generally prefer for techs to hear the opinion of other techs that have used our products, because you already expect the manufacturer to claim good things about their products. But you have some questions and comments that I'd like to share our thoughts on.



1) As Jim mentioned, the cartridges are disposable in according with local regulations, but you can also clean them out and refill for reuse. If you do this, we recommend only doing so if there is no sludge or other buildup in the cartridge, as the whole point is to remove contaminants... I'll mention more below.

(2) We have certainly heard a lot of impressive stories about the 5-to-1 speed ratio our system has shown over other vacuum pumps; some of the speed increases come from simple steps like removing the cores, and some are from the key design elements of the pump.

The visible oil supply is useful in diagnosing issues with the evacuation: white oil indicates excessive moisture, dark oil indicates acids (like on burnouts), and clear oil means the evacuation SHOULD be running smoothly, as far as the pump is concerned. We like to think this is rather significant.

3) I'll point to this recent reply:

The Tez8 is air-cooled, so instead of using the oil as a heatsink and letting the heat break down the oil viscosity, we have a large fan and aluminum heatsink. The downside is that there is no oil sump to muffle the mechanical pump noise, and the wind noise from the fan is certainly louder than no fan at oil.

-----
On the oil refill/reuse, there are some important things to know about the Tez8 oil system.

1- The oil system recirculates oil supplied by the TEZOM cartridge. The longer you leave contaminated oil in the cartridge, the more this oil is used by the pump. This isn't all that different from other pumps... but the Tez8 was designed to make oil changes easy, and this is a benefit we strongly recommend taking advantage of on EVERY job.

2- The recirculating oil flushes the oil through the pump. This plays a key role in the Tez8's compatibility with ammonia and lithium bromide systems. At the end of each evacuation you can use a CLEAN cartridge of oil to flush the pump, minimizing any residual ammonia or other corrosives/contaminants. We have examined Tez8 pumps from the field that are still completely clean after more than a year in the field on these systems entirely due to this feature.

I can't say that having our system will simply make everything work better, that still depends on proper evacuation procedure. But we have tried to make tools that make it significantly easier to properly evacuate.

I hope your questions are mostly answered, and if you're curious about anything else, please let us know.

Christian Pena - Appion Inc.

From everything I have seen from Appion , seems to be an approach from the " ideal " ( 426 Hemi of HVACR tools ). If my personal budget were " ideal " I'd have 2 of everything you make , lol.

My old JB isn't dead yet , just slow. My TEZ-8 fund has started a week ago ( donations appreciated ).

Oh ...and a tool that is working SHOULD be LOUD , LOUD !!!!! Seriously , I have no issue with noise. If faster or better versus noise....I'd prefer noise.