Explain the green and yellow colors on a See-All sight glass

[keepingitcool]

Please explain the colors on a See-All sight glass. This is a new sight glass. The sticker on the side of it has the color green with Dry typed over it and the color yellow with wet typed over it. Inside the sight glass in the middle there is a 1/4" diameter material.

Does the thing in the middle turn to a green color if there is not enough refrigerant and turn yellow if refrigerant goes over it? If it turns yellow is this what is meant by charging to a clear sight glass? Do you use the colors to check refrigerant charge?

[rayr]

I just replied to your post above. Maybe you should get a seasoned tech to make those repairs. (Whatever they maybe)
Green is a dry system, yellow is a wet system.

[Special-K]

"Wet" and "dry" have nothing to do with refrigerent levels, they indicate moisture. Moisture as in water, H2O. Moisture is the supreme enemy of a refrigeration system and the siteglass with moisture reactor gives us a visual indicator of the status of such. On the Sporlan, green means dry which is good. Yellow means wet, you need to get the moisture out ofthe system. You can do this with drier changes, oil changes, sometimes you must drop the charge and pull a deep vacuum to get it all.

[hvacmd2002]

Things that make you go hmmmm

[NedFlanders]

green good
yellow bad


On edit.. today had a yellow sight glass that system was labeled " system is wet, do not run"(from previous contractor).
We know the system is wet because , when we replaced Evap. cond.and this circuit had water in condensing loop (weee).
We are remodeling store and we have to get this 2nd stage of A.C. running for De-Humid. Many RIIC/RIFF cases sweating behind and running to sales floor.
The system has been in a vac. through the past weekend. So today we start it , it ran for 5 minutes then comp pumped down.
Noo , not pumped down on TXV, but suction screen of the Carlyle 4H40. Removed screen and found foamy brown mud.
New oil and RCW's made no difference. Cleaned screen and it did it 2 more times. Suction line bfore service valve 75#, after service valve(comp body) 15. :0

Glass is still yellow

Now we are going to put in a DFN to help the cleaning process.
YELLOW IS BAD


[Edited by NedFlanders on 07-03-2006 at 09:37 PM]

[frozensolid]

Ned, was that foamy brown mud, part copper oxide?

[NedFlanders]

Originally posted by frozensolid
Ned, was that foamy brown mud, part copper oxide?

Hell ,I don't know what it is...I'm a simple market monkey .
It seems to be a foam that you get with oil and water mixed with turbulence . Virginia spray and contact cleaner had a hard time with it.
Hopefully ,the suction filter will be enough surface area to get the comp. some runtime and some heat in the system to clean it out.
Yucky

[thegoodhumorman]

I always heard that yellow was okay but green was gonna require antibiotics....

Nice to see you got a good one- who was kind enuff to label that one for ya there Ned- the "delited" folks?

chalk that one up with the "compressor loud" notes on the machine shaking the machine room floor...."sure those overhead lights here in mt prep are designed to sway like that"....

[hvacpope]

Yellow means “whatever” and green means “cool”, ask my son if you don’t believe me.

[NedFlanders]

Originally posted by thegoodhumorman


Nice to see you got a good one- who was kind enuff to label that one for ya there Ned- the "delited" folks?

[/B]

I don't know.....probably.

Changed a colapsed suction filter today...should'a brought the dig camera.

the oil now looks like turkey gravy... should get better with more run time as we keep the cleansing process going.

Hey GHM , I hear you hired a new kid ...hit me on the D.C. for a laugh

[jzw]

I am having a similar issue here. I saw orange color liquid flowing thru the sight glass. I guess it means the same as yellow? I have two questions. One is that it actually didn't last long. So does it mean the situation isn't that severe yet? Second, how do we take the moistureu out of the system? Only a pro can do it? I washed the whole outdoor unit (coil, fins, and kinda rinsed compressor pretty good), could it cause the moisture issue?

[jzw]

Sorry, wasn't clear. For question 1, i meant the orange color thing didn't go on for long, just about 20, 30 seconds. Then i coulnd't see anything anymore in the sight class. It actually looked very clear and i thought nothing went thru the sight glass anymore freon was low in the system.

[timebuilder]

Are you a technician?

[jzw]

No. But I want to understand it as much as I can.

[beb]

O.K ned said nothing good he knows more than anybody... Well as it comes to sight glasses. the nube came and ask a question and you disset him shame on you...

[bunny]

No. But I want to understand it as much as I can.

In the immortal words of Big Tom Callahan, from Tommy Boy:

You can get a good look at a T-Bone steak by sticking your head up a bull's a**.....but wouldn't you rather take your butcher's word for it?

Talk to your tech if you have questions.

Or go to school and learn the trade.

To "learn as much as I can" becomes an equipment owner that knows just enough to get himself into trouble...seen it way too many times. Leave it to the experts.

[timebuilder]

No. But I want to understand it as much as I can.

According to the site rules, we do not supply technical info to non- professionals, diy-ers, or equipment owners.

[BeltzHVAC]

In the immortal words of Big Tom Callahan, from Tommy Boy:

You can get a good look at a T-Bone steak by sticking your head up a bull's a**.....but wouldn't you rather take your butcher's word for it?

Talk to your tech if you have questions.

Or go to school and learn the trade.

To "learn as much as I can" becomes an equipment owner that knows just enough to get himself into trouble...seen it way too many times. Leave it to the experts.

Excellent!

[timebuilder]

Can we all avoid posting in six year old threads?

[fridg]

The construction of the indicator is Litmus Paper.

It is also used for other Tests in the HVACR Field.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litmus