Carrier Fixed Orifice Header Replacement

[Six]

So I see a lot of post about these things so I thought I would photo document the repair I did this morning on a Carrier 10 ton, Circuit 1. I also wanted to show how relatively easy it is to change these things out.

First pic is me holding the replacement part.


Second the instructions.....tossed them right after I took the pic. It was a 40 foot roof and a windy day so I expect they're in Corpus Christi now. I live in Houston. I don't need Carriers help.


This is the offending article. Bottom header. Notice the "imps" ? I got impatient and broke out my set of Kline dikes and made quick work of the rest of the tubes cutting after the crimped in orifice.


Header is cut away from the coil. Cut it away from liquid line and now it's time to remove the stubs. Used a #1 tip, low heat and a set of channel locks.


This is the Evap coil minus it's fixed orifice header and the stubs and it's ready for the new header assembly.


New header lined up but not sweated in. A little adjustment and it fit like a glove.


......................

[Six]

New header sweated in. Piece of cake. Light heat with 15%.


Pic of the old part (chopped up) and new header.


Vacuuuum....I leaked check with 150 psi nitro and snoop. Also replaced the drier....of course. The drier was NOT plugged.



Weigh in charge. Precious R22. 7.6 lbs according to Unit nameplate.


Running like a champ. 250/76...pressures before repair....270/40 and icing.



Last pic is from a Trane RTAA110. Chiller is located right off the bay. Was called out about a month ago on circuit A locking out on low suction super heat. Replaced sensors and STILL low suction super heat. These things only run 4 degrees SSH.

Condemened the EEV which means condemning BOTH EEVs AND MODULE after going through the EXV check spelled out in my Trane trouble shooting addendum.



Now each circuit has TWO sight glasses in series. Oh well at least there is a visual representation of the EEV working now.

Chiller runs fine now but it's incessant whining upsets the apartment block next door to the 6 story building it and it's two brothers are mounted on.

[AC5096]

Snoop, haven't used it since leaving my old place of employment. The best liquid leak detector I've used.

Nice looking repair.

[hvac wiz 79]

nice job ..

[KB Cool]

Good job!!! Unfortunatly the smaller 5 ton heat pumps with "back to back" indoor and outdoor headers are alot harder!!!

[B1978]

Is that the old drier before the EXV?

[Six]

That is a drier CANISTER with 2 shiny and new drier cores installed.

Haven't run into a lot of heat pumps in Houston.

Natural gas for heating is so cheap no one installs them.

[boilerman856]

Out of curiosity why did you change the header what were your symptoms. And have you ever used the "kit" to change to txv?

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[KB Cool]

Did Carrier charge you way too much money for the header?

[tech45]

That is a BEAST to do by yourself , getting the tools up is ash -kicker (all of them from recovery to operating / charge ). Every damn tool on the truck to the roof , NOW !

Nice job that hopefully someone appreciated but will usually fall into the " thankless " file.

[Six]

Out of curiosity why did you change the header what were your symptoms. And have you ever used the "kit" to change to txv?

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Strips of ice running length wise across the Evap. Low suction, suction line icing up and 2/6 fixed orifices icing up.

Its the 4 or 5th one I've done so its a quick look and then isolate that circuit and call Carrier.

Occasionally I'll get a clogged drier.

I. asked my local Carrier if a TXV kit was available and got a quick "No".

[Six]

That is a BEAST to do by yourself , getting the tools up is ash -kicker (all of them from recovery to operating / charge ). Every damn tool on the truck to the roof , NOW !

Nice job that hopefully someone appreciated but will usually fall into the " thankless " file.

Thats half my life packing my entire truck up to rooftops. The other half is air cooled Chillers and then office building pneumatics.
Yea I dont expect kudos. Its more important that I know I give every job 100%.

Keeps me thin....and exhausted and pissed off. Notice the first pic ?

[B1978]

Tried to catch you on the driers, nice work. Ever tried RX-11 to clear the orifices? Just curious. So far I have not had to change any headers... We have a million 50HJ style Carriers in Vegas.

[hvac wiz 79]

I. asked my local Carrier if a TXV kit was available and got a quick "No".

i coulda a sworn i seen a thread here where someone took a txv & made it work on a carrier ... not to any thanks of the carrier folks i think he cooked it up himself

[hvac wiz 79]

Tried to catch you on the driers, nice work. Ever tried RX-11 to clear the orifices? Just curious. So far I have not had to change any headers... We have a million 50HJ style Carriers in Vegas.

by injecting it with the header apart, as close as possible or just introducing it to the system in general ??

[B1978]

Backflushing from the suction, with the compressor removed, or flushed after the drier through the system.

[hvac wiz 79]

yea pretty much how i do it but never removed a known restriction ... on burnouts when i use Rx11 i do it very cautiously not to plug things up ... thats when i hate the headers & make sure to include on my quote the potential of them getting plugged ...

[barbar]

Just curious, how much one of those headers are worth. (ball park)
From the angle of the pics, I can not see any reason why you could not fit TXV and distributor. I think it would be somewhat easier.???
Would you know if each orifice in each leg is the same size.

[KB Cool]

Tried to catch you on the driers, nice work. Ever tried RX-11 to clear the orifices? Just curious. So far I have not had to change any headers... We have a million 50HJ style Carriers in Vegas.

What drier? Carrier don't know what a dryer is! They like too sell headers or maybe it's just planned obsolence. The strainer goes first and then the header.

[hvac wiz 79]

http://hvac-talk.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=820802

There's one i found but could a sworn there was another thread.

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