refrigerant separation

[mixsit]

A question I've been pondering.
If we use say most of the liquid from container (new, blended refrigerant) is it possible that the separation effect which presumably is happening also in the container, then the remaining refrigerant would be partly compromised in much the same way as it is when you have a partial loss through a vapor leak in a system?

[RLBisTCB]

That's right, you should stop charging when you run out of liquid and go to another tank to finish up. still charging all liquid. Don't forget to recover the remaining vapor from the empty tanks before you dispose of them. But I don't think it's that critical unless you're dealing with a system with a very small charge.

[mixsit]

That doesn't quite address the point of the question- of the possible variation in quality or makeup of the blend in a condition where a large portion of the container is vapor.
In fact (and maybe this is partly where I've gone wrong here), aren't we cautioned when reusing recovered good charge to use all of the liquid and vapor- to maintain the blend?

[jpsmith1cm]

Blends are nothing new in refrigeration work.

I've been using and recovering blended refrigerants for my whole career, basically.

R404a, R402a, R402b, R410a. These are low glide refrigerants. Essentially, you can fractionate them, but you will have to TRY in order to do so.

R401a, R407 (variants a-f) and some of the other new blends are higher glide refrigerants. I've not ran into a problem where fractionation was an issue, but I keep an open mind to that.

[RLBisTCB]

That doesn't quite address the point of the question- of the possible variation in quality or makeup of the blend in a condition where a large portion of the container is vapor.
In fact (and maybe this is partly where I've gone wrong here), aren't we cautioned when reusing recovered good charge to use all of the liquid and vapor- to maintain the blend?

I was speaking of virgin stock, not recovered refrigerant. To answer the question I think you're asking, if you're talking about a virgin container, the blend would depend on how what's gone was taken out. Try this website for a better explanation.

http://www.refrigerants.com/technical_literature.aspx

Hope that helps.

[mixsit]

I was speaking of virgin stock, not recovered refrigerant. To answer the question I think you're asking, if you're talking about a virgin container, the blend would depend on how what's gone was taken out. Try this website for a better explanation.

http://www.refrigerants.com/technical_literature.aspx
Hope that helps.

Thank you for that link that was what I was looking for. So it seems the up shot is it's not an issue as the vapor is of a small enough portion lost' from the liquid it has little impact on the liquid's blend. 'Virgin or otherwise.

[coolerik]

PHM had a similar post a little while back, answerd some questions regarding the issue, too tired to find it now but its out there somewhere