410-a a good conductor of electricity?

[supertek65]

okay!

thursday night I was fixing a carrier 30rb chiller.
had a leak in the hot gas tee.
after the repair I was charging it when my light broke, so I just worked in the dark.

I hung my gauges on the chiller on those little chicken wire gaurds whatever they are called?

when I purged the air out of my hose some refrigerant blew on the hook of my gauge manifold and sparked!!!

it was very dark out and I could see it clearly.

I kept doing it over and over like a dozen times! It was definately sparking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

what the heck?????????????

i wanted to take a video but my phone/flashlight/camera also died!

[jpsmith1cm]

Static?

How much refrigerant were you moving?

[supertek65]

I guess?????????????????

sure was cool to look at in the dark!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jpsmith1cm]

[supertek65]

how cool!

did he explain what was causing that?

[ga-hvac-tech]

Interesting topic, and good video...

I do know liquid refrigerant will conduct electricity... spilled it into an elec box many years ago and got a vivid display. I doubt gaseous refrigerant will though... no proof, just a hunch.

[jpsmith1cm]

how cool!

did he explain what was causing that?

It is static charge buildup by refrigerant traveling through the hoses.

I've never seen the sparks, but I've FELT them....

[supertek65]

huh??????????????????????????

[jpsmith1cm]

that is why I asked how much refrigerant you were charging.

I've never worked on a 30rb machine so I don't know if you're talking a couple pounds, a couple jugs or a couple tons.

As fluid flows, it can generate a static charge.

I was pulling some gas from a rack on a roof one day. Only a hundred pounds or so, but the 125# tank was sitting on a rubber roof, my manifold was NOT grounded nor was the tank.

It only took about 2 minutes to build a noticeable 'zip' when you touched the tank. If you let it go much longer, the shock was almost painful.

I've seen it happen before, but this was the worst I can remember.

[Chris_Worthington]

and here it was I thought I was having flash backs, kewl video !!

[supertek65]

LMAO!!!!!!!!!!

i kept bleeding refrigerant or AIR out of my hoses over and over to prove to myself I was not imagining stuff!

and here it was I thought I was having flash backs, kewl video !!

[y7turbo]

That happened to me before, it even killed my scale one time! I was dumping liquid into a system in a vacuum and all of a sudden I started hearing sparking.. I touched my manifold and got shocked, then i heard a big zap and the screen on my scale went blank..

From then on I usually attach a wire from the tank to the unit or some metal to keep it grounded. I do get some little shocks here and there from it, but never that bad again.

[OldSchoolMech]

Learn something new everyday