Recovery Machine performance.

[meplumber]

So, I have a question for some of you guys in colder climates, that frequently use your recovery machines to pump refer back into units after service. Since it is pretty hard to get it to take a full charge when it is stupid cold outside, we use our machines to pump the weighed charge back in. This occurs mostly with rooftop chillers, heat recovery/heat pump systems, and critical cooling equipment.

My question. We have gone over to the Appion G5 Twins. Love their performance in recovery operations. No complaints. My only complaint is that they don't like liquid when pumping back in. I personally still carry my Bacharach Stinger on the truck, since I spend more time doing white glove work, it hasn't been an issue with recovery time. If I have to recover a big system, I call one of the guys over. The Stinger never misses a beat when pumping liquid, but the G5 shakes, rattles and sounds like it is about to throw a rod.

We are seeing that the G5 is not as receptive to liquid as the Stinger was. Are any of you seeing this and if so, what are you using as a work around. I am starting to get nervous about killing one of the G5's just trying to weigh a charge back in.

Thanks in advance.

[ryan1088]

You have to choke the intake down until it finds its happy place. Start it unloaded then load it up right before the rattling sound and then go clean your truck.

[meplumber]

Thanks Ryan. That is what we have been doing. It seems much worse when drawing out of 30# cylinders than it does say 100# cylinders. The Stinger never seemed to have that problem. I will occassionaly have to throttle a little, but we are having to throttle the cylinder and the recovery machine to about half when it is really cold. Kind of defeats the purpose of feeding liquid, if it wasn't for those darn blends.

[ryan1088]

Agreed it beats the alternative. Hopefully someone will have some wide thoughts here soon!

[jim bergmann]

Break the vacuum with the refrigerant, then use the push pull method to push the liquid out of the recovery tank rather then pumping it with the machine. It is a lot faster and easier on any machine. Page 9

http://www.appioninc.com/downloads/f...win_Manual.pdf

[meplumber]

We were talking about Push-Pull the other day at the shop, Jim. Our concern is, will this work when pumping into a system with a large liquid receiver?

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

[jim bergmann]

That is the perfect place to pump it. Push the liquid into the receiver and pull the vapor from the discharge line.

[ryan1088]

Agreed, big machines only. I tried it once and finally got enough hoses to get it done.

[meplumber]

Cool. Thanks guys. We will give it a try.