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Turning the bottle upside down? Bad?
Ok, I'm an average do it yourself homeowner and I had a guy come out and look at a mid 90's Payne heat pump. He determined it was low so wanted to charge it. It was cold in the teens and he said the transfer would be slow so we were trying to heat the bottle with all kinds of crazy methods. I was just going along with it but had never seen that before. Then after a while (20 min) he turned the bottle upside down which I had always heard was really bad because then you transfer liquid instead of gas. I just want to know if that really is a huge NO NO. The compressor was running and I didn't notice any audible change when the bottle was upside down and I didn't want to act like a know it all. So what can you guys tell me about this practice
Thanks!
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It is not unusual to heat up a bottle of refrigerant sometimes using anything like warm water, the discharge air from a condenser, a hair dryer. No problem there.
Also, turning the bottle over and opening it up wide could be a problem if it was full and he was just dumping liquid into your system. However, turning over a jug that is partially full AND/OR metering it in as a liquid slowly so that it flashes into gas before hitting the compressor is not a problem at all.
I use both of these methods frequently and consider myself to be a fairly competent technician. On almost every charging job I end up having to turn the jug over and meter it in as a liquid.
Your concerns are justified, but I wouldn't worry too much about it.
If I were you, I might consider asking him "when you turned that jug over how do you know liquid wasn't flooding the compressor?" if he gives a rational response like one I just provided then he knows his stuff, if he gives you a line of BS then you might need to be concerned...
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He had the bottle on a scale and it was 18 lbs something almost 19. I don't know if the already had the actual bottle weight subtracted I'm assuming so
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In cold weather it's tough to get enough vapor pressure from a refrigerant tank to charge a system. It's common practice to tip the bottle to charge with liquid. Now...this is where experience come in, there is a right way and a wrong way to do this. Putting in too much liquid at a time can damage the compressor; but as long as he takes his time it should be OK, especially since he's charging through schrader valves because that will help limit the flow to safe levels.
With many of the new blends we have to liquid charge, so it's really no biggie in the hands of a real tech.
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Originally Posted by
kerfohio
He had the bottle on a scale and it was 18 lbs something almost 19. I don't know if the already had the actual bottle weight subtracted I'm assuming so
Like I said, it is a common practice. It is all about experience and being able to meter in the liquid properly. Ask the technician, not us...only then will you feel satisfied (or unsatisfied) with his response.
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we charge liquid all the time, just have to do it slowly
in some cases you have to charge liquid (like stated above)
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At school, we charge up our R-22 test systems with liquid on the suction line. You just have to feather it in slowly so not to slug the compressor.
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It's a heatpump and the accumulator will prevent any slugging damage from the liquid charge. Nothing to worry about. Heating the jug is normal also, just with a safe method.
If everything was always done "by the book"....the book would never change.