How to bleed the air off a Condenser?

[hammerbayer]

Had a customer call me after their A/C units stopped working. They had a maintenance mechanic from a neighboring restaurant take over the PM on their units (cost effective). He told them their cooling problem was air in the lines of their units and that he had to bleed off the air from the units then top them off with freon. The owner got charged for 10# of 134A to replace the air in their 4 systems. Too bad they were R22 units.....

[Bubbleheadski]

Oh SNap! Really? Damn that sucks to be cost effective!
Think they learned anything? I bet you arent taking them back either!?!?!
LOL.... sorry but thats to funny!

[jpsmith1cm]

[yellowirenut]

when i was first starting i saw a pic on a old RTU showing a hammer and punch with an arrow pointing to a spot on the condenser....maybe that's how he bleed the air off?

[Tiger93rsl]

I hate it when condensers air lock like that.

[woodsman]

This is where that air depressor comes in handy.

[timebuilder]

Had a customer call me after their A/C units stopped working. They had a maintenance mechanic from a neighboring restaurant take over the PM on their units (cost effective). He told them their cooling problem was air in the lines of their units and that he had to bleed off the air from the units then top them off with freon. The owner got charged for 10# of 134A to replace the air in their 4 systems. Too bad they were R22 units.....

I would write a very specific set of findings, and a detailed critique of the previous work and charges.

[ZiLLaCooL]

Had a customer call me after their A/C units stopped working. They had a maintenance mechanic from a neighboring restaurant take over the PM on their units (cost effective). He told them their cooling problem was air in the lines of their units and that he had to bleed off the air from the units then top them off with freon. The owner got charged for 10# of 134A to replace the air in their 4 systems. Too bad they were R22 units.....

Did they happen to get an oilchange & tire rotation with that????

[Miller257]

i love the work maintenance guys give us some times.

[TxDusty]

Haven't seen a schrader valve on top of a condenser in about 30 yrs.

[jpsmith1cm]

I wouldn't even attempt to bleed air off of a small unit.

I'd pull the charge, evacuate and liquid charge what was in the cylinder. Once the cylinder was down to the last few ounces of liquid, I'd crack open the new stuff and top up the charge if needed.

Either that or bleed air off of the recovery cylinder until it matches up with PT chart.

[Tempted]

Isn't that wut that fan on top is for?? lol Constant air bleeder.

[timebuilder]

Either that or bleed air off of the recovery cylinder until it matches up with PT chart.

I've done that many times.

[TMS134]

Just a question............was this maint. man EPA Certified???

[timebuilder]

Somehow I doubt he was. I'll bet he was the low priced guy, though!

[Tempted]

Just a question............was this maint. man EPA Certified???

Ya for asbestos abatement.

[AtticAce]

who is in tech school to tune up one of his 7 condensing units. Unfortunately the nephew started with the home theater unit.

He told his uncle I did not know what I was doing because a few units did not have filter dryers in the compressor units (his terminology).

The nephew and a few of his tech school classmates fixed the situation by installing the missing filter in the unit. The picture is attached. Unfortunately he installed one of those new discharge line filter dryers , and broke the line off at the condensing coil. He did somehow braze the line back on, which allowed the unit to run long enough for him to get paid and get out of Dodge.

I was kind of happy for his efforts, I wanted to change this antique York out. So this is one example of a DIY doing good.

I was thinking, maybe I could set this kid up with his buddies, you know an add in the Penny Pincher paper. Send him out on his own to replace and install discharge filter dryers all day and night.
Later I could advertise to these folks, yeah that's the ticket....!

[Texas-Tech]

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

sorry couldn't help myself.

[dandyme]

Ace

at least the drier is pointed in the right direction.


looks like he saw the u-tube video on brazing.

[ACFIXR]

Had a customer call me after their A/C units stopped working. They had a maintenance mechanic from a neighboring restaurant take over the PM on their units (cost effective). He told them their cooling problem was air in the lines of their units and that he had to bleed off the air from the units then top them off with freon. The owner got charged for 10# of 134A to replace the air in their 4 systems. Too bad they were R22 units.....

I had a Trane 7.5 ton CU that had a bleeder on the top of the outdoorcoil. I think it had r500 in it and i watched an old timer purge it for a few minutes then charge it up to "beer can cold". I think that the unit was from the early 60's. It was an old Chevy car dealership and the unit did the showroom.