green slime question???

[snooked321]

I had a system recently with it and tech support did a warranty claim on the unit. This unit (frigidaire) had no safetys insalled. The unit was ran who knows how long with a leak in one of the feeder tubes off the dist. on the outside coil in heating. My question is moisture in the system will eventually cause a burnout, right?? This system was full of the green slime on the screens in front of the pistons/distributors. Why would a system generate green slime in one instance and in another generate acid creating a burnout situation??? In another thread i read someone say they do changeouts from bad installs with green slime. Is it the amount of moisture or the time the moisture is in the system? Do you know were i'm coming from here. it is friday night now

[snooked321]

My ? is why would moisture in one instance cause an acidity situation and in another a slime situation causing a restriction???

[RoBoTeq]

Unless your system is about 20 years old and has one of the first generation Copeland scroll compressors in it, I doubt it has green slime. Green oil from moisture in a system is often mistaken for green slime. Green slime is so thick that it is more like shaving foam, and it stinks to high heaven.

Green slime as well as green oil conditions are acidic. It is the acid in the system, caused by moisture in the system, that erodes the copper, turning the oil green. For a green oil condition, a replacement of the existing filter/drier with a burnout filter/drier along with a really good, usually 24 hour, system evacuation will clean up the system just fine.

[snooked321]

What is the proper procedure for confirming that what a tech is seeing is green slime? This is a first for me and would be very benificial to me and others that are unsure? Both screens completly clogged and this unit was running during heating and running on nothing but air for who knows how long? Talked to tech support but also understand they are not there seeing what we are. My question still didnt seem to get answered.

[snooked321]

Also a package unit that has not been tampered with ( according to th ho) 2 years old.

[snooked321]

No disrepect but why would tech support condemn a whole unit that is 2 years old? I am trying to get a grasp on this green slime.

[RoBoTeq]

Like I stated, green slime is pretty distinctive. If what you have is clogging screens, it sounds thick enough to be green slime. Several conditions must be present in order for green slime to develope. The most important of these conditions, you have already verified. It is a heat pump operating in the heat mode with a leak on the outdoor coil which is pulling moisture into the system to be circulated with and mixed with the refrigerant oil causing acids to form.

Now that you have acids circulating, you need white refrigerant oil which I believe is exclusive to Copeland compressors. The last ingredient is what is usually missing, a heavily copper bearing brass bearing. It is the copper that deteriorates, creating copper oxide, which is green, that really gets things whipped up into a froth that becomes green slime. I suppose other copper or brass components could break down enough to turn into slime, I just have not heard of this for a long time now.

If you have green slime, everything should be replaced. Indoor coil, outdoor unit and linesets all should go.

[RoBoTeq]

No disrepect but why would tech support condemn a whole unit that is 2 years old? I am trying to get a grasp on this green slime.

If it is green slime, it cannot be cleaned up properly enough to ever feel comfortable with.

[powell]

Here's a green slime report by Copeland link.

http://www.hvacrinfo.com/scroll_trouble.htm

[roswellhvac]

I had the same thing happen with two frigidaire packaged heat pumps. It was winter so the auxiliary heat was keeping the building warm. We ended up changing the units

[Airmechanical]

i went to that link and seen a good tip!

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Hipot test reading showing high levels of leakage.

Scroll compressors are configured with the motor on bottom and the pumping components at the top. If the motor is immersed in liquid refrigerant they can show higher level of leakage current. The system should be run for a brief period of time before the hipot test is conducted.

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