refrigerant 404A recovery question

[wunderman]

As far as recovery goes, since injection is in a liquid form only, would the recovered amount be any good since you recover both liquid and vapor?

[Wild Leg]

Originally posted by wunderman
As far as recovery goes, since injection is in a liquid form only, would the recovered amount be any good since you recover both liquid and vapor?

When you recover, you get it all. It doesn't change the refigerant in any way, unless your pump, gauges & tank dirty it up.

If the gas has a problem before recovery, then the problem will still be there.

I wouldn't reuse it, in most cases. Not without at least running it through a recycler to clean it up.

It would have to be a pretty large quantity to make it worth the effort.

[wunderman]

do you ever really recover all the refrigerant in any system?

[gas_n_go]

i dont ever recover any it always seems to be flat before i get there at least thats what all my tickets say

[Wild Leg]

That depends greatly upon your recovery methods & technique.

Most likely, there will always be outgassing, in MINISCULE amounts.

Do you REALLY think that would make a MEASURABLE difference?
I don't.

I still wouldn't reuse old refrigerant, unless it was an appreciable amount, going back into the same machine.

Of course, I would NEVER change the ownership of used refrigerant, either, unless it was going to a processing center (ARI 700).

By the way, we were recovering WAY before Montreal was thought of.
Simple economics.






[Edited by bwal2 on 12-12-2004 at 03:05 PM]

[R12rules]

Originally posted by gas_n_go
i dont ever recover any it always seems to be flat before i get there at least thats what all my tickets say

ROFLOL!!!


works for me!!!

[r404a]

Wunder

I had the same question a few years back, so I called National Refrigerants to get a difinitive answer. They said that the HP blends, 402a 404a 408a and so on have a much lower chance of fractionating, so if you can get the majority of it out, you shouldn't experience notable capacity loss. On the converse, the MP blends, 401a 401b and so on, fractionate much easier and a lot of forethought should be used before reusing this gas. I would, if possible, get an oiless liquid capable recovery machine. This would allow you to get the vast majority out in the liquid form and a lot faster. If you have gas recovery only, make sure you have POE oil in recovery motor compressor and get all of the charge out.
My general attitude about 404a has been to go back with new stuff in all ice machines and reach in equipment. Even on walk ins that I know have less than a full bottle, I will put new gas in. However, with the above stated, on larger systems,I would reuse clean gas on the equipment it was removed from if I got the overwhelming majority out of it.