Mixing R22 and R410a

[stonewallred]

410 and 22?
That won't work.
He should have used 22 and then topped it off with 409, with maybe a few ounces of HP-80 or 81.
That would increased efficiency, lowered the customers power bill and made the owner hair thicker and more glossy.

[HVACTechNC]

I had a tech come and service my AC the other day and he put R410 refrigerant in in my R22 system. He said you can mix up to 20% as long as you keep the pressures in line. Is this true ? He said the real problem is the oils and when you add refrigerant you are not adding oil. Is that right ? Sounds fishy to me. Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

#1 That guy is an idiot. As everyone else has said, they need to recover that refrigerant, put the system on vacuum, and recharge by weight with only R-22.

#2 I hate having to overcome the reputation people like that tech bring to this industry. Its no wonder people dont know if they can trust an HVAC tech or company... On the bright side of that, being competent and honest usually means when I service a new customer's system I have won a customer for life, but I still dont enjoy the skepticism I am met with by many new customers because of a bad experience from some yokel like that...

#3 All refrigerants have different temperature properties (thats why we have those nifty P/T charts and the corresponding temperature conversion on our gauges. Mixing refrigerants screws up that entire theory, which happens to be the underlying theory in refrigeration.

#4 How the hell would he (or anyone) know when the blend has reached or surpassed 20%? Lets assume for one brief moment that what he said had a sliver of truth to it... Ya, I know, its hard, but work with me... Ok, so we find a unit that is low on charge.. how low? What is the weight or volume of the R-22 that is left in the system on which we are going to establish a base for this magic 20%?

That guy should go to working in the apartment industry, he could have a bright future there...

[stonewallred]

He could go into refrigeration, a lot of those are actual blends of various refrigerants in differing ratios.

[Saturated Suter]

410 and 22?
That won't work.
He should have used 22 and then topped it off with 409, with maybe a few ounces of HP-80 or 81.
That would increased efficiency, lowered the customers power bill and made the owner hair thicker and more glossy.

Hold on a second...


The secret to great hair.
Thank you for putting me on the floor.

[fenderizer]

lets put propane in our auto a/c systems too
lol

[Music Seeker]

lets put propane in our auto a/c systems too
lol

Naw, I'd rather ammonia! I want to see my breath in my own car!

[hvacpope]

lets put propane in our auto a/c systems too
lol

no a bad idea,been around for a while, as a matter of fact it was done to get the mineral oil back to the compressors when retrofitting from r-12 to 134a. propane is a very good refrigerant, in Japan and Europe propane refrigerators are available. here we have too many greedy corporations and too many lawyers.

[stonewallred]

no a bad idea,been around for a while, as a matter of fact it was done to get the mineral oil back to the compressors when retrofitting from r-12 to 134a. propane is a very good refrigerant, in Japan and Europe propane refrigerators are available. here we have too many greedy corporations and too many lawyers.

Every "guru" I have ever spoken to has claimed propane is the "best" refrigerant available.
Looking at the numbers, I might concur.
But, then I look at the site's DIY rules.
Yeah, that makes a difference.