Ammonia charging hoses

[RANGER1]

Interested in what everyone does when charging ammonia or servicing plants.
What type of hoses you use & safety requirements, PPE etc.

Thanks

[josef]

Hi RANGER 1
Years ago I had a hose from Lewis-Goetz, high-quality hose and long life, one disadvantage is the problem of the United States and Europe to buy.
http://www.lewis-goetz.com/products/hose-solutions/
Today I only use PTFE hoses from Parker, we need to review each year, the best for me every year to buy new and used only for the liquid. Old hose use for service-oil + gas + vacuuming.
http://ph.parker.com/us/en/ptfe-hose-s30-s30b

Josef.

[mbc]

Hi

I did with hoses with iron knitting about 10 meter
The pressure of that 80 bar
I am using that for more than 15 years
To charge systems

[cricri]

Hi Ranger,
in our company we are using 10m long flexible hoses of 1/2 inch FBSP, PMS 140b. each field engineer has his own for ammonia, for CO2 and HFC hoses are availlable in branch office.
each hose:
- has a quality control of the crimps when delivered
- is fitted with a whiplash cable crimped every 50cm with loop and hook
- has a color coding for each refrigerant
- has a complete marking
- is limited in use, 3 or 5 years

we've had a crimps break a few years ago, wrong grimping.

using ammonia (or others), there is a 1/4 turn ball valve (without drilling in the ball) fitted between hose and liquid cylinder. hoses can be connected together to increase length.

of course, there is an operating mode for filling in ammonia. ...but in french.

[RANGER1]

Thanks all, I was considering a tether for hose ends

http://capitalrubbercorp.com/hose-safety-whip-checks/

Cricri, does your hose have a cable the whole length of it crimped every 50cm, sounds like a good idea.

Josef, I agree, hose for servicing & hose for liquid ammonia.

[cricri]

Ranger,

all length, and a bit more, crimped every 50cm. usefull mainly for CO2. but why not for the others refrigerants.

[McFranklin]

The green striped Goodall product is used extensively here in the central USA. I prefer the Goodall silver stripe product with the SS braid. It is not as easy to handle, however I feel the strength is worth the tradeoff.
I would avoid the hoses with an exposed SS braid. I had an incident with that style product. The service tech ran his hose across a set of headers, the field crew was welding on the same headers some distance away. Unfortunately the SS braid became an alternate ground path for the welding current. It was a poor ground so there was some arcing and sparking and the jacket was compromised. Fortunately the tech was using the hose to pull a line into a vacuum so there was not a ammonia leak, but it was a near-miss.
Which is a definite justification for a dedicated pump-out line. But that is a conversation for another day.