Oil odour

Hi All,

Was chatting to an old service guy a while back who told me, he sometimes determines a system refrigerant and oil by smell he said sometimes you can get a sweet smell which could be caused from a grounded comp which contaminated the system.

It got me thinking as I was working on a Daikin VRV R407C and when I was recovering the refriegent I could smell a strong odour. Is this due to the make up of R407c or possible contamination?

Feed back much appreciated.

Hi Dermtheworm.
I can confirm that is you ever open up a system that has suffered a "Motor Burnout", you will not forget the sweet smell!
Some older refrigerants would develop a sweet smell when they had become contaminated with moisture.
Others when heated would smell of what was a type of phosgene Gas.

Mineral oils would stink when they had become carbonated.

So maybe what you are describing could be from a contaminated system.

Moisture may have been introduced?
Time for an Oil Analysis I think!
Grizzly

Hi Grizzly,

Thanks for feedback much appreciated , yes I was thinking possible contamination as looking back on service records they’re has been lots of problems.

Would yourself look to replace polyoester oil for a system like this? How would you look to tackle oil contamination with a scroll compressor as there is no real gauge to go by? I