Lubricant properties

[Mark]

Hi,

Do polyolester and Alkybenzenes/mineral oils retain there lubrication properties when mixed?.
Have a supermarket pack, half the compressors marked with Shell SD other with POE. R22 refrigerant,My gut reaction is to drain as much as possible,Clean seperator float assembly(due to frequent oil problems) evacuate and recharge with suitable oil.
What do you think would be the best solution.

Best regards

Mark

[chemi-cool]

Hi Mark.

Good point.
R-22 works with all kinds of oils.

You can not mix these oils, they are totally different.

Last summer I've replaced a Copeland Glacier in a freezer.
some 1/4 pipe broke and it lost half the oil charge, the owner called some cowboy that had only Min. oil and he filled it up.

The compressor lasted only a few days afterwords.
Original oil was AB.

You can download an oil compatability chart from:
www.hydrobalance.com

Chemi

[Mark]

Hi,chemi

Thanks for the link

I suspect the oil seperator has a degree of sludge in it as a consequence of the ****tail

Best regards

Mark

[chemi-cool]

Hi Mark.

When there are oil problems, I always install new oil separator.

These things develop leaks once open.

Chemi

[Mark]

chemi

The oil seperator is not that old

The seperator fitted has a full range of replacement parts available

Shouldnt be a problem

[Mark]

Hi, chemi

The old oil seperator had to be removed

Replaced it with 2 5/8 AC&R S9130 complete with reservoir

and bypass valves, making the seperator servicable if required.

After oil changes and filter changes the pack is running a lot more efficiently

Hope your all keeping well

Best regards Mark

[FreezerGeezer]

Hi all

We've been trialling Testo's electronic manifold recently. The BSRIA rep brought 2 of Testo's personnel with him to collect the gauge set & our feedback. One of the things we were concerned about is the idea of cross contaminating the oil by using only the one set of gauges.
However, I was told that Testo had conducted research that concluded the amount of oil likely to be in the gauges was negligible, and not likely to cause any problems.
While that's not what Mark's talking about, exactly, I'd be interested to hear what everyone else thinks.
Back to Mark's question, an improver once charged a pack with mineral oil instead of poe, because there were no indications on the pack of what oil to use. So he apparently asked NRS what oil to use with R404a, and they sold him the wrong stuff! So the pack was flushed 4 or 5 times with poe, and as far as I know, no problems were experienced.

[homelover]

Hi Mark,

If we encounter any oil sep that have failed we now replace them with a temperite system,
They clean the oil through filters and have had great results on old R22 systems.

May be worth considering for the future.

Homelover

[chemi-cool]

Hi Mark.

Where have you been when we are running like rats from one unit to the other?

Hope in a warm place where you can hear the ocean waves.

Good to see you back, get your hands dirty.

Chemi

[chemi-cool]

Just came back from repairing a 70ton unit. 26 years old, never had any problems.

Look at the pictures, you dont see that every day. Two before and one after.

Chemi

[Mark]

Hi,All

Great to see the pictures,im currently working away from home

commissioning.

Removing the defective temperite oil seperator,and restoring operation.

At home My sons walking around wrecking the place

Speak soon, good to hear your all well.

Best regards

Mark

[RogGoetsch]

..... I was told that Testo had conducted research that concluded the amount of oil likely to be in the gauges was negligible, and not likely to cause any problems.
While that's not what Mark's talking about, exactly, I'd be interested to hear what everyone else thinks.....

Since I work in light commercial with lots of cap tube systems, I use separate gauges for POE and AB/Min systems. I've seen too many blocked captubes on the new POE systems to risk any cross contamination at all. So I carry two sets for POE and two for AB/Min, with one old set used only for contaminated recovery.

I don't understand how people get by with fewer, since I will often need to check another system while pulling a vacuum on its neighbor, but most techs express surprise at seeing so many hanging in my van.

Rog

[Peter Croxall]

Hi FreezerGeezer,
Those Testo manifolds look the bees knees, but I suspect that they can make a serious hole in your pocket.

[frank]

I put a similar question to the guy on the Testo stand at the ACR/Building show in Birmingham in March and his local sales rep just followed up with a reply last month. He said that the boffins in Germany had done research and concluded that it was safe to use the same gauges and lines for different refrigerants as the amount of oil entrained within the gauges was minimal.

I don't care what they think, I'm not going to spend £700 for a set of gauges only to end up with problems later on