A friend of mine is an automotive technician (without A/C). He opened up a shop of his own and decided to try A/C without any training as he had a friend that he could consult at a dealership. He asked me to come down to his shop one day and help him understand what went wrong with his new compressor install. The compressor was seized and there was water everywhere. I asked him what he had done and this was his reply :
" Since the last compressor failed I decided to flush the system out so I hooked up the garden hose to the discharge port and let it run through for a 1/2 hour. Once I got the new compressor in I hooked up the gauges to the vacuum line on the engine and let it run for a couple hours since I don't have a vacuum pump. I charged the system with 1 pound of R134 and when I turned it on it only ran for 3-4 seconds before seizing again." I explained to him that if he ever touched another A/C system again I would burn his shop down, and his friend should be stripped of any technical status he has ever recieved!