Can I recharge my Portable Air Conditioning unit? R407C Refrigerant

[jordanoye]

Hello all,

My air conditioning unit has started to blow cold for about 10 minutes and then would blow hot air (slightly hotter than room tempreture) for another 10 minutes. This would continue in a cycle.

When it blows cold it is great but never lasts long enough to make a difference.

Is there a way to recharge my air conditioning unit? I have never done anything like it before.

Picture attached.

IMG_20160608_111659.jpg

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

[r.bartlett]

I suspect it's not gas. Will require an engineer to assess the problem. are the filters clean etc?

[Brian_UK]

Probably not.

They often do not have charging ports fitted.

Also if it is short of refrigerant it must be leak tested and repaired prior to recharging.

You will need:

F-gas certificate, approx cost £1500
manifold gauge set, approx cost £200
Reclaim machine to recover remaining refrigerant, approx cost £950
Recovery cylinder, approx cost £80
Nitrogen test gauge, approx cost £200
Nitrogen for testing, approx cost £60
Brazing torch, gas and brazing rods, approx cost £110
Vacuum pump, approx cost £750
Vacuum gauge, approx cost £200
Bottle of R407c refrigerant, approx cost £250

As you can see it would be cheaper to employ a qualified air conditioning technician or buy a new unit.

[jordanoye]

Yes, it's very clean and not used all to much but is cleaned regularly.

Could the length of the hose have anything to do with it. I have extended it a fair bit??

[niceman]

Manufacturers advise you to not have too long a hose, why don't you try it in another position with a short hose just to see if it works then, also you shouldn't have any dips or tight bends in the hose, best of luck.

[frank]

Sounds to me like the unit is going out on HP as the discharge hose is too long (fan capacity reduced) then auto resets and the cycle starts again.

Do as Niceman advises and reduce the discharge hose back to the manufacturers supplied length.

[Dr._Fleck]

I agree, sounds like an HP switch. Do you hear the compressor going on and off?

[james552]

Probably not.

They often do not have charging ports fitted.

Also if it is short of refrigerant it must be leak tested and repaired prior to recharging.

You will need:

F-gas certificate, approx cost £1500
manifold gauge set, approx cost £200
Reclaim machine to recover remaining refrigerant, approx cost £950
Recovery cylinder, approx cost £80
Nitrogen test gauge, approx cost £200
Nitrogen for testing, approx cost £60
Brazing torch, gas and brazing rods, approx cost £110
Vacuum pump, approx cost £750
Vacuum gauge, approx cost £200
Bottle of R407c refrigerant, approx cost £250

As you can see it would be cheaper to employ a qualified air conditioning technician or buy a new unit.

You can buy two new portable air conditioners for that price.

[Good^Man]

I would have thought you could get more than two portables for £4300 spending money.
But that's the point being made. It is not a DIY jobbie.

And having a qualified engineer check your machine will also cost something, then if new parts/repairs are needed, some more, which is why these portables are a throwaway type of thing (portable to the dump).

But as stated above, your hose is too long and unit is tripping out, resetting, cooling, and tripping out again.

First, try unit with correct length of original hose - it should operate properly.

If you must go for a longer run, you could experiment with rigid ducting that has a smooth inside surface (less fan resistance), or possibly adding an inline fan to the duct run to give the extra umphh (fan pressure) needed to take the discharge air through your longer duct run.