Removing refrigirant

[Lowrider]

I mostly work on the larger chillers and occasionnally have to take out all the refrigirant. The problem is changing the large R-cilinders when they are full and the system not!

I would like to know if anyone has a simple solution!

[Brian_UK]

What sort of problem do you have when changing the cylinders?

Do you have trouble with venting refrigerant from your connecting hoses ? If so then use hoses with attached valves.

[Lowrider]

when removing the refrigirant from the system and one R-cilinder filled up, you have to change to another one.

The easy way is push/pull, but liquid refrigirant in the
1/2" hose from condensor to the cilinder will be lost each time the cilinder must be changed. On systems I work on come charged with up to 1200kg. Thus a lot off R-cilinders and too much loss!

So I'm wondering how you handle this!

[Brian_UK]

Admittedly I do not normally use 1/2" hoses but with the smaller sizes I always use a ball valve at the end of the hose so that it can be shut when disconnecting from the cylinder.

Can you make something similar but with 1/2" valves?

[taz24]

So I'm wondering how you handle this!

Just put a shut off valve on the end of your hose.

taz.

[monkey spanners]

There are some 1/2 SAE m/fm ball valves (pt n. 93848)in the Yellow Jacket catalogue which i think would screw onto the end of your 1/2 hose.

Jon

[Lowrider]

I know there are 1/2" valves, but the coupling to the cilinder is the problem!

I've fabricated something myself, but I was wondering if there's something on the market! I've looked almost everywhere but never found anything suited!

I'll try and post a picture of the valve i've made.

[Lowrider]

Finally, Bingo!!! Thanks! Never found it before!


Anyway, here's what i've made!

[Brian_UK]

Great, well done and hope it keeps your fingers warmer now.

[Lowrider]

Keeps my fingers warm?

[Brian_UK]

Keeps my fingers warm?

Sorry,,,, no liquid refrigerant over your hands when disconnecting.

[Lowrider]

Oke! That's right! Never looked at it that way!

It's just a lot of work changing cilinders and some loss of refrigirant!

[The MG Pony]

Can you not make parallel banks of cylinders with a master disconnect manifold

[old gas bottle]

i was just going to say the same, if you have twin ports on the cylinders couple two up, in on the vapour tap ,out on the liquid to the vapour tap on the the second cylinder, it helps in other ways too, in summer helps performance and time as your not getting the bottles as hot trying to cram it all in one, try it.

[Lowrider]

Usually what we do is connect the 1/2"hose from the bottom of the condensor to the cilinder. Then from the vapour side draw the vapour with a recovery unit and put it in the evaporator. When the cilinder is full we change it. This way you can get most of the refrigirant out as liquid and safe hours of waiting!

The tricky part was changing the bottles, since we didn't have a good tool for that!

Thanks all for oyour thoughts!!

[Tycho]

instead of using cyliders and spending days on draining a ton of *****, why don't you contact your local ***** supplier and get a tank, a normal tank holds between 700 and 900 Kg of refrigerant depending on type of refrigerant, they will lend you the tank for a deposit or a low day rate, or you can buy the tank.

We have two tanks we own, but at any one time the last few years we have had no less than 6 tanks in operation.

also, we use 10mm Ermeto couplings on all our plants, but finding anything that fits with the flare connections is close to impossible, there are some JEC couplings that go from ermeto to something that fits with 3/8" and 1/4" flare, they are not the same, but the threads match.

I usually just solder my own connections.

And I always have a ballvalve close to the bottle connection... just make sure the ballvalve is rated for the pressure, and note that ballvalves designed for refrigeration should have a hole drilled in one side of the ball so as not to trap liquid when it's closed.

[Lowrider]

The problem with using a tank is transportation! Most of our machines are in the basement or on the roof. Normally a roof can hold 250kg/m2 and putting 400kg in a tank will go over that! And transporting a tank into a basement is also a lot of work!

The way we do it, push/pull, we can empty a machine with 1000kg within 6 hours!

[old gas bottle]

i,ve got a good bit of kit ,will post a pic of it, my bottle connector is a large hand tighten joby with a gate valve on it, swop bottles with minimal loss, got 1/4 and 1/2", available from polar pumps doncaster,not cheap but worth every penny,

[Tycho]

The problem with using a tank is transportation! Most of our machines are in the basement or on the roof. Normally a roof can hold 250kg/m2 and putting 400kg in a tank will go over that! And transporting a tank into a basement is also a lot of work!

The way we do it, push/pull, we can empty a machine with 1000kg within 6 hours!

Don't look at the problems all the time, look for a solution

Dynamite my friend... dynamite... works fine no matter if you want to get the tank up or down just need to remember where to place it, depending on what way you want the tank to go