Oil seperation

[pythagoras]

When the vapour refrigerant mixed with oil exits the compressor, is the oil in a liquid state or vapour?

I'm just trying to think of a design for a good oil seperater.

Regards

John.

[captaincascade]

both

[DaBit]

The answer is not so simple. Most of the oil is still liquid, but some of it is in a very fine (smoke-like) mist. Finally there will probably be oil vapour (I can smell it), but that won't be much.

The oil mist is your problem. Separating the liquid is easy enough. Separating the vapour is unnecessary. But the mist tends to get carried away even with a low-velocity stream.

I used steel wool to capture the mist. In the short time I used that oil sep, it worked flawless.