using straight propane

[FOO]

hi guys , i charged my system using r22, discovered (the hard way) 2 minor leaks. now im out of r22 and the leaks are fixed. my questions are can i use straight r290? would there be an odor even with no leaks? thanks, FOO

[Omega1]

How do you know the leaks are fixed?r290 is a flammable gas so you would want to be 100% sure there are no leaks
can you pressure test it with an inert gas first?also you need to evacuate the system realy well because oxygen and lpg just need a spark to go boom.You wont get any odor if the system has no leaks but the odor put in r290 apparently gets absorbed by the oil after being in a system for a certain amount of time.

[chilly1]

First is this a capillary tube system ? does it have a reciever? The R290 has no oderant in it Propane does but after a few days of running it is locked up in the metal or the oil and no oder exists it fades over a short period of time. Also The leak would need to be hugh If you know the flammibility linits and the size of the room the system is in you can calculate how much charge the system would have to leak to become flammiable in the area. So you then will know your upperlimit of system charge.

[FOO]

omega: i used up my r22 checking for leaks...ive since bought a sniffer, there are no leaks


chilly1: yes its a cap system (dual evap). wife found out about the propane thing and flipped out lol so ive got to find another source for r22 thanks for replys

[Blergo]

lmao... women anoy me often.. ive yet to fidn one that finds my "projects" interesting. my last g/f thought my computer was "very pretty"... the others all thought i was mad... :S ah well.. lol.. id say you will be fine useing propane. :) i have it in my waterchiller and it hasnt been any problems for me, also you will notice the performance drop quite a bit beofre enough propane has leaked for it to actually be flamable.. mine had a slow leak for a while and ppl used to smoke in my room all the time. the leak was so slow that it was never concentrated enough in the air to be flamable and then i noticed a drop in performance and stripped it down to check it out and found that someone had kicked my condensor :@ wasnt impressed, still i managed to fix it by dremeling some fins away around the leak and rebraseing where it was leaking from.

[FOO]

well she'll be @work all day tommorow...i mite drag it outside and give it a go

[bh2k]

I would not recommend propane...very dangerous.

[afireinside]

I know propane is flamable and stuff but the amount used is so small... If I were to accidentally ignite a leak with my torch (hypatheticly of course :p: ) in my back yard could it kill me?

[chilly1]

Actually propane is a safe refrigerant if there are no leake I ask about th ereciever because on a capillary tube system there can be no reciever this will make the system have too much subcolling and will affect temperatures. A Recieve will also mean that there will be a lot of refrigerant in it. If you have a small condenser and captube system there should be less than 6 of 7 Ounces of propane in the system. Any leak big enough to ignite will have to be so big that in a matter of a minute or two the system would be empty any leaks less than this would be unlikley to even reach ignition concentrations.

[chilly1]

Originally posted by afireinside
I know propane is flamable and stuff but the amount used is so small... If I were to accidentally ignite a leak with my torch (hypatheticly of course :p: ) in my back yard could it kill me?
If you have oxygen in the refrigeration circuit with propane and the compressor shorted that would kill or maim you. It is flammiable and there is a number of dangers working with refrigerants and compressors, the pressures are high in all refrigeration systems if the line were to fail suddenly and a piece of metal from the rupture hit you in the wromg spot it would very likley kill you.

[Gary Lloyd]

That's a lot of ifs. The most likely scenario in an open space would be a flame, not an explosion. And a small flame at that. But then, anything is possible.

Hold open the valve on your butane lighter for awhile, and then ignite it. Not much action, right? If you did this in a small box, with just the right fuel/air mixture, you could indeed have an explosion. Are butane lighters dangerous? Yes and no.

[FOO]

what i have is a reworked window ac unit rotary compressor. its very similar to the unit Gary used on his chiller. if im not mistaken theres a dryer on the side of the compressors low side and i installed a few filter on the high side. so no reciever that i know of. will the temps be similar to r22?

[Gary Lloyd]

That gadget beside the compressor on the suction line is an accumulator.

Being a cap tube system to begin with, it has no receiver.

The condenser is oversized, so that adds to the amount of refrigerant in the system. If the original cap tube is being used, this also adds to the refrigerant charge.

The amount of refrigerant in there should be less than what is on the A/C nameplate, however.

[FOO]

im going to charge it with propane after a triple vacum. Gary, this is a dual evap system cpu Cap is 6' gpu Cap is 10' .026. do i need to adjust them for propane or leave them alone?

[Gary Lloyd]

No, they sound about right.

[FOO]

great thanks, ill let ya know how it goes...

[kayl]

so hows the system going, im interested as i am making a propane direct die and im planning on using 6' too
whats your heat load?

[Marci]

6" or 6'... one is inches, the other is feet... and a massice difference between the two!!

[kayl]

sorry wrong prefexs foot is what i meant

[Redwolf]

I love to take a styrofoam cup, fill it with Liquid Propane, and light it off. Get to watch the cup slowly melt as the gas is evaporating/burning off.

[FOO]

Originally posted by kayl
so hows the system going, im interested as i am making a propane direct die and im planning on using 6" too
whats your heat load?


i bought a jug of r22 and charged it up, my ghetto compunurse bottoms out @-50c ( both read "LLL") so before i can tune it ill have to pick up a multi-meter. other than fine tuning its ready to go