View Full Version : How-to piercing valve...
Hello, I want to release some gas out of my a/c cooler using a piercing valve but I dont know how you seal the hole back up. Can anyone explain how this works and the procedure? Thanks!
basically you slide the piercing valve over the copper pipe to pierce (high side if taking out)
theres a connection for the hose attach it to gauges
in the middle of the piercing tool there is a screw
tighten this up ( it goes into the pipe making a hole) all the way in,
when you unscrew it the refrigerant flows out, when you want to stop the flow just do the screw up again it seals the hole.
there should be all the instructions in the box that it came in, have fun.
gouda96
06-08-2004, 08:47 AM
What is the correct process for releasing the gas on an ac unit?
Have it running at the lowest temp with max load, then shut down for a few minutes to equalize pressure, then release, then turn on, wait 15 min. for temp difference, and repeat until temp does not decrease?
Do you only need to wait for the pressure to equalize if you are talkinga bout low side? Where exactly is the high side? I was told (by someone that probably didn't know too much) that you should release from the low side, because the pressure in the high side might force the valve open, and that you had to allow the pressures to equalize before opening the valve on the low side, or it would suck air in...that's wrong then?
can someone post a link to buy 1 of these things? Thanks!
blinky
06-08-2004, 10:25 PM
i have a question about using the piercing valve.
say i wanted to drain all the refrigerant out of a system, then make some mods, then recharge it.. i would need what?
a piercing valve?
a recovery tank?
guages/valves?
a vacuum pump?
i know i need the first one, what about the others
the best way to do it is to have a piercing valve on both the high and the low
first pull a vacumuum on the recovery tank and put it on ice with some salt, make sure the tank your using is big enough, 800g requires 1kg bottle (80% of size)
with the compressor running open the high side and the compressor pushes gas into the bottle and the ice condenses it to a liquid in the bottle, do it slowly so that the gas has a chance to condense into a liquid other wise there will be too much pressure, when i did it with a barbque bottle the plastic valve cracked and i lost some of what i had collected cause i did it too fast and use gloves cause frost bite takes a few weeks to heal
if you take too much out, close the high side and open the low side and it will suck gas back into the system.
im not sure if the piercing valve may leak over time, not sure as i havnt used one over a long period of time.
but the ideal way i guess would be to recover all the gass, put shaeder valves in on both sides and lengthen the cap tube or change it and then recharge the system.
yes old AC are loud but i like them cause their cheap and good to learn on.
here is me using a small compressor to suck all the r22 out of the aircnoditioner into the recovery tank. i pulled a vacuum on the tank then connected everything and vacuumed the gauges as well. i monitored it through the gauges to watch the pressure so i could stop if it ever got too high and so i know when its getting empty, i managed to pull a vacuum on the aircondioner so i didnt waste any r22, now i can reuse it another day and i have a new 8,600btu compressor as my new vacuum pump
kayl has attached this image:
wow, this sounds like quite an ordeal......
gouda96
06-13-2004, 06:41 PM
Could someone just post the proper procedure to releasing some refrigerant?
Originally posted by gouda96
Could someone just post the proper procedure to releasing some refrigerant?
take it to a refrig tech pay lost of money and have him do it.
then pay him to charge it for ya
whats wrong with what i did?
when its running, high side pushes gas out, and low side sucks gas in, cant be more easy, unless im missing something
get it to clodest temp bofore doing this, release a little at a time, waiting 15mins or so each time, must be under load.
when the temperature starts to drop you have let too much out.
then you might want to do some cap tube pinching to tweak a little more.
gouda96
06-13-2004, 08:09 PM
That sounds pretty simple, and well laid out, but I don't want to change the refrigerant...just yet, I just wanna tune the charge a bit by releasing a little of the charge.
i need to bottle this r22, change the evap and then refill the system, (i have a 1/12hp compressor i can use for a vaccume pump) where can i find an easy guide on how to do all of this?
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=34034
the compressor will pull a vacuum, but not a good enough vacuum to remove all moisture from a system, but its a start.
i used this size compressor to vacuum my systems before.