Quick questions on charging, recovery tanks, and liquid refrigerant.

[afireinside]

How come no one has writen a detailed guide on charging? I see a bunch of noob system guides walking you through the proceses of building your first phasechange setup but there not much on the whole vacumme and charge process... Is it alot easier than I think it is or is everyone lazy

I've talked to Chilly1 a few times about recovery tanks and if there so important how come I NEVER hear anyone talking about them? Is there some trick to not needing one or something?

And liquid refriderant:
The propane torch canister I have. Is it a gas or liquid inside? When you empty the system of refridgerant do both kinds come out? Would liquid propane like kill me if I touched it?

[Jonesy]

I'm pretty much a noob at this but I don't think most people talk about recovery tanks because most people don't use them. When you're using a cheap gas like R-22, the only reason to bother recovering it is for the environmental regulations. Maybe it's more economically viable with an expensive refrigerant.

And as for liquid refrigerant coming out, I don't think you'll see that. (At least I haven't) It pretty much flashes to gas instantly, even when it comes out of the high side. If you see any liquid, it's probably just some oil.

I'm not the biggest expert at this, though, I've done some pretty boneheaded things with my phase-change and it still doesn't work all that great.

I think the only harm that would come to you from venting this stuff is frostbite. The refridgerant coming out of the line is cold. I don't think anyone would bother recovering propane.

[afireinside]

Ok thanks
So everyone here breaks the law eh?

[megahurtz-oc]

the reason you should use a recovery tank is freon kills the ozone.

[tennvols_69]

yea i agree a detailed guide on recovery would be real nice as thats the part i dont understand as much

[Gleep]

In the US recovery and the laws that require it are part of the EPA tests which you need to buy anything but R134a. Release of any refrigeration gas is against the law. Read this to learn more about it.

[afireinside]

I know that
You can get R290 to...

[chilly1]

Thanks for the suggestion...
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...threadid=35690

[kayl]

i think that propane/R290 is a good choice for biginners as it is safe to release into the atmosphere and you dont require a licinece. as long as you do it in a wide open space its safe.
only time gas in room is when im evacuating, just turn the fans on

with the blow tourch and the bottle fitting i found that i always got leaks with connections, and that i had beads of propane coming out, (use gloves)

the gass bottle i got for $35 fron a camping store and a bottle to burner connection, one end connects to the bottle the other connects to the appliance (cut this end off) and put a valve in there and connect you gaguages to it and charge.
before charging i pull a vacuum over night, with a fan blowing on the compressor.
best of all it cost me $8 2kg when i would be paying $88 fir R22

[afireinside]

Thanks chilly

That looks like a smaller propane tank you use on a propane grill. Is it the same thing?

[kayl]

whats a propane grill

we use it on a camping oven stove, or for a gas lighten

[afireinside]

Its what you barbeque meats on

[Pandrone]

i wouldn't choose R290 as the first refrigerant i use.. It's flammable... Even if you vacuum properly and don't smoke when you charge your system etc. An incident can happen... I use R290 myself now(don't have any license to buy anything else). I think R134a would be better for an first attempt building a phase-change .

I can imagine an accident where the system isn't vacuumed properly and something makes a spark in the compressor. This bottle would make a nice hole in the ground i think. These bottles have any safetydevices(like the bottle in the pic below)?

[afireinside]

I dont smoke :p

I'm gona be charging from torch bottles which are like 14oz and in the middle of my backyard so even if something bad DID happen I doubt it would be enough to kill me when I'm a like 4 feet away

[hatemi]

I think you should triple evac and flush the system with nitrogen between every evac when using R290.