Filling the air conditioner with your own hands

For the first time the name Freon came into our life almost 90 years ago, when the American chemist Thomas Midzhli Jr. received a patent for his invention. Virtually all climate products today work on freon of a different brand, and technology is a substance called freon. The quality of work of any split system depends on this very important component: if it is not enough in the system, then freezing of parts and connections begins. Given that the price of the compressor is about 60% of the total cost of the entire installation, namely, freon maintains its performance at the proper level, then users need to refuel the air conditioner in time. How to self-fill the air conditioner - we will tell in our article.

Freon volume

On the question of how much freon in the air conditioner, there are two answers.

1. The system has been installed for a long time, and the user is interested in the amount of freon in the air conditioner, and whether the amount of refrigerant is enough for the product to work properly. It is practically impossible to check the exact amount of freon in the split-system with the help of specialists or independently, but it is possible to find out the pressure of freon in the air conditioner, all the operating parameters to find out whether it is necessary to refuel using special equipment and service technicians.
2. Split system is installed with an extended gasket communications, or it is necessary to completely refill it. How much refrigerant is needed for normal operation in this case? To independently calculate the amount of gas that should be in the air conditioner, you need specific information - you can find it in the table.

Nameplates (plates) are on the remote and the internal unit, it contains the brand of freon, its quantity in kg and working pressure.

The standard amount of refrigerant depends on the conditional capacity of the product: the "seven" has up to 750 grams, and in the most powerful split-system up to 1.7 kg. If your route is longer than recommended by the manufacturer, then for every extra meter you need to add from 15 to 30 grams of freon.Each brand of product, for example: LG or Toshiba, has its own personal restrictions on the height between the blocks and the length of the route. Exceeding them is unacceptable, because it affects the performance of the entire system.

Causes leakage

In order for the product to function normally, the amount of freon in the air conditioner must be sufficient for constant circulation. Unfortunately, a leak during operation still occurs, and such reasons may be to blame.

1. Design imperfection - copper tubes through which freon circulates are flared on the spot during installation, so minor losses occur during operation. In due course it is required to fill the conditioner with freon.
2. During the transportation a previously installed freon in an air conditioner may slightly decrease in volume, the same nuances may occur during removal and re-installation. Therefore, you need to download freon into the air conditioner at the new installation site.

When the product is regularly serviced, timely cleaning, the excessive evaporation of the refrigerant does not occur, the only negative thing remains - its leakage through the connections.

Many users are confident that refueling the air conditioner with their own hands is impossible, but such highly dubious rumors are supported by service technicians in order not to lose their earnings. Yes, we need specific equipment, but this is not a problem in our progressive age.

Refueling options

Statistics say that any climate-class product loses 8% of the initial charge during the year during operation, therefore, the split system should be freon once every 2 years. And you will do it yourself or invite a specialist - this is a separate question. The air conditioner needs to be charged, and if it gives the temperature a little less than what you set on the display, the pressure must be constant inside the system and the amount of refrigerant plays a major role.

Very important! Lack of refrigerant volume does not ensure the normal operation of the device, and excess pressure is a sure cause of unexpected compressor failure.

There are two main methods of refueling the air conditioner with freon.

1. According to the degree of pressure. To determine the amount of volatile gas for refueling, you need to know the optimal pressure,specified in the instruction manual, compare it with the pressure in the air conditioning system, which shows the connected collector. As a rule, this method of filling the air conditioner by pressure, is carried out in case of freon leakage due to long-term operation.
2. By mass. The method is applied when completely replacing the refrigerant — first it is pumped out of the system, and then, using electronic scales, knowing the weight of the gas pumped into the cylinder, the split system is charged with freon.

There is a technique with the help of measuring glass, but it is used very rarely to fill the air conditioner only after the repair. When air bubbles are detected in a special viewing window, freon is not pumped until they disappear from the system.

Training

To fill the air conditioner with freon yourself, you will need special devices and tools that can be rented at the service center, the costs will be much lower than you would call for similar work of specialists.

Preparation for charging the air conditioner with a coolant should be started with a visual inspection of the tubes connecting the remote module with the evaporator and checking the tightness of the entire circulation system. Checking the connection, pumped inside nitrogen gas, after suction, the leakage is checked by a manometer: if the pressure does not drop, the tightness is normal, and the leakage was not due to its damage.

Now you can go to vacuuming a refillable deviceFor this purpose, a vacuum class pump and a manifold are used. The unit is connected through a collector - it is turned on, and the minimum pressure is determined by a pressure gauge. When it is reached, the device is turned off, the crane is shut off - the preparatory process has been successfully completed.

Attention! At the end of the above works, you can not turn off the collector.

What freon to use

Before we tell you in detail how to fill the air conditioner at home, we will answer many readers who often ask a sacred question: what conditioners do they fill in and where to get the necessary gas cylinders. Freon brand R410A does not incorporate chlorine, so it does not affect the atmosphere negatively - it quickly gained popularity among users. His fellow petrol marks R-407c consists of three components with the same letters in the title:

• 32 - is responsible for excellent performance;
• 125 - fire safety at work;
• 134a - stabilization of the pressure of the working circuit.

When a leak occurs, its components volatilize unevenly, so you cannot refill so as not to disturb the concentration - drain all refrigerant and refill a new one. You can buy cylinders of freon of any kind in specialized warehouses, addresses by region can be found on the Internet.

Few users decide to self-fill the air conditioning system with a refrigerant, because this requires complex devices: digital scales and a thermometer, a gauge manifold, a set of hex keys and the ability to use all of this.

It is better to use a four-position collector - it is convenient to connect all the necessary hoses, the tightness of the system is maintained completely, there is no contact of the internal air conditioning system with the outside air.

Refueling algorithm

We give a detailed step-by-step guide to the refueling of the product. We are talking about charging any climatic product using the overheating index method: there is a difference between the temperature of superheated steam and its analogue, which means boiling of the refrigerant. The first of the indicators controls the electronic thermometer, which is sufficient to attach to the gas tube of the product, the second - according to the readings of the manometer, which measures low pressure. The difference in temperature is within 5-8 degrees, if it is even a little higher, then the product has not been refueled for a long time - you need to refuel.

1. Open the locks that are on air conditioning fittingsto remove all the refrigerant. When the pressure drops to the minimum - the locks to close.
2. We put the container with freon on the scales, set the value “0” on their display.
3. To release the air inside the hoses, briefly open the valve on the manifold.
4. Now open gas valve - the filling process is started, the pressure in the product system gradually rises, and the temperature in the pipeline will decrease.
5. When the difference between them is no more than 8⁰C - close the valve on the manifold, and then shut off the refrigerant from the cylinder.
6. The weight of liquefied gas spent on filling the air conditioner, we learn on the scoreboard weights.

We include a refilled split system to check all the functionality.If in the process of work there is no frost on the taps of the outdoor unit, then you correctly calculated the amount of refrigerant - the product is charged without violating the recommended technology.

For confident work on refueling or refueling users useful video: