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Are there negative effects to draining a vehicle's refrigerant and not recharging it?
AC system
- Thread starter Carburetor1
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Is the system leaking.
Best practice is to evacuate the system and then put a slight charge of nitrogen
Negative effects would depend on the system and how much oil is left in the compressor. In other words, if someone engages the AC Compressor accidentally, you most certainly could cause damage. If you do not recharge the system, the air conditioning compressor fuse should be removed.
Also, the seals in the system will most likely dry up overtime and lead to a leak. It would be best to leave the system charged with refrigerant and exercise the system every so often to prevent O-ring damage and compressor seal damage instead of emptying the system.
Best practice is to evacuate the system and then put a slight charge of nitrogen
Negative effects would depend on the system and how much oil is left in the compressor. In other words, if someone engages the AC Compressor accidentally, you most certainly could cause damage. If you do not recharge the system, the air conditioning compressor fuse should be removed.
Also, the seals in the system will most likely dry up overtime and lead to a leak. It would be best to leave the system charged with refrigerant and exercise the system every so often to prevent O-ring damage and compressor seal damage instead of emptying the system.
The defroster will be less effective.
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System does not leak and the fuse and relay are pulled. Just did it this past winter and plan on recharging in the spring after pulley change and orifice tube
Why is there a problem with just leaving it as-is until spring?
Kestas
Staff member
Moisture is bad for the system.
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Can you recharge a system in cold weather
yes.
use ambient tables or just use weight (I use weight). Label should be under the hood.
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Vacuum pump
Yes but if you’re working in the cold the suction pressure is going to be low and the compressor will cycle short, making it more difficult to get the required amount of refrigerant in the system.
The seals require oil to work. Since the oil is in the refrigerant there won't be any oil for the seals and they will dry out.
The oil is still there unless you blew it all out by emptying the refrigerant too quickly. When you do an evacuate and refill you don’t add additional oil into the system. Components yes but not just for refrigerant.
Trust me when I say that without refrigerant to contain and move the oil that the seals will dry out and need to be replaced.
I do trust you there but that’s not what you said earlier. The oil is still distributed throughout the system and O-rings are not going to “dry out”.
Kestas
Staff member
During operation oil is carried by the refrigerant in a slushy way. Unless there is a lot of oil at the leak point, most of the oil is still in the system. You can add a bit to top it off.
Otherwise, you would have to disconnect the system, flush out the lines with lacquer thinner, and drain the compressor in order to refill the system with the proper amount of oil.
Otherwise, you would have to disconnect the system, flush out the lines with lacquer thinner, and drain the compressor in order to refill the system with the proper amount of oil.
Weighing in the charge the whole charge can be installed without running the compressor. After evacuation valve off the pump, hook cylinder up,purge gage hose. Cylinder on scale open to liquid, open liquid manifold valve add heat with a hair dryer or heat gun ( cylinder just needs to be warm refrigerant pressure just has to be over static pressure) till charge is in. Close manifold remove heat ,valve off.
Where did you come up with lacquer tinner and slushy oil? Compressors use PAG (polyalkylene glycol) oil. They make a special flush for ac systematics and autozone carries it and from their loan a tool a canister style pressure vessal to flush the lines with it.
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