Re: A/C Recharge

[Mark Shaw <autox@inficad.com>]

CAPTIANBR@aol.com wrote:

> I know a lot of listers were talking about heat but it is hot down
> here in
> Florida, and today I tried to use my A/C to defog my windows cause it
> was
> raining and hot.  Anyway, when I put the A/C on I got no cold air. I
> don't
> think the A/C was ever recharged in its 12 years of life. The last
> time I used
> it was around October and it was fine.  Am I going to have a hard time
> getting
> this recharged?  How hard is it to find the old freon?  The way they
> do it
> down here is they make you check for leaks.  Of coarse they will find
> one and
> make you pay all this money to fix the leak.  Has any one switched
> over to the
> new freon. Is it worth it or should I just hunt around for someone to
> recharge
> it without any hassles.  Thanks for any and all input in advance:P

It is required to check for leaks now.  If you have lost freon they
must make sure that the recharge will not simply leak out again.

You mentioned that the A/C worked fine last October.  If you had
not charged it for many years, you would have seen a reduction
in cooling efficiency over time (all A/C systems leak somewhere,
to some degree).  Your first clue of low freon is that the A/C
takes longer to get cold, or does not cool as well in the fresh air
mode.
If the cooling went away suddenly you most liekly have a bad seal
somewhere.

Does the compressor clutch engage when you turn on the A/C?
If not, a low pressure switch may be signalling low freon.  Since
you have an 86 I assume you have the "rotary" Sankyo type
compressor.  The earlier York compressors could develop leaks
at the hose ports.

In any case do not panic about freon yet (R-12).  There are still
supplies around, though some shops will tell you horror stories
about getting it.  I would suspect any shop that wants to retrofit
you system on the premise that you cannot get R-12 anymore.
The over the counter price should be around $8-10 per pound
and the max charge is less than 3 pounds!

Check for leaks, but watch one game where they claim they
have to charge your system to check it and then reclaim the
freon out to fix the leak and then recharge again!  This is
the easy (and higher revenue) method where they use a
halide "sniffer" to find the leaks.  But I have found a good
vacuum test can do the same thing.

I don't know how you find a good, honest A/C shop
without asking around and just experimenting.  I have
run into a few duds here in Arizona, but I have the
equipment to do my own diagnosis before going in,
so I know when they are giving me the run-around :-)

As for the retrofits giving poor cooling, the usual
problem is a marginal A/C to start with.  The usual
change out includes seals, the oil, and possibly the
hoses (need later style vapor-guard).  If they want to
change out the compressor/condensor/evaporator
run like hell!  The one thing that I have found that
makes the biggest difference (even with R-12 systems)
is to have a good expansion valve.  This can also cause
a retrofit to not work well.  Some R-12 expansion valves
do not work well with the retrofit HC134a.  Once the
system is opened to replace seals, the cost of the right
expansion vlave should be less than $30.

regards,

Mark


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