Capturing and reusing freon-2005 Safari

[treenail]

Last fall I replaced the front hose assembly. I bought a vacuum pump and set of giages too. After testing for leaks...none...and recharging I had great front AC

Then I flipped the switch for the rear. That's when I found that the rear valve was defective. grrrr!

Is there a way to evacuate the fluid, contain it and then put it back in?

On the surface if I were working on an open hydraulic system I could do this. Since AC is a closed system under pressure I have assumed there might be some differences

Thanks

Tom

[timothy47130]

To properly recover the refigerant you have to have a recovery unit and a recovery cylinder. They are not cheap. You can recover about 80% of the refigerant by using the vans compressor to pump it into a recovery cylinder. Hookup your gauge set and open the high side while its running and let it pump it into the recovery cylinder. You just don't want to run to compressor too long once it gets about empty. Your cheapest option is to look around and find the cans of refigerant on sale cheap and just recharge it from empty. I make my living as a certified hvac tech so of course I'm not going to advise you to just blow the charge. It has to be properly recovered per the epa's guild lines. But however , You can't help it If there was a leak in the system and you lost the charge. By the way you would have to buy a proper recovery tank. You cannot reuse an old 30lb cylinder. They have a check ball in them to prevent refilling. Plus it's against the law and very dangerous to refill a non refillable cylinder, Even for use as an air tank.
Good luck,
Tim

[treenail]

Hi Tim

Thanks for your clear explanation of the limits of my idea

Now it's time to call a local shop to price out the simple evacuation

Tom

[Mmusicman]

You cannot reuse an old 30lb cylinder. They have a check ball in them to prevent refilling.

Well that explains why it didn't work!