Starting up your AC

[Trojan]

I was chatting with My AC mechanic friend and asked if there is anything I should do to my AC unit when I go to start it after setting so I don't mess it up. He said that anytime you start up an AC after sitting for a long time. You should heat the unit up good and warm for about an hour or more. Until the oil gets good and warm. He states that when an AC unit sets. The freon is absorbed into the oil and will not cool and could ruin the unit if it was circulated. Heating the oil releases the freon to a gas. Just a thought to the guys that are out of the water all winter. Bill

[PascalG]

obviously not a problem fhor me but how do you warm the oil? i guess you just need to run the engines for a while... things get toasty in the ERs...

pascal
70 53 my

[Banshee36]

AS a former ac mechainc, I think the guy is not quite right. He sounds like he is trying to sell you a compreesor heater. All the house hold units have them, but it prevents Oil migration, because the line sets have such a long run. But my Matrine unit is a heat pump and has a suction acculumulater that catches the oil and liquid and flashes it off before any damage can be done. The compressors on compress gas, not liquid. Mine has worked for 6 years without heating, it has other issues, like the service valves that leak out, no other ones.
JW

[captbuddy]

A couple of weeks back I turned my V-Berth unit on and turned the temp to heat. The unit froze up. Ice on the vanes. Is this just because of low freon or might there be another issue?

[Trojan]

He said you only need to do that when a unit has set for a longgggggggggggggg time. My unit has set for 2 years and it is not a heat pump. Its 30 years old. I don't know. Its 40 deg. in the boat. He is a good friend and dosn't want to sell me anything and I don't want to buy any thing. He been in business for over 40 years and it won't cost me anything but time to warm it up. Bill

[Banshee36]

If you are getting ice on the coils you have either a freon leak( low freon charge) or restricted air flow( dirty filters). If you have a cruisair have your mechanic check the service valves for leaks.
Hope this helps.
trojen, sorry for the misinterpertation of your statement. But still to heat compressor oil you would still need a compresser heater that is on all the time. I still think that once the unit is run there should be enough gas in the system to run the unit and as the system equalizes then the freon should turm to gas at the evaporator as its supposed to.
JW