Charging the air conditioning units

[flydixie1415]

Would anyone have a way to charge the compressor units. I have the Freon and the gauges but the instructions I have are questionable.

 

[KPTIM]

If your units are original Cruisair's,

Send me a PM with your email address and I will send you a .pdf copy of the Cruisair factory instructions.

It is the instructions to charge with the original R22 and has the charging charts if you want/need to switch an alternate suitable/approved gas.

You will need to know the sea water temperature and the cabin air temperature as well as the high and low pressures.

This site site will not let me attach a file that large.

 

[cww]

There's two ways to do these old R22 units, the fancy correct way of doing it by weight or pressure, and the easy way that takes 5 minutes and works fine. Hook up your manifold set and charge until the bottom of the compressor is cool to the touch and the top of the compressor is warm but not too hot that it burns your hand. Then you're done. Of course if you're charging because there's a leak, whichever method you use isn't going to fix the problem. The refrigerant side of the system is a sealed loop, if it's low you need to find out where it went.

 

[zigzag930]

In case you didn't know.. you will need valve wrenches to open the low and high pressure charging ports on the compressor. Turn the nuts clockwise to open them and counter-clockwise to seat them (closed) This is done after your gauges are attached, not before

 

[cww]

Oh, also if you do have a leak there's about a 100% chance it's in one of the schrader valves at the fill ports, those things always seem to leak. You can sort of work around it by replacing the rubber o rings in the caps that go over them and then making them extra tight, but if it's already low then now's the time to find the leak. The second most likely culprit is a hairline crack at one of the braze joints going into the compressor or air handler.

I got a refrigerant sniffer from Harbor Freight for $60, no doubt it's straight off the boat from China but it works pretty well. https://www.harborfreight.com/electronic-freon-and-halogen-leak-detector-92514.html

That $60 has already saved me a bunch of assache over the years.

 

[Bob Quinn]

This will be a project I need to tackle as well, I have 2 out of 4 units working... sort of.
Are the gauges they sell today the same as R22 gauges? I went to look up gauges at the "Harbor of Fright" and they say R134A - So I am assuming they are not the same?

 

[Captain Ralph]

This will be a project I need to tackle as well, I have 2 out of 4 units working... sort of.
Are the gauges they sell today the same as R22 gauges? I went to look up gauges at the "Harbor of Fright" and they say R134A - So I am assuming they are not the same?

They may be usable. I am discovering the cheap ChiCom hoses do not make great connects with R12/22 valve connections. Barley make a good connect to their R134 auto adapter.

Good R22 gauges with correct hose connects are on e-bay. Shop for the real Yellow Jacket brand kits with longer hoses..

 

[cww]

They may be usable. I am discovering the cheap ChiCom hoses do not make great connects with R12/22 valve connections. Barley make a good connect to their R134 auto adapter.Good R22 gauges with correct hose connects are on e-bay. Shop for the real Yellow Jacket brand kits with longer hoses..

+1 on the yellow jackets. I had a cheap Chinese hose blow up in my face and lost about $600 worth of dupont r12 by the time I managed to react to it.

 

[Briankinley2004]

In case you didn't know.. you will need valve wrenches to open the low and high pressure charging ports on the compressor. Turn the nuts clockwise to open them and counter-clockwise to seat them (closed) This is done after your gauges are attached, not before

Mine are backseating type valves. They are actually fully open in normal operation but the pressure will not be read at the gauge port due to the backseating feature. Cracking them clockwise will unseal the gauge port so the gauges can read the pressure and refrigerant can be added. You only need to close them slightly and if you fully turn clockwise(closed) you will cut off the refrigerant flow. If you have schrader valve cores in the gauge port I would think you most likely don't have backseating valves

 

[flydixie1415]

If your units are original Cruisair's,

Send me a PM with your email address and I will send you a .pdf copy of the Cruisair factory instructions.

It is the instructions to charge with the original R22 and has the charging charts if you want/need to switch an alternate suitable/approved gas.

You will need to know the sea water temperature and the cabin air temperature as well as the high and low pressures.

This site site will not let me attach a file that large.

My email address is dborcky@icloud.com

 

[pmurphy]

I would love to have a copy of the instructions as well. pmmurphy1@gmail.com
Thanks,
Pat