| Propane refrigerant - Duracool - EnviroSafe [message #175144] |
Sat, 30 June 2012 15:04  |
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Bill Freeman
Messages: 122
Registered: March 2004
Location: Colerain, NC
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I just ordered 24 cans of EnviroSafe refrigerant from this dealer. http://autorefrigerants.com/co00033.htm
Two 12 can cases for $100 including shipping was best price I could find.
Also found an interesting forum post about using regular propane here:
http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/duracool-or-r134a/23302/page1/
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I've used ordinary cooking propane in my home split air conditioning system, and it's been working fine. It's an old R22 system, and it has a slow leak somewhere in the plumbing, enough to require a full recharge each year for a couple of hundred dollars each time. Rather than spending the $7K, or so, that it would take to fully replace the system, I decided to vacuum out the system and replace it with propane. I've been delighted with the results. The leak is outside the living space and very small, so I don't even smell the odorant that's added to the gas (the "skunk" or "rotten egg" smell), either inside or outside the house. If the air conditioner stops working, I just grab a 1-lb. disposable cylinder of Coleman stove propane or what-have-you, hook up the hose to the fill valve and dump the gas in, and it's good to go for the summer. (The biggest problem was finding an adapter that would go from a disposable cooking cylinder to air conditioning service fittings. I think I ended up fabricating my own from brass parts scrounged from camping outfitters and hardware stores.)
A couple of caveats: 1. Air conditioning systems don't like air. Air doesn't harm the system, but it's a lousy refrigerant, so you need to get it out of the system. Purge your service hoses with Duracool/propane before you hook them up to the system. 2. Air conditioning systems don't like moisture. The moisture attacks metal parts and will eventually cause the compressor valves and rings to fail. That's the main reason systems get vacuumed out for hours and hours; it's not the air so much as the water vapor that needs to be removed.
Water is heavier than propane. To improve your chances of not getting water into the system if you choose to use cooking propane, chill the bottle upside down in the freezer for an hour or two. Then, before you hook up to the air conditioning system, purge the bottle for a second while holding it upside down. If there's any condensed water in there, it will be blown out during the purge.
If you don't own a vacuum pump, and don't care too much because your car is no longer in showroom condition, you can still charge the system with cooking propane and make it work. Fill it up with the gas, then open the valve and let it leak down to nearly atmospheric pressure. You may want to run the compressor briefly to mix things up and push the propane through the system. Make sure the engine is OFF when you purge the system and do the work out in the open air, so an inadvertent spark doesn't send you to the Moon. Repeat the fill/purge process four or five times. By the time you've done it the fifth time, you'll have vented $1 of propane and gotten rid of 99.999% of the air and moisture in the system -- and a $1200 commercial vacuum pump sucking for five or six hours could hardly do better.
When you run Duracool or propane in an automotive system, stay with the recommended performance numbers for vent temperature in the vehicle cab, which is more important than the weight of refrigerant in the cooling loop. If the system gets too cold, it will ice up and stop blowing cold air. If that happens, you may need to release some Duracool to tone down the performance. Typical temperature at the vent should be no lower than 34-36 degrees Fahrenheit, just above freezing, with the windows rolled up and outside air vents closed.
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Bill Freeman
78 Royale 73 Sequoia
Colerain, North Carolina
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