All air conditioners work due to the evaporation and condensation of the refrigerant in its closed circuit. Freon gas acts as a refrigerant, which can be of several types: modern ozone-safe R410A, chlorine-containing R22, R407c and R600a, which are quite harmful to the environment, used mainly in mobile monoblocks and industrial refrigeration systems.
Many malfunctions in the operation of climatic technology are associated with the leakage of working gas through the connecting copper pipe between the blocks of the split system or through cracks in the modules themselves. To eliminate the problem of lack of refrigerant, you need to fill the air conditioner with freon partially or completely, and the methods of how to do this yourself will be discussed further.
Signs of a freon leak
First of all, the technician should know what are the signs of a refrigerant leak. In the operation of the air conditioner, the following features may alert:
- no cold air blowing;
- emergency shutdown, sometimes going into error code mode;
- freezing of the heat exchanger of the indoor unit;
- freezing of the liquid port (multi-split systems may have several of them);
- "Uneven" compressor operation;
- excessive vibration of the outdoor unit.
All these signs may indicate a lack of working gas and require a call from the service technician.
If someone is interested in refueling a household air conditioner with their own hands, then you need to remember about the risks of permanently spoiling the equipment. Implementing this is problematic from the point of view of the availability of working tools. Moreover, each type of refrigerant has its own characteristics, in connection with which not all charging methods are suitable in one case or another.
How to identify a refrigerant leak
Before you start refueling, you need to check the device for gas leaks. This is done as follows:
- a pressure gauge is connected to the ports of the outdoor unit;
- a nitrogen cylinder is connected to it through a high pressure reducer;
- pump in 30 atm;
- check with a special foam liquid for leaks at the connections of both blocks;
- if there are solder connections on the track, then they are also tested.
Next, you move on to the main process, which can be performed using one of the following methods.
Methods for refueling the air conditioner with freon
There are several basic methods for refueling refrigeration systems with freon, applied to home air conditioners (split), multi-split, mobile and multi-zone systems.
Refueling the air conditioner with your own hands will require the following set:
- pressure gauge;
- Vacuum pump;
- freon cylinder;
- construction scales;
- locksmith tools - Swedish wrench, hexagons, screwdriver.
Instead of a pressure gauge and a vacuum pump, you can purchase a pressure gauge station.
Refueling by scales
If you need to fill a completely empty air conditioner 22 or 410 with gas, the process is as follows.
Evacuation. Screw the pressure gauge onto the shredders and open the tap on it. The vacuum pump is turned on and kept for 10 minutes. Close the tap on the pressure gauge and turn off the pump.
Freon cylinder connection. The container with the gas is turned upside down and placed on the scales, the indicators of which are previously reset to zero values. Open the tap on the pressure gauge and pour in the required amount of refrigerant by weight.
The rate for each air conditioner and the type of gas poured into the compressor are indicated in the technical documentation and on the nameplate.
The valve is closed and the pressure gauge is disconnected, after which the caps on the ports are screwed on. Turn on the air conditioner and check its functionality.
This method is considered the most correct, but it is complicated by the need to have an expensive scale for weighing freon.
If you need to fill the 410 air conditioner with freon yourself, then first its remains are completely vented into the gauge station for collection, and then the gas is poured in according to the scales. This is due to the fact that this type of freon consists of a mixture of various gases with varying degrees of volatility. When one of the components leaks in a larger volume, the composition changes, and, consequently, the necessary properties of the refrigerant are lost.
If you need to fill the air conditioner with R22 freon, then they resort to such a method as to fill the air conditioner by pressure.
Refueling by pressure
First you need to connect a pressure gauge to the gas port of the refrigerated air conditioner. The working pressure of the device should be 3-3.5 atm. If it is below these marks, then refueling is required. To do this, connect a cylinder with freon and start filling it into the system in small portions by opening the taps on the pressure gauge for 5-10 seconds.
In order not to burn your hands with gas, it is more convenient to use quick-release couplings.
This method is convenient precisely when you need to refill the air conditioner with your own hands with a small portion of R22 refrigerant. In all other cases, the simplest and most optimal method is filling with weights, that is, by weight.
Overheating and hypothermia refueling
A fairly accurate method is to refuel the air conditioner by overheating or hypothermia. The whole point is to focus on the temperature difference.
In the case of subcooling, it means the ratio of the temperature indicators of liquid and condensation at the same pressure. The condensation temperature can be determined as follows: its pressure is measured with a manometer, and then the data is correlated with the values of the scale of the manometric manifold, depending on the refrigerant. To determine overheating, the temperature values of the gas are compared in the normal state and during its boiling under conditions of the same pressure.
Leakage of refrigerant and the need to refill it is indicated by overheating above and subcooling below normal.
These methods are not suitable for refueling home air conditioners, i.e. wall split systems. But they are very convenient for semi-industrial installations, since their external unit has the required fittings. In addition to the instruments, you will need an infrared thermometer.
The layman is unlikely to be able to fill the air conditioner with his own hand using these two methods, as they require a sufficient knowledge base in the field of air conditioning systems. Although the ease and accessibility of the previous techniques for a common man in the street is also a controversial issue.
Refueling the air conditioner by current
Many craftsmen do not use this method, but its use is fully justified in cases where it is not possible to use scales for weighing freon. So how to fill the air conditioner yourself with current?
To determine the operating current of the compressor, you will need special clamp meters, which are superimposed on the phase of the power wire of the operating external unit. If the obtained values are lower than those indicated in the manual or on the nameplate, and the pipe is frozen over, then refuel with freon until the indicators equalize.
All other stages completely coincide with the stages of filling the air conditioner with freon by weight, which can be viewed in the video at the end of the article.
This method is also applicable in the case of eliminating the consequences of a leak from semi-industrial equipment.
If the length of the freon line of the air conditioner exceeds the length of the line without refueling specified by the manufacturer, but does not exceed the maximum allowable value, then you need to refuel the device at the rate of 30g (up to 3.5 kW) of gas per meter.
The cost of refueling the air conditioner with freon
There is no dependence of the price for refueling the air conditioner on the method used. The amount is calculated relative to the power of the device.
But how much does freon refueling cost on average? A device with a cooling capacity of 2.5 kW will require about 3,500 rubles to replenish the refrigerant in its entire volume. For each subsequent standard size, 500-700 rubles are added. Thus, the price of refueling the DAIKIN split system with a power of 10 kW with freon will cost its owner 7000-8000 rubles.
For a full understanding of the process, you can watch a video that shows how to fill the air conditioner with freon using a gauge station and scales:
