How To Add R410a Refrigerant to a Mini Split that Has a Low Charge

The steps to add R410a refrigerant into a mini split that has lost its charge.
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[BeepBeepsMom]

Im the old school fix it rather than the throw it away mentality. I appreciate your to the point, no stupid music or unnecessary commentary approach.
Thank you for accurate information
You’re far few between these days.

[potentialhvac]

Nice video. Consider purging your hoses. After opening 410 bottle, crack hose at gauges, and open side your charging wirh and crack that hose as well, to eliminate getting air into system. Sometimes I still forget and maby not a big deal but is best practice

[TokyoCraftsman]

This video saved my bacon.
We had a mini-split multi-head unit installed less than four years ago, and the unit just started to throw error messages. The error message was the refrigerant was low. The machine would not turn on.
I figured out the override switch and ran the compressor, then hooked up my gauges as you show, and put my bottle on my scale. I added about 100g at a time, let it run for 5 min, and checked the temperature of the three indoor head units.
The unit is under the max tube length, of 50m, so I know it was supposed to have 2.4kg or 2400g of R410a in it. I added 100g at a time. When I got up to about 300g the head unit nearest the compressor started to blow some cool air, and the temp inside the head unit went from 32°C to 27°C.
I was on the right track.
I kept adding 100g at a time until I had all three head units inside temps at 19°C which is what my other aircon's inside head units were at when set at max cooling of 22°C.
In total, I added about 900g of R410a refrigerant.
I know there is a leak somewhere, and I'll have to fix it, but I'm really busy with work right now, and would just like to get through the summer. Off-season I'll pick up a better deal on a used recovery machine and bottle then ill fix it correctly. I have two other aircons that I have to do this with, so getting a recovery machine and bottle is undoubtedly going to happen.
This video really helped me out, if even just a short-term fix.
Thanks from Tokyo

[scottkiddx]

This is a good video. Got my ac down 6-7 degrees to 43.3 F :) Like others say, purge hoses, when opening, closing. Just imagine there is dirty air in your lines, to gauges, to tank, to mini-split port. Positive pressure on mini-split, positive pressure on tank. However you need to open the lines to get the freon completely in the lines from one to the other and through the gauge. With a decent gauge set, this is a piece of cake. THANKS. Also, if anyone else reads this.. His statement "Wait 5 minutes" ..is very important. If you have a laser temp gun, reading spots inside near the fan blade, you will notice it goes slowly down. I'd even go as far as to say.. do 1 Pump.. then measure after 3, 4, 5 minutes. How low is it? (I measured my other unit on other bedroom, it was 44.3.) It took 5 minutes, but got down and lower than my other unit. Now I'm wondering how low I can go on top of this. I know my first unit was done perfect. So 44.3 was my reference. With this second unit I had rushed, and made a mistake, I ended up doing what this poster said. I vacuumed the system, used a postal scale, and upside down, put in 2.x pounds. It worked good but I noticed my other unit was just a little more Icy. This video is great, Worst case, drain, evac, fill, measure.. add a little more. can't take too long. I did this in 25 minutes.

[TheFtball]

Instead of releasing the freon, you can close the tank first. Then let the hvac system suck in the remnants from the charge hose.

[lyngleslogic]

You forgot to purge your hoses and just added non condensables into your system which is not good. You should always crack open the yellow hose on your gauges with your refrigerant tank open until refrigerant fogs out and then crack open the blue hose at the gauges so it pushes any air out of the hose.

[Exploration]

Thank you for this video. I have been searching for a long time for a simple solution and this is it!

[kenbales]

Don't forget to purge out the air trapped in the blue hose at the gauge before charging. Air is a "Non-condensable" gas and shouldn't be allowed into the system.

[jchase]

Great cheat sheet and to the point. Nice option if you don't have the patience to go through all the technical moves for exact dead on charge. You mentioned if you overcharge, it will quit operating. If you release some of the charge, will it begin to work again?

[bugbomb]

eBay no longer sells refrigerants…. Basically for that reason… but I just bought a 25 lbs jug of 404 and a 25 lbs jug of 410 for less than $600 for the pair with free shipping ..! Hell of a lot better than eBay ever could….!

[jyxumdg]

thank you so much brother - off to home depot and get that pressure gage with the hoses

[tompali]

You forgot to bleed the air out of the hoses.... you have a certificate fot this procedure but you forgot a crucial point

[sastamalanlampomaailma]

9:50 You don't need to be rushing here, nor do you need to let refrigerant out of the hoses into the atmosphere; you can empty the gauge set and hoses into the system. Of course that will increase the amount in the system by a little more, so you have to bear that in mind when estimating how much to add. Do this by closing off the liquid line valve (under the nut to the side of the valve connector) with a 4mm Allen key while it's running. The compressor will then suck the refrigerant into the system. And if you use a screw in valve depresser, you can release the Schrader valve once the line set is empty so you can undo the connectors with no pressure. Then open the valve again and the flow will return to normal.

[pernel]

Thank you very much for sharing. I have watched many Youtube videos and for R410A the tank has to be inverted. I am hoping to do a gas top up on my own.

[mikeholman]

What I did was hook up the tank to the yellow line, hooked the line to the middle valve. Then I opened the tank. And then, with nothing else hooked to the valve, I opened the high and low pressure sides and let the yellow line and the valve get purged of air. Then I hooked the blue line to the valve (still off) and hooked the other side the the low pressure valve on the unit. I loosened the blue line at the valve to express the air in the line. Then I flipped the tank over and opened it up. Started the unit, the pressure was about 50, clearly very low. I filled slowly in increments while the compressor was running until I had it at 120. The unit was blowing hot air out of the compressor and very cool air inside. I ran it extensively. Tested everything for leaks, none found. I fault myself for this fiasco because I didn't monitor the new installation properly. Maybe on the fill it's just approximate, but it's running as well as it ever did. I feel like I didn't get a pit of contamination in the unit. Leaving the pressure gauge on it all night. Makes me want to get a recovery tank and a scale. This account, of course, is fictional :). I am not properly licensed to do this work, so this is just personal fantasy.

[kmerc]

With R-410A it's a blend of refrigerants so you're supposed to open the bottle upside down to get liquid refrigerant for a proper mix.

[Stangmaster]

Ebay, Walmart, and Amazon have stopped listing R410a.
You have to buy from online sources, but you can buy it.
Be careful of extremely low prices, most are companies that "disappear" as soon as you pay.

[bugbomb]

BTW all blended refrigerants have to be added as a liquid so it stays in a complete blended state…. blended refrigerant can and will separate when leaving the jug as a vapor.

[madmike]

Great video ! Explained very well . Thanks for sharing this.

[Dave-rzwl]

Good video, brother you kept it simple