Refrigerant recovery without a machine

Can you recover refrigerant out of a car or truck with just a tank and no recovery machine? Let's find out!

[tommyjohn]

You should connect to the liquid port as labeled on the tank knob (don’t go by color) and run the car to let the compressor do the work for you. Open the high side port knob(red) on your gauges with the low side gauge valve shut (blue). Add salt and some water to your ice or buy dry ice from Smart and Final should help. I have been told at least 95% can be removed safely by letting your car compressor (if functional) do all the work. Best to also perform on a warm day.

[sc]

Dry ice can be bought in quite a few palaces, it can be a bit of money.

Something to try in the future is add rock salt to your water bath. Its the way ice cream was made long before reliable refrigeration. Get a larger vessel, add more ice and a big scoop of the cheapest rock salt used for deicing roads and driveways. The rock salt will effectively make the ice melt faster and get the water bath to lower than the temperature of the ice alone.

Interesting concept, thanks for sharing. Look forward to follow ups if you try this again.

[demotulation]

AT least someone tried something different than 1000 videos with pumps

[norinretrescu]

I think it is better to connect the hose to the red tap

[ShawnNeeley-weor]

Why not repeat the procedure using a second tank? Pull the second tank to vacuum and repeat? This, in theory, should Evac the entire system? I could be wrong, but in theory, it makes sense?

[Hotwheelsx]

Assuming that the car has a working compressor what if you bypass the pressure switch and let the compressor pressure up the high side until the negative numbers are reached on the low side which should get you the rest of the freon pretty much

[charlesturner]

134a isnt that pricey, also pull from the liquid that way you get liquid volume not just vapor pressure. I also used to charge small refrigeration units through the liquid side before powering them up, then finish by vapor. If you are having problems with the system your refrigerant may be contaminated. Any oil pulled would be added back if you reused the refrigerant. hope this helps

[pairofjacks]

Cool vid..lol...this comment is for the hvac guys who might sneak in here... this wont work on a household system! Theoretically you could have dozens of evacuated cylinders😂.. but they cost money. Buy or rent a recovery machine..its not that hard and our kids are depending on us to do the right thing... Most auto part stores will loan it for free ... with collateral ofc.. thanks for showing! It wont work

[brcidd]

We used dry ice in our Factory- try putting a hairdryer to the accumulator that will help.. Dry ice made it pull a vacuum on the gages

[rickfromtexas]

valiant effort, had to swap out a leaking condenser on my van, just let it leak out, sorry ozone layer!

[gunlover]

I didn't tell you this but you can push 99% out with the car A/C compressor hot wire the A/C clutch start the car and open the high side and pump it down into a recovery bottle. I have a Inficon Vortex recovery machine so I don't do it but it can be done.

[jumboegg]

Any reason why you didn't recover liquid refrigerant from the high side?

[rusty]

Did you try doing it a second time to see if pulls the other half out? Maybe the tank just ran out of vacuum?

[KuudoPrince]

Bro plz try again because i've been wondering how to do this without the recovery machine ....plz try different ways to see if it will work

[StopTeoriomSpiskowym]

yes refrigerant can be contaminated by metalic dust

[lords]

Even with dry eyes you're not gonna get it all hence needed a machine

[bobbyplatt]

Ten more tanks and tries might get most of it out