Great job! That has to be one of the more daunting home improvement projects I’ve seen and you were successful. Making this a family DYI is brilliant and cheap. Good bless.
Thank you so much! Obviously not an expert in this area but I always am trying to learn and am super thankful for family help! So far it's all holding up great even in the 100 degree Oklahoma summers :)
jippi, more videos in the pipe :) And yes, it can be stressful. We just got our three exterior doors replaced by professionals. Some stuff I just want to keep in the hands of the pros.
Just for anyone trying to replicate this: Don't hold your torch on the pipe constantly while soldering or you burn out the flux leading to leaks. Watch the DIY HVAC Guy to get best practices not covered here. This was like glimpsing back in time 10 years. Haven't seen someone charge a unit that has no receiver without a refrigerant scale in my entire life 😅
If you shorten the lines you should be removing refrigerant not adding more. You can't charge by temp, you derive your target superheat or subcooling from the line temp + pressure. That unit is most likely way overcharged. Also when a system is opened the filter dryer must be replaced. Those lines were not done properly. If that was in fact plumbers solder used that unit probably only have a few years before the acid buildup kills the compressor. Those line will also need to be flushed when the unit is replaced to remove the acid. I would recommend replacing them since those cold solder joint will be an endless source of problems. When doing lines in a wall, under a foundation, or anywhere inaccessible in the future, it's a good idea to sleeve the lines with a 3in or 4in PVC pipe so they can be replaced in the future. Different manufactures, SEER ratings, equipment types, etc. call for different line sizes. So even if the lines last, sometime in the future when the equipment is upgraded those smaller lines would be a restriction if not replaced. That's why it's always a good idea to at least consult with someone who is a professional and not just someone who knows someone who is a professional. I wish you the best of luck.
Thanks for the comments and thoughts! We will keep that in mind! It is over 20 years old and when it does go out we’re planning on having professional hvac people come in and move the unit to a better location and move/replace the lines too. Thanks for all the tips to keep in mind. I appreciate them and the time put into your response:)
Thankfully yes we did get that family discount! Our AC unit is over 20 years old so any day now it will probably go out then we can upgrade to a new system!
Fix the leak don't just top off the unit. You have all your leak test supplies in this video. You're just willfully letting refrigerant into your home/atmosphere.
If your lines are cherry red, that's brazing, not soldering. But when you braze you don't use flux. So which was it, braze or solder? Also, when you braze you have to run nitrogen to keep oxide from forming which will damage your unit, and I didn't see any mention of that. Did you replace the dryer/filter? Do you have one? I didn't see one, but maybe I missed it. If you don't have one, all those oxide particles are not going to be good for your system. Nitrogen testing is done at 400 psi, not 60. I'm surprised about the analog gauges, they are not accurate enough for the leakdown test. (Although doing an overnight test help ameliorate a lot of that, since even an inaccurate gauge should be able to see that.) Why did you not replace the lineset? It would have been cheaper than having to resolder so many spots, and you would have gotten insulation for them. It is not necessary to heat the R22, the suction side of the AC will pull it in. Using just pressure to charge a system is error prone, you need to also measure subcool and superheat.
Thank you so much for the thoughtful comments! I truly appreciate them and love learning more about all of this. Thanks for clarification on brazing and soldering. Probably a dumb question, but do you continually run the nitrogen even if the lines are cut? Wouldn't the nitrogen just keep leaking out? Or either way it will still prevent the oxidizing effect? With the leak repairs we had the nitrogen in the system for that part, but good to know to do it the whole time. Our AC unit didn't have a dryer/filter on it from what we looked up and could tell. We had all the materials from what our relatives had given us so we figured we'd rather use that than paying for the new lines. But I don't know typically how expensive they are just the quotes we got. Thanks for the tips on recharging the system as well. So far things have registered still a cool 55 degrees even in the Oklahoma Summer with our 100 degree days. Hopefully it keeps up given our old house and all the poor insulation. Again I appreciate the time put into your comments and all the tips!
@@OkieDIY (Thank you for your reply, I was worried after posting mine that I came across as too aggressive which was not my intent.) Anyway, yes, you continually flow nitrogen through the line, and yes it leaks out, but nitrogen is very cheap, and you don't need a lot of flow once you do the initial purge. Make sure you provide a place for it to exit, or it will force the joint apart from the pressure. The risk with not replacing the lineset is a leak, and R22 is *expensive*!! You got very lucky that you got some for free. New linesets are cheaper than any R22 leak.
@@Ariel1S Good to know for if we have any issues and will need to fix anything. We will keep that in mind. And no I very much appreciate your comments as it was definitely helpful criticism. Sometimes online its hard to convey exact tone but I appreciate your comments and helping me learn more about it all :) We are definitely not professionals but just working with what we have until the AC system fails which most likely will be in the next year or two. R22 is super expensive haha we had our AC go out last summer and pretty expensive for the fix but also just to have it recharged, sadly I didn't know my dad had any then! Gotcha on the leak with R22. I will keep that in mind for next time! Thanks so much for all your insight :)
What Decade did you find this HVAC Tech? Dit gauges been out for over 10-15yrs! & Using Map Gas? Then Stay bright solder too? Damn!!!!! Hope you didn't pay more than 100-200 bucks. WOW!!!!
