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4 valve manifold w/blu vac or sman3

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Bmvbrfd

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
I have been using my regular 3 valve yellow jacket manifold and am going to upgrade to either the "what a man manifold" 4 valves with the 3/8 vacuum hose and get a bluvac for my micron gauge or get the sman3. It just seems like I'm seeing alot of bad reviews on the sman. Go digital or stay analog? I have the srh2 for figuring my superheat on fixed orifice systems and use the charts on the system (if there is one) for txv systems for subcool. So I wasn't really planning on using/needing that feature on the sman
 
#2 ·
My advise is to do a lot more reading on this site. The sman is not the only choice for digital gauges, and if you are trying to vac through your manifold the results will be less than stellar.
 
#3 ·
4 valves is always better than 3 valves, and Fieldpiece and Digi-Cool are coming out with 4 valve manifolds the Mastercool 99961 is a 4 valve digital gauge set.
 
#6 ·
A 4 way will give you more convenience with vacuum or purge but most will not give a significant time reduction in pulling a vacuum if thats why you want a 4 way for. If you are specifically looking at a SMAN3 vs SMAN4 you will only have a larger passage thru the manifold and replace one 1/4" hose with a 3/8" hose. The speed with SMAN3 vs SMAN4 will be improved only because how restrictive the SMAN2 manifold is. There is the Megaflow manifold that uses the big hoses on all the connections and a huge passage way but is still slowed down by the manifold.
If you want speed its no manifold with large hoses as short as possible direct to your vacuum pump. The speed of this kind of set up will reduce you vacuum times substantially over any 4 way that uses a 3/8" bore manifold with 3/8' vacuum hose and 1/4" high/low side hoses. Think about all the hose you have to pull thru plus the manifold on top of all the possible leak points.
A regular 2 way manifold some valve core tools and some big hoses for vacuum has been working out great for me on everything. With enough core tools you can use them like extra manifold valves to shut off purge/reffer tanks. You micron gauge can be isolated at the system this way too vs after all the hoses with gaskets and manifold connections.
 
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#7 ·
I use a ball valve core removal with a tee with the micron gauge on liquid line and a ball valve core removal tool on the vapor line. Pull the schrader and use a 1/2 hose straight to vacuum pump on the vapor line.. 500 micron under 10 minutes. Valve it off the put gauges on and either purge them or pull a vacuum on them. This is great as long as you can fit the tees and fittings. I've taken cabinets apart before to fit all this stuff.

Sent from my ERIS using Tapatalk 2
 
#9 ·
That sounds great ...

jdblack said:
I use a ball valve core removal with a tee with the micron gauge on liquid line and a ball valve core removal tool on the vapor line. Pull the schrader and use a 1/2 hose straight to vacuum pump on the vapor line.. 500 micron under 10 minutes. Valve it off the put gauges on and either purge them or pull a vacuum on them. This is great as long as you can fit the tees and fittings. I've taken cabinets apart before to fit all this stuff.

Sent from my ERIS using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Except when I do it that way, I tend to pull oil out of the system and can not get the microns down.

Any ideas how to avoid that?
 
#10 ·
I use a 3/8" hose from vacuum pump to 3-way air manifold w/a hand valve. From the manifold two 3/8" hoses go to low and high side w/CRT's installed. The third port on the manifold has a valve so I can switch from micron gauge to refrigerant hose to break the vacuum. I have found this is much faster than going thru a manifold gauge set.
 
Discussion starter · #11 ·
itsiceman said:
Here's one way to do it :putergreet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGLYAmjWkvA&list=UUZaNOE_8dgYy83NyEcRJumg&index=5&feature=plcp
Click to expand...
Thanks for the video. I think this is how I will start doing it. I just had a guy show me the 4 way manifold. He hooked up both the vacuum and charge hose to the pump and it was so much faster than the 3 way manifold. But I am going to start doing it the way showed in this video. No need for a 4 way manifold. I have done a little more looking around and might go with the digi cool ak900. Not sure yet I'm going to sit on it a little while
 
#12 ·
Bmvbrfd said:
Thanks for the video. I think this is how I will start doing it. I just had a guy show me the 4 way manifold. He hooked up both the vacuum and charge hose to the pump and it was so much faster than the 3 way manifold. But I am going to start doing it the way showed in this video. No need for a 4 way manifold. I have done a little more looking around and might go with the digi cool ak900. Not sure yet I'm going to sit on it a little while
Click to expand...
You could hook a AK to any manifold you wanted (2,3,4....6 way!) or even no manifold with flare connections like hvacmedic did.
FWIW You can speed up a two way also by connecting a 1/2 hose with 1/4 x 3/8 connections to the pump. If you look most 4 ways have identical valves and porting vs their 2 way cousins. The killer is the 1/4" hoses though. especially if you are using six footers. I have some 1/4" hoses that are about 7" long I used to use on K body copelands.
 
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#14 ·
This was from a different thread but seems to fit here too

itsiceman said:
FWIW I pulled a vacuum on my small 30# recovery tank today three different ways
after a few pulls to clear it out I timed using.....

1. 3/8 YJ hose with 3/8x1/4 fitting on the liquid valve and 3/8 YJ hose with 3/8x1/4 fitting to the vapor valve. connections went directly to my JB7cfm

2. 1/2 Appion hose with 3/8x1/4 fitting on the vapor valve and the same 3/8 YJ hose on the liquid valve. Both hoses directly to my pump.

I did each way twice (YJ,YJ)-(A,YJ)-(A,YJ)-(YJ,YJ) in this order.

1. pulled the tank down to 25000 microns in 0:49sec. and 4:45 min to 500 microns.

2. pulled the tank down to 25000 microns in 0:47sec. and 2:46 min to 500 microns and in 4:00 min. went down to 270 microns.

3. The last one 4S&G's I did a YJ TitanII that I pulled the restrictive stainless steel mesh out of each port. Had 2- 3Ft 1/4" hoses with the core depressor in like you would have for regular service to the wide open liquid and vapor valves on the tank and one 3/8 hose with 3/8x3/8 fittings to the 3/8 port on the manifold and 3/8 on the pump.


3. pulled the tank down to 25000 microns in 1:00min. and 16:00 mins. to 500 microns.
Click to expand...
If I get a chance I'll time it with the SMAN3 but can tell you it is more restrictive than the TitanII
 
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Discussion starter · #15 ·
I usually keep my business at the local parts houses. But nobody had a bluvac micron gauge. I saw somebody somewhere on here say that truetechtools gave free shipping if you put hvactalk as the promotional code. Well not only did I get free shipping but they discounted it from $211 to $200. My first micron gauge is on its way. I have learned what little I know from an "old timer" I guess you could say and he doesn't use one so I'm excited to actually see what's going on. Going to start hooking the vacuum pump straight up with a T and let it roll. Thanks everybody for their input. I am learning alot form this site.
 
#16 ·
Bmvbrfd said:
I usually keep my business at the local parts houses. But nobody had a bluvac micron gauge. I saw somebody somewhere on here say that truetechtools gave free shipping if you put hvactalk as the promotional code. Well not only did I get free shipping but they discounted it from $211 to $200. My first micron gauge is on its way. I have learned what little I know from an "old timer" I guess you could say and he doesn't use one so I'm excited to actually see what's going on. Going to start hooking the vacuum pump straight up with a T and let it roll. Thanks everybody for their input. I am learning alot form this site.
Click to expand...
Stick around and get you post count up and go pro when you get you 15 posts. There is even more great knowledge on the other side (Pro Section).
 
#18 ·
Bmvbrfd said:
I usually keep my business at the local parts houses. But nobody had a bluvac micron gauge. I saw somebody somewhere on here say that truetechtools gave free shipping if you put hvactalk as the promotional code. Well not only did I get free shipping but they discounted it from $211 to $200. My first micron gauge is on its way. I have learned what little I know from an "old timer" I guess you could say and he doesn't use one so I'm excited to actually see what's going on. Going to start hooking the vacuum pump straight up with a T and let it roll. Thanks everybody for their input. I am learning alot form this site.
Click to expand...
If they sell UEi you can get the BluVac in yellow :.02:
 
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