Hi all,
A little intro. I joined the site about 3 years ago and have just been lurking off and on. Many years ago (2003), the AC quit working in my wife's car and the price I was quoted prompted me to learn to do it myself. I expanded into fixing appliances as a lot of the equipment was the same. I just needed to learn to braze and deal with copper and aluminum tubing. I'm small time, usually people just hand me a fridge that's broken and it's basically "If you can fix it it's yours." I have a collection of them growing in my back yard now.
One of the joys of fridges and freezers is that none of them come with service ports on them. They're sealed. I started with clamp-on piercing valves but those leaked. I decided they were good for a unit I was just going to evac and dump, but not on anything I would be keeping or giving back to the owner.
I can browse local supply shops even though they won't sell to me since I'm not an official business nor am I certified. I stumbled across C&D braze on valves. Tougher to install, especially in the cramped quarters in an appliance, but I figured they wouldn't leak.
I've been trying to fix a refrigerator for a lady. It was built back in the late 80's and uses R-12. I checked all the electrical on it, everything checked out. Turns out it was low on refrigerant which is odd to me as I thought R-12 doesn't leak as much as 134 and it's supposedly a sealed system. So I figure there's a leak and put dye in. And run it with the manifold attached to watch pressures. It held for a week and was cooling great. No sign of leaks either. So I send it back and within five days it's died again. I go out and lo and behold there's dye all over the valves and sprayed across the back panel. Even the low side had leaked. My first thought was my brazing failed but that was fine. It was coming out from under the cap.
Which made me nuts because I have a freezer I've been fighting off and on for years (don't judge, I have 7 kids and EVERYTHING that breaks is on me to fix) and I bet it has the same issue with the valves leaking.
In a system that only takes 5 oz of refrigerant, even a small leak is catastrophic. I've only purchased 3 packages of these valves and gone through one of them. I can't tell if the schrader valve is the problem or if the leak is coming from between the piercing tube and outer edge. I got some teflon schrader valves that I hope fix the problem, and I also figured out that 010 sized HBNR or Viton orings would fit snug in the cap and be a good backup.
Has anyone else had these valves leak? Are they known for this? Is there something better out there?
A little intro. I joined the site about 3 years ago and have just been lurking off and on. Many years ago (2003), the AC quit working in my wife's car and the price I was quoted prompted me to learn to do it myself. I expanded into fixing appliances as a lot of the equipment was the same. I just needed to learn to braze and deal with copper and aluminum tubing. I'm small time, usually people just hand me a fridge that's broken and it's basically "If you can fix it it's yours." I have a collection of them growing in my back yard now.
One of the joys of fridges and freezers is that none of them come with service ports on them. They're sealed. I started with clamp-on piercing valves but those leaked. I decided they were good for a unit I was just going to evac and dump, but not on anything I would be keeping or giving back to the owner.
I can browse local supply shops even though they won't sell to me since I'm not an official business nor am I certified. I stumbled across C&D braze on valves. Tougher to install, especially in the cramped quarters in an appliance, but I figured they wouldn't leak.
I've been trying to fix a refrigerator for a lady. It was built back in the late 80's and uses R-12. I checked all the electrical on it, everything checked out. Turns out it was low on refrigerant which is odd to me as I thought R-12 doesn't leak as much as 134 and it's supposedly a sealed system. So I figure there's a leak and put dye in. And run it with the manifold attached to watch pressures. It held for a week and was cooling great. No sign of leaks either. So I send it back and within five days it's died again. I go out and lo and behold there's dye all over the valves and sprayed across the back panel. Even the low side had leaked. My first thought was my brazing failed but that was fine. It was coming out from under the cap.
Which made me nuts because I have a freezer I've been fighting off and on for years (don't judge, I have 7 kids and EVERYTHING that breaks is on me to fix) and I bet it has the same issue with the valves leaking.
In a system that only takes 5 oz of refrigerant, even a small leak is catastrophic. I've only purchased 3 packages of these valves and gone through one of them. I can't tell if the schrader valve is the problem or if the leak is coming from between the piercing tube and outer edge. I got some teflon schrader valves that I hope fix the problem, and I also figured out that 010 sized HBNR or Viton orings would fit snug in the cap and be a good backup.
Has anyone else had these valves leak? Are they known for this? Is there something better out there?
.
