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[Webby the Bear]

*edit*

Vacuuming it down and ensuring it HOLDS vacuum is confirmation you have no leaks....

 

[dandor]

Hey guys, took it to my local vaux dealer today. The problem was the halfwit at halfords didnt put enough gas in it. The pressure was high enough to activate the pressure switch but not high enough to have an effect on the temperature output. Thankyou all very much for your help and comments. Its good to know there are still decent people in the world.

[Marks DTM Calib]

*edit*

Vacuuming it down and ensuring it HOLDS vacuum is confirmation you have no leaks....

 

Actually it does not prove much.

Trouble is that a vac pulls joint and seals tighter together and is only in the mid 20s pressure wise. Plus it's only held for between a few minutes to an hour with the vac pump off.

Aircon systems can run in the high 300psi level on the high side and a slow leak could mean your gas gone in a week or so despite the vac test passing!

[biggriffin]

*edit*

Vacuuming it down and ensuring it HOLDS vacuum is confirmation you have no leaks....

 

best to use nitrogen to pressure test the system,then spray the condenser with a soapy solution,look for bubbles, then re-vac and fill.

[05omegav6]

Hey guys, took it to my local vaux dealer today. The problem was the halfwit at halfords didnt put enough gas in it. The pressure was high enough to activate the pressure switch but not high enough to have an effect on the temperature output. Thankyou all very much for your help and comments. Its good to know there are still decent people in the world.

Glad you've got it sorted

[Webby the Bear]

*edit*

Vacuuming it down and ensuring it HOLDS vacuum is confirmation you have no leaks....

 

Actually it does not prove much.

Trouble is that a vac pulls joint and seals tighter together and is only in the mid 20s pressure wise. Plus it's only held for between a few minutes to an hour with the vac pump off.

Aircon systems can run in the high 300psi level on the high side and a slow leak could mean your gas gone in a week or so despite the vac test passing!

Yeah fair point.

But unless you're going to sit there for a week with it holding vacuum there's not really any other way to do it.....

[dbug]

*edit*

Vacuuming it down and ensuring it HOLDS vacuum is confirmation you have no leaks....

 

Actually it does not prove much.

Trouble is that a vac pulls joint and seals tighter together and is only in the mid 20s pressure wise. Plus it's only held for between a few minutes to an hour with the vac pump off.

Aircon systems can run in the high 300psi level on the high side and a slow leak could mean your gas gone in a week or so despite the vac test passing!

Yeah fair point.

But unless you're going to sit there for a week with it holding vacuum there's not really any other way to do it.....

Thats not the way to do it - vac out refrigerant, the pressurise with Nitrogen to test for leakage - it should hold pressure 

[Marks DTM Calib]

Thats not the way to do it - vac out refrigerant, the pressurise with Nitrogen to test for leakage - it should hold pressure 

Absolutely 

[brian36]

Hey guys, took it to my local vaux dealer today. The problem was the halfwit at halfords didnt put enough gas in it. The pressure was high enough to activate the pressure switch but not high enough to have an effect on the temperature output. Thankyou all very much for your help and comments. Its good to know there are still decent people in the world.

hi glad sorted can i ask what cost vx roughly guess will vary but i could do with getting done properly thanks

[dandor]

They charged me 60 quid, but I'm afraid to say it was just topped up for that price, mechanic came out with a large gas bottle with 2 pipes and 2 guages. He said there wasn't nearly enough gas in the system to start with. I'm just glad its sorted now, just a shame that the whether has cooled down a bit up where I am now. I suppose time will tell if it actually has a leak but I tried it again today and it was freezing within 15 seconds. So far so good. One thing to note and I don't know if it helps but I'm sure the guy said it should be around 35 psi of pressure in the air con system when its in use.

[Andy H]

They charged me 60 quid, but I'm afraid to say it was just topped up for that price, mechanic came out with a large gas bottle with 2 pipes and 2 guages. He said there wasn't nearly enough gas in the system to start with. I'm just glad its sorted now, just a shame that the whether has cooled down a bit up where I am now. I suppose time will tell if it actually has a leak but I tried it again today and it was freezing within 15 seconds. So far so good. One thing to note and I don't know if it helps but I'm sure the guy said it should be around 35 psi of pressure in the air con system when its in use.

With R134a that pressure should give an evaporator temperature of around 0 Celsius so he is probably about right for the low pressure side of the system. The pressure in the condenser will be considerably higher. say 200psi?

[johnny_boy]

Omega takes 950 grams of gas. This is twice a normal car, and twice what the ez chill can holds.
By the time you have bought two cans you might as well have gone to kwikfit.
I think ez chill are ok for topping up. But filling a very low system that has a huge capacity like the omegas? Nah.
Dont bother.
When the omega system is very low, here is my advice:
If it is a new car, then change high and low intake valves, easy job and these are the weak points of a system. Cheap to do too.
If the condenser is in a bad way consider replacing with pattern parts. £100 and pretty easy to do too.
Then take to kwik fit and let them vacuum it and shove the near kilo of gas in it. Any leaks, no charge. What is important is they will have sucked the moisture out if the system and put fresh oil in. (The oil absorbs moisture).
Dont ezchill unless there is already cold air coming out and you want to top up the gas to maintain the cooling.

[05omegav6]

Omega takes 950 grams of gas. This is twice a normal car, and twice what the ez chill can holds.
By the time you have bought two cans you might as well have gone to kwikfit.
I think ez chill are ok for topping up. But filling a very low system that has a huge capacity like the omegas? Nah.
Dont bother.
When the omega system is very low, here is my advice:
If it is a new car, then change high and low intake valves, easy job and these are the weak points of a system. Cheap to do too.
If the condenser is in a bad way consider replacing with pattern parts. £100 and pretty easy to do too.
Then take to kwik fit and let them vacuum it and shove the near kilo of gas in it. Any leaks, no charge. What is important is they will have sucked the moisture out if the system and put fresh oil in. (The oil absorbs moisture).
Dont ezchill unless there is already cold air coming out and you want to top up the gas to maintain the cooling ever.

Edited for common sense... how can you top the system up if you have absolutely no idea how much gas is already in it

[amba]

A/C systems should NOT be "topped up".

They are designed to work efficiently and properly as designed with the correct amount of refrigerant and oil.Without knowing the exact volume that is already in the system how can you "top it up" to the correct quantity.

Just do it properly ,get it working as it should and enjoy it...messing about with cans etc will never produce good results

[johnny_boy]

Yes, if you have the money then spend £50 and get it done properly. But not everyone has £50 or wants to spend it on a 15 year old aircon car system in the uk, where it isnt absolutely neccessary.
So there is no one right answer here.
I say if you are tight on cash and your car is not as cold as it was last year, sure ezchill it. Read the instructions and you will be very happy afterwards.
This conversation is like the ones on tyres. People insisting you must spend £400 on a set otherwise you will die. When all a lot of people want is to be satisfied with a car that works, within their budget. Not everyone likes spending money on cars. So there is a place for the top up cans, used sensibly.
To answer the previous poster 'how can you do it when you have no idea how much gas is in the system'. Well i can and have done it, and it worked fine. The system was not as cold as it was, the low gauge will give you a target pressure when you set the ambient temperature, and you just aim for it. Not exact, but there is science behind it, r134a has low side target pressures dependent on ambient temperature. Google will give you the tables. It wont work on systems that are cery low. But for topping up, it does work.