[Shop-talk] Any of you guys fool around with HVAC/refrigeration?

[Arvid]

What little I know about it ...

Yes, the basic concept and tasks are dead simple.

To keep mere mortals from actually fixing things like this there appear to be two show-stoppers.

The first is getting access to a reasonable quantity of the correct refrigerant ... all three aspects - the 'access' part, the 'you do not need a 25lb bottle of it if you can actually get it' part and the 'correct ' part.

You may need an EPA 608 certificate to get the refrigerant. That may still be available by going to this site ... https://ww2.epatest.com/epa-608/ ... and taking the on-line test. I did that many years ago and they sent me the card in the mail. I've never actually used it but it seemed to be what was required to get refrigerant if you need something other than the R-134A topper cans available at the local hardware and auto parts store.

The second is the fittings on the hoses. It seems like categories of refrigerant have threaded fittings that are different from other categories of refrigerant. I know the old R-12 fittings on cars are different than the newer R-134A fittings which may be different than whatever they are currently using. The HF gauge set is listed as R-134A and that defines the threaded fitting on the end of the hoses.

And you now know about as much as I do.

On 5/7/21 2:02 PM, Scott Hall wrote:
> I just spent the morning calling maybe twenty different results under "Appliance Repair" on Google to fix a Sub Zero refrigerator that came with the new house.
>
> Literally every one Just Doesn't Want to be Bothered. The Sub Zero dealer WILL take my money--$700 for the part--and another $800 for the labor. This is an undercounter fridge that I can just toss, and Google tells me the part is $150 online. I don't like it $1500, especially when it looks like their labor rate is $400/hour (including drive time) and the part has a 400% markup.
>
> Separately, I have two 1950s-era Coca Cola bottle vending machines. They have sentimental value so I don't want to toss them, but a while back I tried calling around to have them repaired because they don't cool. That was worse than trying to have a refrigerator fixed.
>
> These are all just compressors attached to evaporators, etc. The vending machines are stone ax-simple and the cool thing about the Sub Zero is that it is, too--all the parts are designed to be easily replaced and are either out in the open or behind easily-removed panels. I actually like this thing; it's like the opposite of our Mazda on which even an oil change made me want to trade in the car (seriously, Mazda, why locate the oil filter *under* the exhaust manifold and make only accessible from the top of the car? I know you guys are in Hiroshima, but that was a LONG time ago. Let's move on.)
>
> And watching the Sub-Zero guy do his thing, he used a Harbor Freight vacuum to pull vacuum on the system, and the gauges looked like HF stuff too. And I feel like if I can rebuild a car engine, I can probably handle this.
>
> Anybody get involved with this stuff? At this point I feel like I'd be less frustrated in learning to fix these myself than I am trying to get someone to come out and fix them.
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> Shop-talk at autox.team.net
> Donate: http://www.team.net/donate.html
> Suggested annual donation  $12.96
> Archive: http://www.team.net/pipermail/shop-talk http://autox.team.net/archive
>
> Unsubscribe/Manage: http://autox.team.net/mailman/options/shop-talk/arvidj999@gmail.com
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://autox.team.net/pipermail/shop-talk/attachments/20210507/d8eb72d6/attachment-0001.htm>