Automotive Air Conditioning Information Forum

JohnHere wrote: ↑Tue Sep 12, 2023 9:45 am If you're referring to professional RRR machines, they usually are designed for specific refrigerants and oil types—for example, R-12/Mineral Oil (virtually obsolete nowadays); R-134a/PAG Oil; and R-1234yf/Special PAG Oil. Lately, I've heard that RRR machines are now being produced that can handle both R-134a and R-1234yf.

If you're referring to a DIY-owned vacuum pump, it can handle any of the three refrigerants and oil types. I would change the oil in the vacuum pump, though, before using it on a system with a different refrigerant with which it was previously used. You'll also need an appropriate adapter to mate the yellow hose to your vacuum pump, the appropriate Manifold Gauge Set, and the matching hoses/adapters.

JohnHere wrote: ↑Wed Sep 13, 2023 7:11 am I think what you're referring to is recovery instead of evacuation.

In theory, you could recover the refrigerant by using a vacuum pump and storage tank. But remember that a modern RRR machine also recycles the refrigerant by identifying, filtering, and removing moisture from the recovered refrigerant, thereby purifying it and rendering it suitable for re-use.

The identification function is particularly important in that the machine will let you know whether a refrigerant is what it's supposed to be, or whether it's contaminated with hydrocarbons and other non-EPA-approved substances. In that case, it can't be recycled and must be collected into a separate "trash" tank, then safely and legally disposed of by an EPA-licensed company specializing in that process.

Most DIY'ers can't afford the thousands of dollars it takes to buy a new RRR machine of their own. So what they do instead is bring the vehicle to a local service shop that has an RRR machine and have it recovered for a nominal fee. The shop will be able to tell you exactly how much refrigerant the machine removes (whether too little, right on, or too much, according to the vehicle's specs), and how much oil comes out, so that you can then repair the system, if necessary, replace the oil that was recovered, and evacuate/recharge it.

andrew vanis wrote: ↑Wed Sep 13, 2023 11:00 am

robertdaleweir wrote: ↑Wed Sep 13, 2023 7:57 am. Not sure how to mark this question solved but I now know what I need to do. Great answers ...
Robert

Often you can go into your original post, choose edit, and edit the topic title.

If that is no longer possible yourself, a site admin should have the ability to make that change. Idk how that is handled on this site.

robertdaleweir wrote: ↑Wed Sep 13, 2023 7:57 am Not sure how to mark this question solved but I now know what I need to do.

andrew vanis wrote: ↑Fri Sep 15, 2023 7:19 am When searching a forum before asking a possibly redundant question, seeing topic title -"Situation XYZ (SOLVED)" is one I'll be clicking on first

JohnHere wrote: ↑Fri Sep 15, 2023 9:12 amThe only way I can think of to do that is to start another duplicate topic with "solved" at the end of it. As far as I know (and I'm not an IT manager), existing topics can't be edited.

I'm not convinced that creating a second identical topic would buy us much of anything.

andrew vanis wrote: ↑Wed Sep 13, 2023 11:00 am Often you can go into your original post, choose edit, and edit the topic title..