How to Properly Recharge Your AC System

Summary

In this instructional video, Chris Fix demonstrates the process of properly recharging an air conditioning system, dispelling common fears and emphasizing the importance of using the correct tools. He outlines the necessary equipment, including manifold gauges, a vacuum pump, and refrigerant, and explains how to identify the correct type and quantity of refrigerant using the car's sticker. The video covers the crucial steps of pulling a vacuum to remove air and moisture, and then carefully adding the specified amount of refrigerant. Chris also advises on safety precautions and the optional addition of UV dye for leak detection, concluding with a successful temperature check, showcasing the system's improved performance.

Takeaways

• 🛠️ The video provides a step-by-step guide on how to recharge an air conditioning system, emphasizing the importance of having the correct tools for the job.
• 📏 The essential tools for an AC recharge include manifold gauges, a vacuum pump, refrigerant, a nozzle, and safety equipment like gloves and safety glasses.
• 🔍 A sticker on the car specifies the type and amount of refrigerant needed, in this case, HFC-134a (R134a), which is the most common and environmentally friendly option.
• ⚖️ The exact amount of refrigerant to be added is crucial, and a digital scale is recommended to measure the precise quantity, avoiding overfilling.
• 🔄 The process involves pulling a vacuum to remove air and moisture from the AC system, which is vital to prevent future leaks and damage.
• 🕰️ After pulling the vacuum, the system should be left to sit for an hour to ensure that there are no leaks, maintaining the vacuum at 30 inches of mercury.
• 💧 Continuing to pull a vacuum for an additional 45 minutes helps to remove any remaining moisture and air from the AC system.
• 🔄 If a major AC component has been replaced, it may be necessary to add oil to the system to ensure proper lubrication, especially for the compressor.
• 🌈 Adding UV dye to the AC system can help in detecting future leaks by making them visible under UV light.
• 🔧 The refrigerant is added to the system while the AC is on and the compressor is active, ensuring that the refrigerant is drawn in properly.
• ✅ Once the correct amount of refrigerant has been added, the system is considered properly recharged, resulting in improved cooling performance.

Q & A

What is the main purpose of the video by Chris Fix?

The main purpose of the video is to demonstrate how to properly recharge an air conditioning system, addressing common fears and misconceptions about performing AC maintenance.

What tools are essential for a proper AC system recharge according to the video?

The essential tools for a proper AC system recharge include a set of manifold gauges, a vacuum pump, refrigerant, a nozzle, and optionally a digital scale for measuring refrigerant, as well as gloves and safety glasses for safety.

Why is it important to pull a vacuum on the AC system?

Pulling a vacuum on the AC system is crucial to remove any air and moisture from the AC lines, evaporator, condenser, and compressor. Moisture can destroy AC systems, so this step is vital to prevent future leaks.

How can one determine the type and amount of refrigerant needed for their car?

The type and amount of refrigerant needed can be determined by checking a sticker on the car, typically found on the front piece of metal or plastic trim, or on the hood. It will specify the type of refrigerant (e.g., HFC-134a or R134a) and the amount to be added.

Outlines

00:00

🛠️ Tools for AC System Recharge

In this paragraph, Chris Fix introduces the video's purpose: teaching viewers how to recharge an air conditioning system. He emphasizes overcoming the fear associated with AC maintenance and lists the necessary tools, including manifold gauges, a vacuum pump, refrigerant, a nozzle, and safety gear. Chris explains the importance of using the correct type and amount of refrigerant, which can be determined from a sticker on the car, and discusses the environmental benefits of using HFC-134a (R134a) over older refrigerants. He also mentions the need for a digital scale to measure the precise amount of refrigerant to be added.

05:01

🔧 AC System Recharge Process

This paragraph details the process of recharging an air conditioning system. It starts with connecting the manifold gauges to the AC system, ensuring no pressure is present, and then proceeding to pull a vacuum using a vacuum pump. The importance of maintaining a vacuum for an hour to check for leaks is highlighted. After confirming the system is sealed, the vacuum process continues for an additional 45 minutes to remove air and moisture. The paragraph also covers the optional step of adding oil and UV dye to the system if major components have been replaced, and concludes with the setup for adding refrigerant to the system.

10:01

❄️ Completing the AC Recharge

The final paragraph describes the actual refrigerant addition to the AC system. It involves purging air from the line, starting the vehicle with the AC on to engage the compressor, and slowly adding refrigerant while monitoring the system's pressure. The process includes using a scale to ensure the correct amount of refrigerant is added, which is crucial to avoid overfilling or underfilling the system. Once the correct amount of refrigerant is added, the manifold gauges are removed, and the system is sealed. The video concludes with a temperature check, demonstrating the effectiveness of the recharge, and an invitation for viewers to subscribe for more how-to videos on the topic.

Keywords

💡Manifold Gauges

Manifold gauges are tools used to measure the pressure in an air conditioning system. They are essential for determining the system's health and for the process of recharging it with refrigerant. In the video, they are used to ensure that the system is properly evacuated of air and moisture before adding refrigerant, and to monitor the pressure during the recharging process.

💡Vacuum Pump

A vacuum pump is a device that removes air and moisture from the AC system, creating a vacuum. This is a critical step in the recharging process because it prevents the presence of moisture, which can damage the AC system. The script mentions using a vacuum pump to pull a vacuum on the AC system through the manifold gauges.

💡Refrigerant

Refrigerant is the substance that absorbs heat from the air inside a vehicle, providing cooling. The script discusses the importance of using the correct type and amount of refrigerant, specifically HFC-134a (R134a), which is common in modern cars and environmentally friendly. The process of adding refrigerant is detailed, including using a scale for precise measurement.

💡HFC-134a / R134a

HFC-134a, also known as R134a, is a type of refrigerant used in modern car air conditioning systems. It is highlighted in the script as the most common refrigerant and is specified on a sticker in the car for reference. The video emphasizes its environmental benefits over older refrigerants.

💡Digital Scale

A digital scale is used to measure the exact amount of refrigerant being added to the AC system. The script mentions the importance of not overfilling the system, hence the need for a scale to ensure that only the required 22 ounces of refrigerant is used.

💡Safety Equipment

Safety equipment, such as gloves and safety glasses, is crucial when working on an air conditioning system to protect against potential leaks of refrigerant that could cause frostbite or blindness. The script stresses the importance of using safety equipment during the recharging process.

💡Evaporator

The evaporator is a part of the AC system where the refrigerant evaporates, absorbing heat from the air. The script mentions the need to remove air and moisture from the evaporator during the vacuuming process to prevent damage to the AC system.

💡Condenser

The condenser is another key component of the AC system where the refrigerant gas is cooled and condensed back into a liquid. The script includes the condenser in the list of parts from which air and moisture need to be evacuated during the vacuuming process.

💡Compressor

The compressor is a vital part of the AC system that pressurizes the refrigerant gas. The script discusses the process of adding refrigerant to the system after the compressor has been replaced, emphasizing the importance of the compressor in drawing in refrigerant.

💡UV Dye

UV dye is added to the AC system to help identify any future leaks. The script mentions adding a small amount of UV dye to the system during the recharging process, which can be detected under ultraviolet light if a leak occurs.

💡Oil

Oil is necessary for lubricating the AC system, particularly the compressor. The script explains that if major components of the AC system are replaced, oil must be added, and it provides guidance on how to do so through the yellow line of the manifold gauges.

Highlights

Introduction to the process of recharging an air conditioning system and addressing common fears associated with it.

Listing the essential tools required for a proper AC system recharge, including manifold gauges, a vacuum pump, refrigerant, a nozzle, and safety equipment.

Explanation of how to use manifold gauges to measure the pressure within the air conditioning system.

Importance of pulling a vacuum on the AC system to remove air and moisture, which are detrimental to the system.

Identifying the type and quantity of refrigerant required by checking the car's sticker and converting pounds to ounces.

Instructions on purchasing the correct refrigerant, specifically HFC-134a (R134a), and ensuring it contains no additives.

Demonstration of connecting the manifold gauge to the AC system, emphasizing the importance of attaching the correct size connectors to avoid mix-ups.

Procedure for setting up the vacuum pump and ensuring all connections are secure and hand-tight only.

Guidance on achieving a 30-inch mercury vacuum and maintaining it for an hour to test the system's seal integrity.

Continuation of the vacuum process for 45 minutes to evacuate moisture and air from the AC system.

Advice on adding oil to the system if a major component has been replaced, and checking the car's sticker for the correct type of oil.

Recommendation to add UV dye during the recharging process for future leak detection.

Technique for purging air from the refrigerant line before adding refrigerant to the system.

Step-by-step guide on adding refrigerant to the system while the AC is on and the compressor is active.

Method for slowly adding refrigerant to avoid liquid formation and potential compressor damage.

Using a digital scale to measure and add the precise amount of refrigerant required for the system.

Final steps of removing the manifold gauge and securing the system by replacing the schrader valve caps.

Verification of successful AC recharge by checking the temperature drop, showcasing the effectiveness of the process.

Conclusion and encouragement for viewers to subscribe for more how-to videos related to the AC system.

Transcripts

hey guys chris fix here and today i'm

going to show you how to properly

recharge your air conditioning system

many people are afraid to do work on

their ac system but this video will take

those fears away and it'll show you how

easy it really is to recharge your air

conditioning system the hardest part of

ac work is having the correct tools so

i'll put links to all these tools in the

description here are the tools you're

going to need to do a proper ac system

recharge we have a set of manifold

gauges which tell you the pressure of

the air conditioning system which is

very important we also pull a vacuum on

the ac system and fill up the ac system

through this so you need to have a set

of manifold gauges

then you're going to need a vacuum pump

because we're going to have to pull a

vacuum on the ac system we're going to

need refrigerant i'll explain how much

and what kind in a second and then

you're going to need a nozzle to tap the

refrigerant

in some cases you might need a digital

scale to measure how much refrigerant

you're putting in and then any time

you're working on the air conditioning

system make sure you use gloves and

safety glasses because if any

refrigerant leaks out you don't want to

cause frostbite and you don't want it to

blind you

with these tools here you could do a

proper ac system recharge

since you're going to go out and buy

refrigerant you need to know how much

refrigerant and what kind of refrigerant

to purchase

and to figure that out there's a sticker

located on your car you can actually see

it's right here usually the sticker is

found right in the front on this piece

of metal right here or the plastic trim

that covers the metal the other place

you could find it is up on the hood

somewhere you can see there's two

stickers there and there but in this

case we have it right here and you can

see on this sticker it says we're using

hfc-134a which is the same thing as

r134a which is the most common in

today's cars it's better for the

environment than the old refrigerant and

it'll also tell you how much you're

going to have to add and you can see

here it says we're going to have to add

anywhere between 1.26 pounds and 1.39

pounds of refrigerant so if you convert

that from pounds of ounces there's 16

ounces in a pound that means we're gonna

need about 22 ounces of refrigerant now

most of the refrigerant that i found in

the store came in 12 ounces so that

means we're gonna have to get two cans

which is 24 ounces and because we need

22 not 24 ounces that's why we're going

to be using a scale to make sure we only

use 22 ounces not to hold 24. the other

thing is you can see here we have r134a

which is what we need and then finally

the last thing is this refrigerant does

not have any additives there's no oil

there's no leak stopping additives

there's none of that you want straight

refrigerant so that's how you find what

refrigerant you're going to need so to

charge the air conditioning system

you're going to be doing two main things

the first thing is going to be pulling a

vacuum on the whole ac system this draws

out any air and moisture that's in the

ac lines the evaporator the condenser

and the compressor moisture will destroy

ac systems so this is a very very

important step if you skip this step

you're pretty much wasting your time

since the moisture is just going to

cause a leak in the future and the

second step is going to be to recharge

your system with refrigerant pretty

simple so let's begin so the first thing

to do is connect our manifold gauge to

the ac system you want to make sure that

all these valves are in the closed

position

this side right here is the low pressure

side of the gauge

this right here is the high pressure

side

of the gauge and the middle is where

you're going to pull a vacuum and then

add the refrigerant in later on

i want you to note that the low pressure

connector only fits on the low pressure

side and the high pressure connector

only fits on the high pressure side

they're two different sizes so you can't

mix them up you can see here here's the

low pressure side

and then we look over here

right down in here this is the high

pressure size it even has an h on it

and if we take our low pressure hose

and we try to connect it it just doesn't

fit at all same thing if we take our

high pressure hose it's just way too big

and does not fit on it so you don't have

to worry about mixing those up

to connect these adapters you just push

down and slide it over and let go and

we're going to connect our low pressure

which is this blue line to our low

pressure port right here

make sure it's in there good

get our high pressure line here which is

the red and we're going to connect it

right down here to our high pressure

line

good now back at our gauges again these

are closed off we're just going to come

over here and we're going to open these

up

open the low pressure side

good

and open the high pressure side with the

high and low pressure side opened up we

come over here

you can see here at the low side it's at

0 psi which is exactly what we want

and you look here at the high sides at 0

psi which is exactly what we want so

there's no pressure in the system

obviously we know that because we

replaced the compressor now we can start

pulling a vacuum all right the last line

we have to connect is this yellow line

which is going to go to our vacuum pump

and i'm just going to move this down

because my vacuum pump's going to be on

the ground

you can see my vacuum pump is right here

take off that

connect our line

you don't need to tighten these more

than hand tight don't get a pliers or

something and really crank these down

there's gaskets in here that'll do the

job for you so just hand tighten all the

connections

good

if there's any refrigerant in your

system make sure you go to a garage and

get the system professionally evacuated

so you don't let this gas out into the

atmosphere this refrigerant is pretty

nasty stuff so be environmentally

responsible so now that we have

everything connected these are still in

the off position we have our low

pressure line connected securely that's

opened up we have our high pressure line

connected securely that's opened up

and then now we have our yellow

vacuum line connected securely let's go

turn on the vacuum pump okay so i'm

gonna go turn on the pump

we can see here nothing has happened yet

i'm gonna open up both of these valves

and you're gonna hear the pump work and

you're also going to see this get sucked

down

so i'm just going to be focusing right

here because this has the vacuum on the

gauge even though this goes below zero

it doesn't have the actual readings and

you can see we're almost at 30 inches of

mercury for vacuum which is exactly

where we want to be

so after letting this run for a few

minutes there's just about 30 inches of

mercury of vacuum i'm going to close

these

and i'm going to close our vacuum pump

now i'm going to let this sit for about

an hour and what we want to see is we

want to see this stay at 30 inches of

mercury if this stays at 30 and doesn't

leak at all then that means our system

is completely sealed which is exactly

what we want we want a completely sealed

system so i'll come back in about an

hour and we'll see if this moved

okay one hour later and this looks

pretty much identical it looks like

nothing at all leaked out this is great

means our job was done correctly and we

have no ac system leaks anymore now that

we know there's no leaks we want to

continue to pull a vacuum for 45 minutes

so i'm going to go and turn the vacuum

back on

[Music]

and i'm going to open up both of these

valves again good and now we're sucking

vacuum for 45 minutes this is going to

evacuate all the moisture and air out of

the system so it's nice and dry in there

so now is a good time to go run some

errands go do something and let the pump

do its job

all right it's been 45 minutes and

everything is looking really good here

so what we're gonna do is we're gonna

close off

our lines here so there's no more vacuum

now we're gonna go over here and shut

off the pump

the next thing we do is add the

refrigerant if you replace the major

component in the ac system such as the

air conditioning compressor the

condenser or the evaporator you're gonna

have to add oil to your system again we

can look at this sticker right here

it'll tell you the type of oil that you

need consult your service manual on how

much oil you're gonna need to use in my

case when i replace the compressor it

came pre-oiled with the correct oil and

the correct amount of oil so i didn't

have to do anything which is really

convenient if you end up having to add

oil what you could do is you could add

it through your yellow line here and you

literally just take your line and you

fill it with the correct amount of oil

and then you take this line and you

connect your refrigerant bottle and then

that'll get drawn in to the ac system

the oil basically lubricates the whole

system but more specifically it

lubricates the compressor so it doesn't

run dry another thing that you should

add right now is some uv dye you add a

little bit right to this line make sure

it's ac system uv dye it's only a few

bucks totally worth it because if you

have any future leaks then you'll know

where it's coming from just like you saw

in my leak detection video since i

already added the uv die when i did the

leak detection video it's in there we

don't have to do that so in this case i

don't have to add oil it's already

pre-oiled and i don't have to add uv dye

i already have it in there so now we're

going to go connect our refrigerant to

this line so the first thing we'll do is

connect our adapter right to the

refrigerant can

make sure it's a nice tight seal

now we're going to connect our

refrigerant can to our yellow line

okay good

so now we're going to screw down the

adapter which will pierce the can and

with this screwed down this is in the

closed position so no refrigerant is

going to come out also remember that the

manifold gauges are in the closed

position and holding vacuum so now we're

gonna open up our can so we can purge

the system so with this can in the open

position there's some refrigerant in

this line but there's also air in this

line so let's purge it out what you do

to purge the line of air is you get a

screwdriver you go to this purge tip

right here

and you just press down

until the refrigerant comes out and now

we purge the system of any air so let's

go start the truck

all right let's go starter up

we want to make sure that the ac is on

so we're going to turn the fan on to low

ac has to be on you want to make sure

the ac is on because that means that the

compressor will kick on when there's

enough pressure and that's what's going

to draw in the rest of our refrigerant

just so we can see the temperature i'm

going to put this thermometer right up

in here you can see right now it's

almost 90 degrees

so with our ac on and our fan on let's

go add the refrigerant next open up the

valve on the low pressure side of the

manifold gauge now refrigerant is

flowing into the system

i'm going to put this down on a cool

part of the engine compartment but you

don't want to put this down on anything

hot because it could heat up the can and

cause an explosion which would not be

good now we just wait for the compressor

to kick on

perfect it just kicked on

and you can see the low pressure side

dropped down to about 10 psi while the

high pressure side is slowly building

pressure at around 100 psi this will

increase as we add more refrigerant

if we check the compressor you can see

it's clicked on which is good now we

just wait for the compressor to suck out

the refrigerant from the can when you

think the can is empty turn it over and

give it a shake you can look at the

watch glass to see if any refrigerant

comes out you can see there's still some

refrigerant left so let's wait a minute

or two and then check it again a minute

later i'm pretty sure this is empty yep

it's empty so let's take this off and

put a new can on

remember to close this valve here before

you disconnect this can

if you leave this valve open

refrigerant's just going to come out of

this yellow line now we could close this

here all the way down so it seals off

this yellow hose

twist the new can on and now we need to

weigh it because we only need 10 ounces

out of the 12 that are in this can so

get the can on the scale so it levels

out and you can see the can weighs 20

ounces exactly we want to add 10 more

ounces to the system since each can is

12 ounces and we already added one can

so far i'm going to open up this can on

the scale

and now we need to open up the manifold

gauge on the low side to allow the

refrigerant to get sucked in i don't

want the refrigerant to spike and go all

in at once because it could turn to

liquid and damage the compressor so

slowly add the refrigerant after a

little we could open up the valve the

rest of the way to get the can down to

10 ounces all right we're almost at 10

ounces and i'm gonna close this valve up

so you saw it go down to 10 ounces

that's 22 total ounces and the system is

completely and properly filled now let's

remove the manifold gauge

both the high and low pressure valves on

the manifold gauge are closed next let's

shut off the high side valve

and then pop that off and let's shut off

the low side valve

and then pop that off make sure we screw

our caps back on to protect the schrader

valve and it also helps seal the system

good

and good

and we are done

all right so that's how you charge an ac

system let's go check out the

temperature real quick look at that 42

to 43 degrees in there

that is beautiful that's exactly what we

want way better than the 90 degrees that

was coming out of there before when the

compressor was bad and that is how you

properly recharge your air conditioning

system hopefully this video was helpful

if it was remember to give it a thumbs

up also if you're not subscribed

consider subscribing up on the screen

are going to be a couple of how-to

videos related to the ac system to get

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description below