6

Best Servicing
Practices
Do’s & Don’ts
Training Material Reference

Best Servicing Practices, Do’s & Don’ts - [Link]

Target Group

Trainers and Technicians

Duration of the Session

45 Minutes

Purpose of the Session

The purpose of this session is to invite the attention of technicians on certain critical areas of

servicing of air-conditioning appliances, which, if overlooked, can result in serious problems in the

air-conditioning system, leading to poor cooling performance, recurring failures and reduced life.

Apart from stating what the right practices are, the session also looks at existing servicing practices

and how some of these practices are undesirable and why they should be substituted by the right

practices. Many of the practices currently followed are detrimental to the existing HCFC based

appliances and can be more undesirable for HCFC substitutes which are even more sensitive and

intolerant of moisture, dirt and other contaminants. The key focus here is to make the participants

understand why some of the existing practices are not proper and how these practices would make

things worse for the alternative refrigerants. Hopefully through this, their acceptance of the correct

practices recommended in this session will be obtained. The areas of focus are Tools, Flare fitting,

Swaging, Bending, Brazing, Cleaning and Flushing, Leak Testing, Evacuation, Measurement /

holding of vacuum, Charging of Refrigerant and Cross contamination.

Terminal Performance Objectives

At the end of this session, the participants should be able to:

a) Understand the need for carrying out work in the areas of focus listed above in the manner

described in the sessions.

b) Compare this with the practices they currently follow.

c) Realise the difference in the practices they follow and what is prescribed, and the detrimental

effect of their practices.

d) Analyze what is needed to change over to the prescribed methods. Is it because of lack of

knowledge, which they have now gained and therefore appreciate the reasons for following the

prescribed methods? Or is it because of the lack of the right type of tools, instruments, gauges and

equipments, etc?

The participants, having been convinced of the need for change, should put down in writing what is

possible for them to change immediately (because it is possible and within their limitations of efforts

and costs), and what would need investments of a higher degree; and how they would go about it.

Tools & Equipments (if any) required for the session:

None
 6 Best Servicing Practices, Do’s & Don’ts.
Best Servicing Practices, Do’s & Don’ts

Introduce the subject, stating that this session would cover many of the practices
followed in the field by mechanics, and the reasons why some of the practices should
not be followed and should be substituted by better practices.

Who is better?

This slide is pictorial and conveys a lot. Trainer can ask a very simple question here
that after visualizing A and B which kind of technician you want to be. In picture ‘A’ tools
are not scattered and all are in single cabinet. In the below picture technician is doing
brazing with safety, wearing goggles. Whereas in pictures B the tools are scattered and
the loss of getting injured and one can get loss of his tools. And in the picture below
the goggles are there but the tendency of the technician is such that he put it up. So
promote that they must be like ‘A’.
Common Practices that are damaging to Refrigeration
& Air-conditioning System

A non-exhaustive list of incorrect practices by air-conditioning technicians is given in this slide.

The trainer can take them one by one and discuss briefly with the participants to emphasise
the negative side.

Areas of Focus

This slide indeed no need to discuss in length but describe the title only that in the flowing
slides we will be discussing on good tools, tube cutting and deburring, flare fitting, swaging,
bending, brazing, cleaning and flushing, leak testing, evacuation, measurement / holding of
vacuum, charging of refrigerant and cross contamination one by one.
 6 Good Tools
The right tools are required in to
enable the air-conditioning system
to be properly evacuated and dried.
Best Servicing Practices, Do’s & Don’ts

Good tools like Flaring Tool, Torque

Wrench, are required to work with
new refrigerants. There is a need to
upgrade the facility in terms of tools and
equipments for quality servicing and to
handle new refrigerants. Use of proper
tools and equipments would lead to
accuracy, reliability, responsiveness
and credibility, which are select
elements of quality service.

In open market many cheap tools and equipments are available but their accuracy and
quality is a big question and hence right tools for right job are necessary.
Therefore, in order to have a set of correct tools and equipments each technician must
understand the importance and benefits derived from them. Since the HCFC refrigerants
are under replacement it is very essential to understand the actual need of each tool
and equipment as the level of accuracy required in alternatives is relatively very high.

Tube cutting and deburring

Tube Cutting is the basic step to start
with good practices. If your base of
the building is strong then you can
construct multi story. Same here cut
the tube by slowly rotating the wheel
adding pressure on every tow rounds
and cut the tube perfectly. After cutting
do the deburring of the pipe from inside
and outside.

Trainer can ask a question from the

picture on the slide which tube cutting
is better?
Flare fitting
As the new refrigerants are entering to the
market and the technicians have to work on high
pressures and accordingly they have to prepare
the right kind of flare fittings to tolerate these
pressures. A suitable Flaring tool to be used so
as not to compromise the integrity of the copper
when flared. Trainer can ask a question from the
picture on the slide which flare is best?

Swaging

After proper cutting and cleaning of the tube, swaging can be performed. Lot of technicians
used the hammer and swaging tool as shown in the slide. After insertion they try to make soft
blow to the tool which enhances the gap of the swage and lot of play comes in both the pipes,
which ultimately leads to the poor brazing. In this slide the new tool available in the market
has been shown. It is like flaring tool only technician has to change the flaring cone with
swaging bit, which is available in the box with different sizes. Only instruction is that rotate
the handle twice and loose the same and rotate and tight again do the same process unless
the desired swaging is reached.
 6 Bending
Best Servicing Practices, Do’s & Don’ts

In normal practice it has been seen that with the smaller tube technicians do the bending
with their hand. But they do wrong unknowingly. The reason behind that with naked
eye one can not judge the wrinkle happens inside the tube, which restrict the flow of
refrigerant. Always use pulley type tube bender for perfect work. Few technicians use
spring type tube bender also.

Essentials of Brazing

This slide presents the key aspects of brazing:

a) In brazing, the base metals [Copper (Cu) and Iron (Fe)] to be joined are never
melted but are heated to a temperature below their melting point, (above 650°C but
below the melting point of Cu which is 1083°C). The filler rod, made of a special alloy,
melts at these temperatures when it contacts the heated metals.
b) The brazing rod should melt on contact with the heated Cu tubes and should
never be heated directly by the torch flame and melted. This can happen only if the Cu
tubes have been heated to the appropriate temperatures.
c) The filler rod that has melted on contacting the heated base metals (Cu tubes)
flows into the clearance between the overlapping Cu tubes that have to be joined,
by capillary action. This capillary action will take place only when the clearances are
maintained within certain limits.
Essentials of Brazing (cont)

This slide show in a pictorial form a cross-section of the inner and outer tubes being brazed,
along with the molten filler material. The melted filler rod as a liquid wets the surface of
the Cu tubes and penetrates superficially into the surface of the Cu tubes to form a strong
metallurgical bond between the outer surface of one tube and the inner surface of the other
tube, that overlaps this tube at the joint. The boundary-locking layers in the diagram show
the metallurgical bond.
 6 Good Brazed joints: Prerequisites
Best Servicing Practices, Do’s & Don’ts

a) The first thing to be done before the commencement of brazing is to ensure that
the joints are prepared correctly. This involves thorough cleaning of the surfaces to be
joined using emery or wire brush to leave a clean and bright surface. This will ensure
removal of all dirt, greases, oils and other impurities that will otherwise be present on
the surfaces and prevent proper wetting of the surfaces. The second thing to ensure is
that the clearances between the two tubes that are to be joined are maintained correctly.
The ideal clearance would be between 0.05mm to 0.200 mm. For same dia. tubes this
will be achieved using the right swaging tools.

b) The temperature of brazing is the next important thing and this is a result of the
right combination of fuel, torch and flame. Apart from Oxy Acetylene or Oxy LPG fuel
and torches, which give the best results, Air LPG can also be used.

c) The right brazing filler rods are to be used. For Cu to Cu brazing, filler rods that
contain 7.5% Phosphorus and the balance Cu (known as Phos Cu) can be used without
a flux, as Phosphorus itself acts as a good flux. Brazing rods with 2% Ag can also be
used, preferably with a flux, as Ag lowers the temperature of melting. For Cu to Fe
brazing, filler rods containing Phosphorus are to be strictly avoided, and rods containing
at least 35% Ag have to be used with a flux, the balance composition of the rods being
Cd and Zn.

d) Finally, the brazing operation with the torch has to be done in a way that ensures
heating of the base metals (i.e. the tubes) in a manner that facilitates the flow of the
molten filler rod into the clearances.
Temperatures for Brazing

This refers to the temperature range at which Phos Cu brazing rods start melting. The
temperature should be in the range of 600°C to 815°C, considering all brazing alloys for Cu.
The average temperature for such brazing rods is around 705°C.

The addition of Ag lowers the melting point of the rods; and rods with 35% Ag start melting at
around 600°C. Phos Cu rods with 2% Ag start melting at around 643°C. The judgment of the
temperature can be done by the technician with experience because every time infrared temp
reader can not be put for measurement of temperature.

Brazing by passing dry nitrogen

This slide shows the brazing process taking place with by introducing dry nitrogen. It is very
clear from the picture that when we prepare normal joint one can see the carbon. From the
pictorial on the right hand side there are two sectional views of copper pipe. One brazing
has been done normal and other is with nitrogen introduction, ask the question from the
technician which look more better and right answer will be there.
 6 Brazing Good or Poor
Best Servicing Practices, Do’s & Don’ts

So many pictorial have shown as good or poor brazing. Stained brazing is poor brazing
which have been shown in the ‘B’. Technicians must practice in the second session on
brazing and cut the same to sectional view to see their own skill on brazing.

Flame

There are three types of flames namely Neutral, Oxidizing and Carbonizing. The neutral
flame is recommended for brazing copper to copper or copper to MS pipes. The oxidizing
flame is used for cutting the material. Some time when the oxygen pressure is released
more the hole in copper pipe takes place. That is known as the oxidizing flame. The
third type of flame when mild carbonizing is also recommended for RAC work.
Caution!!

Keep away all type of refrigerant cylinders away from the flame while performing the brazing.
Keep away minimum 2m. all the flammable material. Smoking must be avoided while
servicing.

Suitability of Brazing Equipment

a) An oxy-acetylene flame attains a temperature of 3200°C, heats the tubes to the

necessary temperatures very fast, and the brazing operation is over very quickly. In fact, in
this case one has to watch out against overheating.
b) The second best option is to use oxygen – LPG combination which is economical also.
And at the same time acetylene is not available in all the cities in lot of countries.
c) The flame of an Air LPG torch using cooking gas LPG as the fuel attains a temperature
of 900°C (straight flame) to 1030°C (swirl jet or cyclone). This does heat the tubes to
temperatures necessary to completely melt the rods for small tubing of 1/4” to 3/8”.
 6 Cleaning and Flushing
Best Servicing Practices, Do’s & Don’ts

a) Compressed air should never be used for flushing, particularly when a hermetic
compressor is used to generate the compressed air. This is because the Compressed
Air will contain moisture and other gases as well as lubricant from the compressor and
thereby contaminates the system. Use only dry Nitrogen instead. It is inert and will also
absorb some of the moisture in the system.

b) Whenever chemical cleaning is needed to clean contaminated systems use MDC

or Hexane instead of 141b, since 141b being an ODS, is also being phased out under
the Montreal Protocol. Ensure that the all liquid R141b is vaporised out of the system.

c) Petrol is being used as a cleaning agent. This should be avoided as commercial

petrol contains all sorts of impurities, which will only contaminate the system. As
mentioned earlier, use MDC or Hexane.

d) Another reason for avoiding the use of Air or Oxygen for flushing systems is that
the Oxygen in the air can react with the compressor oil whilst the moisture in the air can
be absorbed by the compressor oil. This is particularly critical for compressors running
on HFCs and POE lubricants.
Leak Testing

a) Leak testing should always be done using dry Nitrogen because it is inert and also
absorbs moisture inside the system. Compressed air or oxygen should never be used for this
purpose.

b) The reasons that prohibit the use of Air for flushing, mentioned in the earlier slide, also
hold good for leak testing. It may be worth going through the reasons again with participation
of the participants.

a) If commercial Nitrogen is used, it may be preferable to use a desiccant unit to ensure

dry Nitrogen.

b) The advantage of dry Nitrogen is that it absorbs a good bit of the moisture present in
the system and reduces the moisture removal load of the vacuum pump during the next step
of evacuation.

c) If an electronic leak detector has to be used for leak detection then a small quantity of
the refrigerant is introduced as a tracer gas and mixed with the nitrogen. If compressed air is
used instead of nitrogen, a refrigerant like HFC134a can form a combustible mixture with air.
At 5.5 psig at 177°C at concentrations of over 60% in the air, HFC134a is combustible. As
leak testing is done at much higher pressures, although at lower temperatures, it is better to
avoid using compressed air with HFC134a or other HFC based refrigerant as a tracer gas.
 6 Equipment for Evacuation
Best Servicing Practices, Do’s & Don’ts

a) Using the appliance’s compressor for evacuation (‘self-vacuuming’) is a common

practice in the field. It is a wrong practice as it does not evacuate the system of all the
moisture and other gases but also damages the compressor of the appliance.

b) Reciprocating refrigeration compressors can not produce the vacuum necessary

to evacuate all the moisture. Further, using the appliance compressor as a vacuum
pump can lead to the deposition of moisture/water on the discharge chamber and
valves, and result in compressor deterioration. It can also result in lubricant oil being
pumped out, which can lead to compressor failure later.

c) The same reasons hold good for separate reciprocating compressors being
used as vacuum pumps. The vacuum created will just be inadequate to boil out all the
moisture in the system.

d) Moisture is present in the system as tiny droplets or grains of condensed moisture

or water. It can be removed only by boiling off which can be done only by heating or by a
deep vacuum. At site the most practical way is to subject the system to a deep vacuum
adequate to boil off the water. Water boils at 25°C at a vacuum of about 1” Hg or 25,000
Microns. To ensure complete boiling off of all the water at a fast rate, a vacuum of at
least 500 microns has to be reached.

e) Reciprocating refrigeration compressors generate vacuum of about 76,000

microns. Single stage rotary vacuum pumps are normally used for vacuum levels of
about 76,000 microns. It is therefore essential to use a two stage rotary vacuum pump
to reach levels of 100 to 200 microns at a fairly good speed of pumping, particularly for
refrigerants like HFCs and HCs. This will ensure that most of the water in the system
would have boiled off.
Why a vacuum pump is needed

It can be seen from this table that at an ambient temperature of 25°C the system vacuum
of 23000 microns is required for the water to boil off as a vapour. As the water boils off,
the temperature of the water also reduces, as latent heat required for boiling is also drawn
partially from the water. As the water temperature falls, lower vacuum is needed to boil as can
be seen in the table at 10°C & 0°C. Hence the need for a vacuum pump.

Comparison of Vacuum Pump vs. Compressor

This slide shows the graph of the vacuum drawn by two-stage vacuum pumps and a typical
system compressor. It can be seen that the compressor produces a blank-off vacuum of
around 50,000 microns and therefore cannot be used to remove water vapours below 40°C.
A demonstration can be conducted here that what is the difference between reciprocating
compressor and double stage vacuum pump.
 6 Equipment for Evacuation
Best Servicing Practices, Do’s & Don’ts

a) The reasons for using two stage rotary vacuum pumps have been brought out
earlier. This is necessary for all HFC refrigerants, which, along with their lubricating
oils are highly hygroscopic. Moisture, if present, leads to other problems like sludge
formation and capillary choking.

b) The two stage rotary vacuum pumps are able to pull vacuum to about 100 microns
because of their construction (Rotary Vane pumps) and the excellent sealing done by
the vacuum pump oil, which serves as both lubricant and sealant.

c) Reciprocating Refrigeration compressors cannot produce such deep levels of

vacuum because of the clearance volume in the pumping chamber or cylinder; and also
because the sealing is not as good as in rotary vacuum pumps.
Measuring vacuum accurately

a) The use of a micron level vacuum gauge that can read vacuum in microns (usually
Pirani or Thermocouple vacuum gauges) and having a 1-9999 microns range helps in
ascertaining the level to which the vacuum has been pulled.
b) After pulling a low vacuum of 500 microns or lower, the vacuum pump is isolated to
check the rise in vacuum in the system or to ascertain the true vacuum in the system. The
same micron gauge is used for this purpose.
c) If the vacuum rises too rapidly and goes beyond 10000 microns it means there is a
leak. If it rises slowly and stabilizes at a particular value in 5-10 minutes, it means moisture is
still present.
d) Repeat steps b) & c) till the vacuum stabilizes at a value lower than 1500 microns. The
lower the level, the better is the quality of evacuation.
 6 Charging
Best Servicing Practices, Do’s & Don’ts

a) The performance of air-conditioning systems, both in terms of cooling as well

as energy consumption, in capillary fitted systems is optimum at a particular charge
weight, which is normally declared by the manufacturer of the appliance, on the name-
plate of the appliance.

b) It has been found that the energy consumption (kWh/day) increases sharply if
the charge is lower or higher than the optimum.

c) Appliances fitted with hydrocarbons, where the charge weight is less than 50%
of equivalent HCFC-22 systems are the most sensitive.

d) Therefore, after carrying out any repair or servicing of the air-conditioning sys-
tem it is best to recharge the system with the same weight of the refrigerant, as speci-
fied by the manufacturer.

e) To achieve this, methods like charging by observing suction and head pressures
or suction line temperature (no sweat) or charging to a frost line will not be accurate.
The best way is to charge by weight using weighing scales. The next best is by using
volumetric charging cylinders corrected for ambient temperatures.
Contamination & Cross-Contamination

Contaminants: Refrigerant systems can be contaminated by moisture, non-condensable

(particularly if evacuation is not done thoroughly), chemical residues, dirt or dust, if care is
not taken during servicing

Cross-Contamination: In addition to the above sources of contamination, there is also the

risk of cross-contamination, which is the introduction or import of contaminants into a air-
conditioning system from another system or equipment used in servicing.

• When refrigerants cylinders are used for refilling different refrigerants.

• This will seriously affect appliance performance
 6 Likely Sites for Refrigerant Cross Contamination
Best Servicing Practices, Do’s & Don’ts

1. The most common sites where refrigerants can remain as substantial residuals
are the charging stills of E&C units and the condensers of recovery or recovery &
recycling machines. In both these cases, where an E&C unit or an R&R machine is
used for more than one refrigerant, there are potential sites of cross-contamination,
which need careful handling. The following action is recommended:

a. Empty out all the residual refrigerant before using a different refrigerant and
evacuate the E&C unit / R&R machine preferably to 1000 microns before reuse. This
ensures removal of almost all traces of the residual refrigerant.

b. It is better however, if separate machines are used for separate refrigerants.

2. Recovery cylinders are other potential sources. It is absolutely necessary to use

separate cylinders for each & every type of refrigerant.

3. Removal of all traces of old refrigerant trough deep evacuation is necessary

when retrofitting old systems with substitute refrigerants.

How to avoid cross contamination

Perform deep vacuum upto 1000 microns or less before switching to a new refrigerant.
And if possible use separate E&C & Recovery machines for each type of refrigerants.
Make sure that separate recovery cylinders for each refrigerant must be used to avoid
any cross contamination.
Evaluation Questions
1. What are the essentials of brazing?

2. Why the brazing joints carry less carbon deposit when we pass dry nitrogen during

brazing process?

3. Which kind of flame is recommended for brazing?

4. Why we must not use reciprocating compressor for vacuum?

5. Why vacuum pump is necessary to do the proper vacuum?