The Heat Exchangers that I ordered from ebay have arrived. The seller is located in Alabama, I think, and he claims to be a fast shipper. I'd have to agree, very soon after my order was placed, I got a confirmation and a tracking number. Pretty soon, they were in the front porch.
I checked them out carefully, size, plates, ports. Just like the picture, just like I ordered.
I lucked out and found a refrigerant recovery machine at a local junk store for $35 dollars, such a deal. The also made me take an 80 watt Taco circulation pump. Oh the indignities I have to put up with! I brought the recovery machine home and tested it out and it seems just fine.
After the R-22 was safely extracted and carefully stored, I carefully disassembling the 70 pint de-humidifier, that showed up on my porch with no explanation.
[*
They say that if you're in harmony with the universe, then good things will come to you. I have to say, I was expecting money or beautiful babes, or maybe a pretty good car... but discarded de-humidifiers? I just wouldn't have guessed it... *]
Here are the essential parts that will become Heat Pump #2:
I handled very carefully and safely set aside the refrigerant-to-air heat exchangers to be used in future, yet-to-be-imagined projects.
The cap tube was also very carefully removed. This part has been pre-engineered to work with the compressor. My heat exchangers are a pretty close match to the compressor's rating so just brazing the heat pump back together with the new heat exchangers instead of the old (and using the old cap tube), is the easy route.
However, I did previously purchase a Thermal eXpansion Valve (AKA: TXV) to use with a heat pump project and this just might be the right project.
Finding the right size TXV for a Heat Pump with a capacity of less than a Ton is not so easy, but I discovered that Danfoss TXVs have a family of inserts that will allow the same valve body to work over a broad range, and two of those inserts are sized at 0.4 Ton and 0.7 Ton (the insert I have). I'm projecting this Heat Pump to have a capacity of .65 Ton so it looks like I'm in business.
Next step is to determine the layout...
Regards,
-AC_Hacker