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Old 12-31-13, 04:10 PM   #21
jeff5may
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I believe you made a good choice going with R134a as the working refrigerant in your rig. It has been done before. I am riveted by your dialog concerning your selection process. I know R134a has a very wide "acceptable" pressure range, making it useful in both refrigeration and air conditioning. But I did not know that you could push R22 or R290 that high without destroying something.

Obviously, R410a was designed to work at high pressure levels at moderate temps, not so much at low or high extremes. Can you elaborate on the envelopes of these refrigerants? Assuming a system (as yours) originally designed for R410a, where the compressor and plumbing will handle the high pressure, how hard can you actually push these alternative gases before they won't work? What goes wrong when a limit is exceeded?

The reason I ask is because so many of these R410a systems are hitting the scrapyards. I would love to experiment with propane or propylene in these units, but without an understanding of the temps/pressures that are achievable at safe margins, I am apprehensive.

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