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Old 03-17-13, 05:45 PM   #6
AC_Hacker
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Quote:
Originally Posted by marx290 View Post
I read a post somewhere of yours AC_Hacker, describing a refrigerant leak resulting in the denser gas sinking down a set of steps into a basement or something. Have you or anyone you know ever had an unsafe experience using propane as a refrigerant? Ignition even?
I live in a house by myself so I'm not endangering my family... only myself. I have found myself literally wrapped in dense propane vapor, and if there had been a spark, I'd not be here to tell you to be careful.

When I have worked with propane, I have done it outside when possible, and when that was not possible I had power vents going and made sure my quantities were very, very small.

But the apartment thing would be unethical. Your neighbors would have nothing to gain from your experimenting and possibly everything to lose. Don't do it.

If you're in your very own digs, then the risk is to you alone.

Brad_C had some excellent advice regarding using a full face shield at all times when working with the stuff.

To answer your question, no I haven't had any explosions or ignitions. But then again, I did ride motorcycles for twenty years with no crashes... not because I was lucky, but because I was very careful.

The first time I did work with organic refrigerant, I realized that I had an electric heater with a thermostatic switch that could arc, in the very same space that I was working... very bad, super bad.

Quote:
Originally Posted by marx290 View Post
In regards to refrigerant control; I played with capillary tubes for a while, but quickly found them to be very limiting. I had a good deal of success using a brass flow control to control refrigerant control, just as the "Temperature Man" used to manually adjust a flow valve in ice plants, I could play with the orifice size and adjust it for a given set of conditions. It is certainly not as reliable as a capillary tube (I would imagine flash gas probably deteriorates the innards of the valve), and a manual valve obviously doesn't self regulate like a TXV or EXV, but it's a hell of a lot of fun and serves to teach the hobbyist what an automatic valve cannot. More of a needle valve with greater precision in control is something I'm looking for.
If you read through some of Brad_C's posts, you'll see that he scavenged an electronically controlled valve and then rolled his own controller. Pretty cool stuff, I think.

Best,

-AC
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