Changhong Air Conditioner Repair Q&A; Steps and Precautions for Recovering Refrigerant - Edited and Organized by the Beijing Changhong Air Conditioner After-sales Service Center on September 23, 2011.
Recovering refrigerant (commonly referred to as "收氟" in Chinese) is an operation performed during the relocation and reinstallation of a split-type air conditioner. The purpose of this operation is to recover the refrigerant from the system into the outdoor unit's piping, minimizing the loss of refrigerant during the relocation process. The steps for recovering refrigerant are as follows:
Step One: Turn on the air conditioner and set it to cooling mode.
Step Two: Use an adjustable wrench to remove the adjustment port valve caps of the two-way and three-way shut-off valves on the outdoor unit.
Step Three: Use a hex key (Allen wrench) to fully turn the valve stem of the two-way shut-off valve clockwise, closing the liquid line of the outdoor unit. Allow the compressor to continue running so that the refrigerant from the indoor unit is continuously recovered into the outdoor unit.
Step Four: After the compressor has run for 30 seconds, use the hex key to fully turn the valve stem of the three-way shut-off valve clockwise, closing the gas return line of the outdoor unit. Then, turn off the power supply of the air conditioner to stop the compressor. At this point, the entire refrigerant recovery operation is complete.
Note: It is impossible to completely recover all the refrigerant from the indoor unit and connecting pipes during the refrigerant recovery operation; some residual refrigerant will always remain. Therefore, when disconnecting the pipes, slowly loosen the connection nuts. Wait until all the residual refrigerant has been released before fully loosening the nuts. This prevents refrigerant from splashing onto the body, which could cause frostbite.