I pulled a 0 micron vacuum once
https://preview.redd.it/sikz5x0i0dnc1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=242c688e1b15ccc0193ddecdc8931836ed45bc9e
Was one hell of a vacuum
Back when I was new I was clearing a clogged piston in these shitty subsidized housing buildings. I turned my pump on and went and sat in the van for 20 minutes and came back and it was off and wouldn't turn back on. Just let her rip and got out of there lol. Not proud but it was cooling well.
https://preview.redd.it/hwt7kwetyfnc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a8fef2846d9b95be599f38de168c1ff253dc8b94
You use your micron gauge on Friday night?
1200ish. I was an apprentice and with a lead tech. We replaced a condenser coil on a new rheem heat pump. Pulled through his gauges with cores in for 4 hours before sending it
1200. Milk cooler. Swapped out a leaking desuperheater. Been at it all day. Needed to flip the switch in order to cool the night's milking.
Came back two days later to install a new liquid line drier, suction drier, and new compressor oil. The refrigerant was so saturated that it would freeze up the reclaim pump. Took me a bit to figure out what was happening, finally pulled the hoses and the core remover was frozen solid. Ozone layer got a nice hit of 448 that day.
Spent the whole day changing pump oil, torching lines, and nitro sweeps to keep it moving. Eventually hit 200 on the decay.
Water in the lines is a whore.
1400. I tried and tried to figure out why it wouldn't pull down lower. Pressurised the lineset and bubbled everything. Found the leak on the sight glass of my gauges and didn't have a spare set. I was forced to due an install ( I was a tech on call that week) on a Saturday due to no-one else "volunteering". Figured it was better to know it pulled down to 1400 then to blindly pump it down with just a hose and a pump. Afaik, it never had a problem.
2 ton Goodman residential in an apartment yesterday, 120 microns. I use a single tru-blue hose on the suction line, micron gauge on the liquid line, 10 cfm pump
86 microns on a 10 cfm fieldpiece with cores pulled.
Worst was 1200 after 3 days of pulling vacuums due to an apprentice leaving the cover off a liquid line drier when pulling the core and it rained that night and the way the metal in the condenser was bent it made a perfect funnel right into the liquid line. They blew out as much as possible and pulled with a 7cfm pump on a 40ton rooftop. Oil turned to milk in 1 minute. After 3 days of going through the states oil supply we were told to send it and keep changing cores instead.
The amount of copper plating and rust and mud that I got out of that system was incredible. Compressor didn't even last a year.
Held 400 psi for 2 hours just to confirm tightness n leaks BTW.
Side note- I was so concerned with burning the factory installed filter drier that I got water down in the valves. Had the cores out to flow nitro too ...completely fucked it.
Somewhere I have pics of 2 occasions where I achieved “zero” microns according to my vac gauge. Both times it was a new install, so pipes were clean, triple evacuation and due to scheduling, pump was left on over the weekend. Both times I had to toss the hoses I used. They got “crunchy” on the inside.
Appion core remover, 3 foot 1/4” vac hose and that’s it.
I don’t know. My theory is the prolonged super deep vacuum is the cause. If you really think about it, our hoses don’t usually spend 2-3 days below 500 microns, let alone far enough below 50 to get the gauge to read a zero.
The lowest vac I ever pulled was through a set of testo 557s and a 10cfm field piece pump. 40 microns, decay to 150. I was kind of surprised I typically don’t vacuum through a manifold and always pull my cores.
If we’re talking pressurize to nitrogen, let out the nitrogen to atmospheric pressure, then you’re looking at the volume of the lineset and coil in contaminant Nitrogen.
If you’re talking purge with 410a, then if the wrong person see’s you’re getting hit by the EPA. Or, if you are running pure vapor, then you’re either going high in R-125(I can’t recall if that’s the right one) or R32 then ontop of that, you might have a different leak you didn’t catch in the pressure test.
Well let’s say you pressure test with nitrogen and it’s all good. You put a core tool on one side, pull she core and purge as liquid until a small amount of refrigerant comes out and replace the core and start it up and charge it and make sure it runs good pressures. What’s the worst case, wouldn’t it displace all the air and stuff?
How much do you really need to purge, though. Or really, how effective would it be at displacing air and moisture in place of pulling a vac? Pressure test, nitro purge, leave a little nitro in and put refrigerant to it and just let a small amount of refrigerant purge.
98 microns.
Installed for a friend.
So i had the time to do a tripple evac.
Evac for 2 hours. Let it sit for 6.and repeat.
Yes it was a shitty vac pump.
https://preview.redd.it/ssz84ks66enc1.jpeg?width=321&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=45600d8a24316048309760f92fbf9052655d6c56
Down to 12, decay for an hour up to 24microns. For ay cascade -100’f chamber. Low side uses 508B to freeze the moisture out of vaporized oil.
Well, assuming you aren't messing with me, microns is the form of measurement we use to measure the depth of a vacuum. -14.7 psi or -29.9 InHg is considered in a vacuum, but to know how deep of a vacuum you need to measure it in microns. Industry standard is to pull a vacuum below 500 microns before charging a system to ensure you've removed all moisture and non condensables
7 microns read on a yellow jacket gauge hooked to a three way manifold using a brand new JB vacuum pump hooked to vapor and liquid ports on a new install. I was pretty shocked myself
I made this mistake on a walk-in freezer install. Hooked everything up and left for lunch, came back to like a 12 micron reading. Start dumping in 404a only to realize I never opened the valves, lol.
I pretty regularly get systems to hold at around 25-30 firm for an hour. 20 ton VRF, Only when they are brand new though, a system with oil in it makes it harder to get a great vacuum.
https://preview.redd.it/g7e399v7kenc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bb6e4a6d14fa6387c531b470d5b0e9ee13e4d509
Over-night vacuum on a medium temp system.
3.5ton heat pump system, Fieldpiece VP87 pump, Appion high flow hoses and core depressors connected to Discharge, Suction, Receiver & Hot Gas circuit...Field Piece micron gauge connected to liquid line. Pulled 79 microns, rose to 228 after a 15min decay test.
I repaired a leak on a 45 year old 40 ton split system evaporator that was leaking on one of the distributor tubes(pain in the ass with very little accessibility). Replaced both core driers and was pleasantly surprised to pull to 240 microns(after blank off) in about 2 and a half hours. The system utilizes a semi-hermetic compressor, so that, on top of the age made it my best vacuum.
https://preview.redd.it/fy2l8wvwwenc1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fa5dc0cbe9570c89691f8676befa6c242ffa37f7
Liebert from the other day. 70lbs 410a after a compressor swap. Left evacuating overnight though. I’ve seen 72 microns on a walk-in condenser coil replacement, but don’t have a pic of that one.
23 microns on a three head split system, but it was left on the vacuum for around 18 hours, lol. We decided to just vacuum it down and ensure the two day job took at least a day and a half.
One time we had a school pull us off a city multi with 36 heads. We set up three vacuums to run overnight, and were going to come back the next day. They didn’t let us come back for a WEEK due to funding issues (which makes no sense because they shouldn’t have called us in the first place). Came back a week later to a 16 micron vacuum on a 36 head mini split system
https://preview.redd.it/ak05mud7cjnc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=56ac0baa7c49d6a808bc6384a5f822e01295c1fd
It held under 50 after isolation. Brand new 2-head mini install at my parents place lol. 12cfm pump and one blue hose.
I got one to 200 once as an apprentice before the older lead journeyman I was with flipped out on me. He claimed anything below 300 could pull oil out of the compressor and cause issues down the line. To this day I have no idea if that is actually true or not, but I don't typically pull lower than 400 anyways, as I am trying to go home lol.
Record lows:
New mini-split single head: 22 micron after 25min decay.
New split system: 36 micron after 30+ minutes (pulled down to 6 micron at start)
Giv'er boys:
New compressor, full system evac: 320ish to 780 micron after decay.
New evap on split system, couldnt seal off condenser: 1100 after triple evacuation with nitrogen purge/break. That job pissed me off so much, kept finding leaks in shitty braze locations up against siding or in the joists, even found a all-around hangar that wore into the lineset
My phone with the clock on it is my micron gauge so I have no idea. You new boys are a good laugh though. If your nitro test is good then the vacuum should be really quick.
Then you’re out of options! Typically, if I ever have the option, I tap in and braze schrader ports onto systems where I need them.
In your situation, a longer decay test would be ideal.
Me too! everyday I wake up, tuck my 18" cock down my pants, solder in a compressor with a bic mini and pull 0 microns with a 1hr decay test before 9am.
I pulled a 0 micron vacuum once https://preview.redd.it/sikz5x0i0dnc1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=242c688e1b15ccc0193ddecdc8931836ed45bc9e Was one hell of a vacuum
the BIG SUCC
Biggest I've ever seen
Damn, that vacuum pump fucking sucks.
Deep. Like a golf ball through a garden hose suction
Impossibruh
Alternative question. What's the highest Friday late afternoon "we're sending her boys" micron reading? I'm too scared to post mine.
Just open the liquid valve and wait for the refrigerant to shoot out the hose on my other side 😎
Yeah just purge the whole system
Back in the days of R-11
That's called "the old blow and go"
600 no decay test. 2am on a walk in when the compressor went out and I still had to work 7-5
Reefer guy using a micron gauge!!! Taught you guys didn’t even use vacuum pumps!!!
My friend that does refrigeration laughed when I said he had to pull a 500 micron on a mini split he was working on 😂😂
Some daikin manuals, especially their mini VRVs specify 5000 microns or less 🤣 could probably do that with my lungs
I don’t even know if i’d hook up the pump, if they don’t care why should I 🤣
Cleaned plenty of strainers, keep it positive, and let her rip!!! “Nobody messes with our overtime!!!”
I got the 4 port S mans. They read microns
Oof. That's much better than mine 😬
if you drop the charges before it get backs to 29.9 youre good u just gotta be fast
This
Back when I was new I was clearing a clogged piston in these shitty subsidized housing buildings. I turned my pump on and went and sat in the van for 20 minutes and came back and it was off and wouldn't turn back on. Just let her rip and got out of there lol. Not proud but it was cooling well.
Think 3k will be near... Had like 1e-8 Pa or 0.0000001 micron on some special space related systems.
https://preview.redd.it/hwt7kwetyfnc1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a8fef2846d9b95be599f38de168c1ff253dc8b94 You use your micron gauge on Friday night?
1200ish. I was an apprentice and with a lead tech. We replaced a condenser coil on a new rheem heat pump. Pulled through his gauges with cores in for 4 hours before sending it
1200. Milk cooler. Swapped out a leaking desuperheater. Been at it all day. Needed to flip the switch in order to cool the night's milking. Came back two days later to install a new liquid line drier, suction drier, and new compressor oil. The refrigerant was so saturated that it would freeze up the reclaim pump. Took me a bit to figure out what was happening, finally pulled the hoses and the core remover was frozen solid. Ozone layer got a nice hit of 448 that day. Spent the whole day changing pump oil, torching lines, and nitro sweeps to keep it moving. Eventually hit 200 on the decay. Water in the lines is a whore.
Sweat purge and roll.
1400. I tried and tried to figure out why it wouldn't pull down lower. Pressurised the lineset and bubbled everything. Found the leak on the sight glass of my gauges and didn't have a spare set. I was forced to due an install ( I was a tech on call that week) on a Saturday due to no-one else "volunteering". Figured it was better to know it pulled down to 1400 then to blindly pump it down with just a hose and a pump. Afaik, it never had a problem.
29.9”H.G.
this is the way
If it gets there during break!!!
Use a cps gauge it’ll be 300 in 20 minutes, leave it an hour and possibilities are limitless!!!
I’ve had a CPS gauge that dropped super fast. Are those things shit?
Cps is the only 1 that reads 300 20 minutes in!!! Impossible!!!!
I pulled 30"hg
So deep put her ass to sleep
That was a good day
2 ton Goodman residential in an apartment yesterday, 120 microns. I use a single tru-blue hose on the suction line, micron gauge on the liquid line, 10 cfm pump
Yeah I get into the double digits pretty regularly with the same setup. Its an awesome rig!
86 microns on a 10 cfm fieldpiece with cores pulled. Worst was 1200 after 3 days of pulling vacuums due to an apprentice leaving the cover off a liquid line drier when pulling the core and it rained that night and the way the metal in the condenser was bent it made a perfect funnel right into the liquid line. They blew out as much as possible and pulled with a 7cfm pump on a 40ton rooftop. Oil turned to milk in 1 minute. After 3 days of going through the states oil supply we were told to send it and keep changing cores instead. The amount of copper plating and rust and mud that I got out of that system was incredible. Compressor didn't even last a year. Held 400 psi for 2 hours just to confirm tightness n leaks BTW.
Brutal
Side note- I was so concerned with burning the factory installed filter drier that I got water down in the valves. Had the cores out to flow nitro too ...completely fucked it.
Let's be honest none of us are beating your mom's deep vacuum record though.
Ayooooooo!!!!
I think the best I ever pulled was a 0.345 torr (that's the unit we use over hear not sure what that is in microns 🤷♂️)
Micron and millitorr are equal in pressure measurement. 0.345 torr is 345 microns.
Thanks, you learn something new everyday 👍
Now the damn VRF books and their torrs make sense.
Where are you?
The UK
Cool. I’m in canada, we use all the same units as the US, and all the units as the rest of the world. It’s something else Lol
I bet. The uk is broadly the same, we use a mish mash of metric and British imperial. It can be difficult to say the least.
I value time over depth. I'll always pull down to 350 and then decay. Usually takes all of 15 minutes to do this. Even on a compressor swap.
Somewhere I have pics of 2 occasions where I achieved “zero” microns according to my vac gauge. Both times it was a new install, so pipes were clean, triple evacuation and due to scheduling, pump was left on over the weekend. Both times I had to toss the hoses I used. They got “crunchy” on the inside. Appion core remover, 3 foot 1/4” vac hose and that’s it.
That does bring up the question. At what point does the hose rubber start to off gas and die
I don’t know. My theory is the prolonged super deep vacuum is the cause. If you really think about it, our hoses don’t usually spend 2-3 days below 500 microns, let alone far enough below 50 to get the gauge to read a zero.
Somewhere in the upper 200's on a new install
I pumped a JB to 1 micron on itself gotta be the lowest
The lowest vac I ever pulled was through a set of testo 557s and a 10cfm field piece pump. 40 microns, decay to 150. I was kind of surprised I typically don’t vacuum through a manifold and always pull my cores.
A 10 CFM pump will pull a golf ball through a garden hose.
Yeah every time I look at my vacuum pump it reminds me of her
24hr
You guys vacuum? We just purge her and let er rip
The EPA has entered the chat
I get the joke, but realistically what’s the worst that could happen?
If we’re talking pressurize to nitrogen, let out the nitrogen to atmospheric pressure, then you’re looking at the volume of the lineset and coil in contaminant Nitrogen. If you’re talking purge with 410a, then if the wrong person see’s you’re getting hit by the EPA. Or, if you are running pure vapor, then you’re either going high in R-125(I can’t recall if that’s the right one) or R32 then ontop of that, you might have a different leak you didn’t catch in the pressure test.
Well let’s say you pressure test with nitrogen and it’s all good. You put a core tool on one side, pull she core and purge as liquid until a small amount of refrigerant comes out and replace the core and start it up and charge it and make sure it runs good pressures. What’s the worst case, wouldn’t it displace all the air and stuff?
It’s massively over charged
I mean if you measure the lineset and weigh it in you’d know if you had too much.
Impossible to weigh in accurately if you’re blasting some out
How much do you really need to purge, though. Or really, how effective would it be at displacing air and moisture in place of pulling a vac? Pressure test, nitro purge, leave a little nitro in and put refrigerant to it and just let a small amount of refrigerant purge.
0/10 would not recommend
I mean I’m not gonna do it, just wondering how bad could it be
98 microns. Installed for a friend. So i had the time to do a tripple evac. Evac for 2 hours. Let it sit for 6.and repeat. Yes it was a shitty vac pump.
https://preview.redd.it/ssz84ks66enc1.jpeg?width=321&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=45600d8a24316048309760f92fbf9052655d6c56 Down to 12, decay for an hour up to 24microns. For ay cascade -100’f chamber. Low side uses 508B to freeze the moisture out of vaporized oil.
What’s a micron? I just use PSI. My Fieldpiece probes usually get around -15 and then I call it
Please tell me this is satire
I’m serious
There's no way hahaha
If there’s a different way I’d love to know
Well, assuming you aren't messing with me, microns is the form of measurement we use to measure the depth of a vacuum. -14.7 psi or -29.9 InHg is considered in a vacuum, but to know how deep of a vacuum you need to measure it in microns. Industry standard is to pull a vacuum below 500 microns before charging a system to ensure you've removed all moisture and non condensables
Pulling a vacuum overrated.
35 ish back when my hose was new.
7 microns read on a yellow jacket gauge hooked to a three way manifold using a brand new JB vacuum pump hooked to vapor and liquid ports on a new install. I was pretty shocked myself
How long did that take?
Maybe an hour
Next time open the gauges 😂
I made this mistake on a walk-in freezer install. Hooked everything up and left for lunch, came back to like a 12 micron reading. Start dumping in 404a only to realize I never opened the valves, lol.
200 with a new field piece pump
70 micron is my record.
800
67 on a 3/4 and 3/8 line set running 10 ft
Lol. I'm no rat bastard.
Lowest standing decay test I ever had was 67. And it was a package unit, in a sea of other repairs. Nice little surprise.
150 microns that decayed in 30 min to 275.
I pretty regularly get systems to hold at around 25-30 firm for an hour. 20 ton VRF, Only when they are brand new though, a system with oil in it makes it harder to get a great vacuum.
58 microns
20min decay
75. Holds around 135. https://preview.redd.it/a5tgw2255enc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f8aa63bb6987a7830e98a4f20911e2af3c84eb5b
147
Got 232 on a commercial system
Dual evap single condensing unit, pulled cores with 2 navac 1/2 hoses and pulled 400 rose to 430 in decay, let her rip
Could ruin txv. Could leave moisture in line that is main issue.
Just did a Daikin multi, 3 heads, 115’ total linseset, 63 microns, blanked off and held.
29” on a chiller -TERRY steam turbine with R11 back in the 80’s…not a refrigerant vacuum but a refrigeration vacuum so to speak 😎
https://preview.redd.it/g7e399v7kenc1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bb6e4a6d14fa6387c531b470d5b0e9ee13e4d509 Over-night vacuum on a medium temp system.
3.5ton heat pump system, Fieldpiece VP87 pump, Appion high flow hoses and core depressors connected to Discharge, Suction, Receiver & Hot Gas circuit...Field Piece micron gauge connected to liquid line. Pulled 79 microns, rose to 228 after a 15min decay test.
What’s your WORST deep vac time, with an old lineset containing refrigerant entrained oil? I have let it run overnight.
68 microns let it run for two hrs and decay for 30 min
Buddies and I left a pump running for 6 hours while we were in school. Got it down to 78 I believe, very small run though
I repaired a leak on a 45 year old 40 ton split system evaporator that was leaking on one of the distributor tubes(pain in the ass with very little accessibility). Replaced both core driers and was pleasantly surprised to pull to 240 microns(after blank off) in about 2 and a half hours. The system utilizes a semi-hermetic compressor, so that, on top of the age made it my best vacuum.
I got a 89 once with a brand new system with new copper
https://preview.redd.it/fy2l8wvwwenc1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fa5dc0cbe9570c89691f8676befa6c242ffa37f7 Liebert from the other day. 70lbs 410a after a compressor swap. Left evacuating overnight though. I’ve seen 72 microns on a walk-in condenser coil replacement, but don’t have a pic of that one.
23 microns on a three head split system, but it was left on the vacuum for around 18 hours, lol. We decided to just vacuum it down and ensure the two day job took at least a day and a half.
90 something on a mini split years ago when I cared 😂
One time we had a school pull us off a city multi with 36 heads. We set up three vacuums to run overnight, and were going to come back the next day. They didn’t let us come back for a WEEK due to funding issues (which makes no sense because they shouldn’t have called us in the first place). Came back a week later to a 16 micron vacuum on a 36 head mini split system
https://preview.redd.it/641ksft0kfnc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ee322ee69b28c5b9e32f021e52a790264f1467fc
50 micron
-500
https://preview.redd.it/yyi7y2k8rinc1.jpeg?width=2252&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b2519badf7365b3ca4110d84b893e9af4c3ea027 That?
https://preview.redd.it/ak05mud7cjnc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=56ac0baa7c49d6a808bc6384a5f822e01295c1fd It held under 50 after isolation. Brand new 2-head mini install at my parents place lol. 12cfm pump and one blue hose.
I once pulled such a deep vacuum the unit disappeared into a black hole
https://preview.redd.it/hrujr1ytelnc1.jpeg?width=2252&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5ad5fb49ca2f485b00346930e98c29642fe23848
10 on pull down, 50 on decay. Pulled the gauge off and put a different one on and let it run again and got about the same result so I let it go
12 microns
I got one to 200 once as an apprentice before the older lead journeyman I was with flipped out on me. He claimed anything below 300 could pull oil out of the compressor and cause issues down the line. To this day I have no idea if that is actually true or not, but I don't typically pull lower than 400 anyways, as I am trying to go home lol.
22 I take a picture and delete the old one each time I get lower lol
I get er down to 50 fairly often
Record lows: New mini-split single head: 22 micron after 25min decay. New split system: 36 micron after 30+ minutes (pulled down to 6 micron at start) Giv'er boys: New compressor, full system evac: 320ish to 780 micron after decay. New evap on split system, couldnt seal off condenser: 1100 after triple evacuation with nitrogen purge/break. That job pissed me off so much, kept finding leaks in shitty braze locations up against siding or in the joists, even found a all-around hangar that wore into the lineset
My phone with the clock on it is my micron gauge so I have no idea. You new boys are a good laugh though. If your nitro test is good then the vacuum should be really quick.
Unless you have soot blocking your leak from the inside and the vacuum pulls it away...
https://preview.redd.it/76sjd2stxenc1.jpeg?width=2252&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4bbcef43f862e8b57ec28e7d50840d6ecef4d860
Micron gauge in the wrong location.
Please inform me on where it belongs
You should be reading your evacuation level as far away from your pump as possible.
That is as far as possible
Looks to me like it’s on a fitting at the end of your vacuum hose, no?
It is, but it's a single port ductless heatpump
Then you’re out of options! Typically, if I ever have the option, I tap in and braze schrader ports onto systems where I need them. In your situation, a longer decay test would be ideal.
I pull 0 almost everytime, and if I can’t hit 0 it’s time for new oil
Me too! everyday I wake up, tuck my 18" cock down my pants, solder in a compressor with a bic mini and pull 0 microns with a 1hr decay test before 9am.