question on the refill 134R can at walmart with gauge.

rnln · 07-23-2007, 06:05 PM

I saw those refill 134R cans at Walmart and many other places. Many of them come with a kit include a gauge. Can I really trust that gauge?

Porsche_monkey · 07-24-2007, 06:11 AM

Bump. I'm also curious...

mschuep · 07-24-2007, 12:18 PM

FWIW, I bought that kit about 5+ years ago and use it on my old toyota daily driver and it still works well (slow leak that needs a fill a couple times a year). I'm not sure about the accuracy, but for A/C it seems close enough.

cellison · 07-24-2007, 03:36 PM

I used it on the daily beater several years ago and it worked well.

Charles
88 Cab

rnln · 07-24-2007, 05:34 PM

cellison,
daily??? You have to pump 134R to your car daily?

mschuep,
I think you have the same situation I can catch here.
On my car, the tech recharge it several times and each time it last several weeks. The last time, I and a more reputable tech did it more carefully. We replaced dryer and test system for leak. No leak, we found. Then we pumped 134R. It last for around 10 times (10 turn on AC). He just did a test again and found that it has 15 PSI left in the system. He pumped it up to 35 PSI and NO COLD.

Many people said on the R12 system converted to 134R, ONLY pump it to 80%, not 100%. If pump it to 100%, it won't be cold. What I need is 30 PSI at the lower pressure valve. So what I am thinking is buying a cheap kit and leave it at home and recharge the system myself every 2 or 3 months. But if the gauge from these kit is not accurrate, it might not work.

Ken911 · 05:55 PM

If you read the manual you dont go by the pressure since the condenser in the engine cover has no air flow through it when charging the system so it will run abnormally high. You are supposed to losen the hose clamps holding the dryer in the front fenderwell and rotate it around to you can see the bulls eye on the side of the dryer and then fill until the little red ball in the bulls eye starts floating. also do NOT use the can that has oil in it they always try to sell that saying if your system leaks the the oil is leaking out too. but these cars do not have barrier hose and it will difuse out through the hoses over time. if you add the stuff with oil in it the system will have too much oil and it will blow the seals on the compressor.

rnln · 07-24-2007, 11:52 PM

I just found better gauges from Harbor Freight. Can this tool set connect to the 134 small cans sell at Walmart or Autozone? I assume this tool kit should be much better than the small plastic gague/hose come with those kits at Walmart and Autopart store. Am I correct?

link: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=92649

mschuep · 07-25-2007, 04:13 AM

...I'm not sure you can recharge with that setup. There are two gauges on that one so you can connect to the high and low side of the system, but I never mess around with the high side anyway. Because those gauges are specifically for the R134A system, they would be able to connect to standard R134A 'nozzles', assuming you or your mechanic changed over to the nozzles when you converted the system they should fit fine.

I would get the walmart gauge. Even if the calibration of the gauge was off slightly, I'm sure after a couple rounds you could find the sweet spot. In addition, the exact pressure you're looking to run at seems to be a bit fuzzy at this point.

As a side note, if you are still running your system with the R12 nozzles, there is another ~$10 kit at walmart that has adapter/conversion connectors...One of these you can just screw ontop of the existing low-side R12 connector and then snap on the refill hose/gauge you originally posted about.

rnln · 07-25-2007, 05:28 AM

Matt,
Mine is converted already so I assume the kit above would fit on my car. What I wonder is if it would fit on the little can selling at Walmart.

PSJoyce · 07-25-2007, 06:02 AM

I believe you need a valve can tap, like:

http://www.sjdiscounttools.com/msc85510.html

(Mastercool 85510)

to use the manifold with the litte R134a cans. That's what I've got

Paul

Ken911 · 07-25-2007, 04:38 PM

the yellow hose gets connected to the can there should be a valve in the kit if not get a can valve at walmart or the auto parts store it screws to the yellow hose hook it up let it run a couple minutes the open the blue valve then the can valve. do not open the red valve when a can is attached.

Barrpete · 07-25-2007, 05:19 PM

You want to be careful recharging your system if you aren't familiar with the process & equipment. Doing it improperly can be dangerous.

You should not run system with deck lid open! Without the airflow over the condensor provided by the engine fan the high side pressures can get way too high and hoses can burst. Burst hoses = potential injuries! Keep the decklid down and let the hoses hang outside while recharging.

Do a search, there are several threads on the recharging process. Search on Jim Sims who is the resident AC expert.

rnln · 08:54 PM

Thanks for the info. I did a lot of searches and also asked several tech who recharged my car recently, several times. Because my car has a leak somewhere, it need to be recharge once every 1 or 2 months. I plan is to do the recharging myself from now on.

I bought the cheap kit from Walmart and went home pumped it up right away from around 20+ to around 30-32 psi. Bad news = no cold. Outside temp is 75F and I am getting around 70F-71F

Now I think I doubt the gauge come with the cheap kit.

Anyone around SCal with good gauge can help verifying my gauge? Thanks.