Help with A/C DIY in Columbus, Ohio

[Dublinoh]

Any Pelicans with experience recharging A/C in Columbus area? Would like to learn to do this for myself on my 1987 Carrera. Experience with Freeze 12 would be especially helpful...or experience with vacuum and another product? Will provide plenty of beer and food....
Thanks for reading Joe

[steve911T]

Dublinoh,

I am getting ready to do mine. There are plenty of great posts on how to recharge your system on PP. The thing you will need is to buy the $50 setup at Autozone or Harbor freight and if you buy it at Autozone (at least the store in my area), they will sell the vacuum pump for list price, you use it and if you want to keep it you can, or you return it and get your money back. In other words it is a loaner. Seems rather straight forward to me, I hope. I am just going to use 134a. Steve

[Bob Kontak]

What are you looking to do? I have an EPA 609 license to buy R12.

If you are interested in doing a full scrub-down we would need to get a decent vacuum pump and a set of gauges. My (buddies) good gauges are in NC.

I think that for less than $150 you can get both at the freight but depends on your goal.

I have a cheap-o vacuum pump from the freight that pulls a moderate vacuum if you have an air compressor and that would suffice, but it is not worth a trip from Canton without gauges.

Just putting it out there.

[Dublinoh]

Bob I appreciate your response. Car is in the shop getting a suspension make over now. I think it has something called "freeze 12" in the A/C system. At some point in the future I need to charge it or dump it and switch to R134. It has the R134 fittings and I am leaning towards evacuating the system and recharging with R134....what I would like to learn is how to top it off in the future, I understand that will be necessary about every summer season. Certainly I don't expect someone to travel across the state to help me....but the offer was very generous. Thanks for your input.

[Joeaksa]

Joe,

If you are going to do this more than one time, please get a real vacuum pump and not that POS thing that HF sells to be used with an air compressor. It will pull a fair vacuum in your system but not totally down like is needed. If you are going to do it, do it right.

I picked up a used pump on Ebay for $75 or so and have used it for 6-7 years now doing my and all my friends cars, so its well worth the $$. BTW, I use ES-12, which is like Freeze-12 and works great.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by Joeaksa

get a real vacuum pump and not that POS thing that HF sells

Yes - the compressor driven unit is a POS but it will pull a vacuum. Although, you have no idea what the vacuum is or if you are holding that vacuum across time. These are really important things to know, so at best it is an emergency device.

It is not even a requirement to pull a vacuum when evacuating for recharge. However, there will be moisture and contaminants left that your system may become really angry about - at the expense of your comfort and pocketbook.

As stated, drop the money on the right stuff and be done with it. Both pieces of equipment would cost the same as a R/D change out, evac and recharge by a shop - I am guessing no more than $200.

Here is a good video showing use of the gauges with some problems.
Using AC Pressure Gauges To Fix Car AC Problems - YouTube

[na2ub]

I am local, but I am afraid my AC knowledge is limited to ripping it out and throwing it in the trash.