Quote:
Originally Posted by BackyardAC
My question is if there is to much oil will this prevent refrigerant flowing thru the condenser. This is what I mean-the high pressure line is hot at the Pump and very warm where it attached /bolted to the condenser but. The condenser is cold. All lines are clear no restriction. System vacuumed down for three hours . High side never gets above 100 psi no matter how much refrigerant I put in the system. Do I have too much oil in the system.??
BackyardAC!
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Excessive oil tends to saturate (cover) the inside of the evaporator refrigerant tubes and surfaces, which reduces the heat transfer or effectiveness of the evaporator.
Situations where you can have too much refrigerant oil could occur when converting systems from R12 to R134a; you added too much oil to the system. Or, when you have a system with leaks that is refilled often. When a system is refilled or topped off often excessive oil can come from using small cans (12 to 16 oz retail cans) of refrigerant that contains oil (be aware of what you buy, read the can) or if a service tech has injected oil into the system without knowing what was previously in it.
Too many cooks do spoil the soup, and lack of documenting details of AC services, such as noting type of oil, how much, etc. cause issues.
Vehicles prior to 1993/1994 typically used R12 refrigerant which used 'mineral' type refrigerant oil. In older systems the mineral type oil can 'wax' or turn into sludge.
This heavier viscosity can plug up a system and cause high system pressures.
Mixing PAG type oil (typically the 'single end cap' formulations) with old R12 mineral oil can gunk up a system as to two different types of oils don't blend as well as an 'ester' type oil.
Condenser wise, older "tube and fin" coils have larger passages as compared to later serpentine or parallel flow designs. The later two can become clogged, parallel flow more so.
Do you have too much oil in the system is difficult to answer unless you have detailed records of services where everything was well documented.
Sometimes it is smarter to 'bit the bullet' and simply liquid flush the system a refrigerant flush: condenser, remove TEV from evap and flush evap, if you have an accumulator system remove the orifice tube and flush, flush lines, take off compressor and dump oil or disassemble clean and reseal, flush all lines, replace drier or accumulator..... and start off fresh.