Alright, so in this video we're going to be again going through some of the RS es refrigeration service, engineer, society, Nate prep PowerPoint presentation is just sort of a guideline to talk about some condenser or outdoor unit installation best practices. And so, if you want to find this presentation yourself, you can actually purchase it through the our SES store. This is part of the AC heat pump, training, PowerPoint presentation, and this is actually an excerpt from Chapter five of that. So first thing: when you're gon na be replacing an outdoor unit, replacing it doing a change out on the entire system, whatever working on the outside system, again, whether it's new construction or retrofit applications, the first thing you want to do is check for transportation damage.

This is a big mistake that I see a lot of technicians make. They fail to insure that the equipment is in proper condition and that it is the right equipment before they go to install it. The next thing on the list here is to refer to nameplate voltage requirements. This is common where you have a system that is a three-phase system and somewhat Reisen installed on single-phase or vice-versa.

You have to make sure that you've got the right equipment and it has the right voltage on the data tag. You will notice that a lot of times condensing units are rated for 208 voltage, meaning using only two legs of a three-phase traditional 208 three-phase Y power versus the 240 that we typically see in residential split phase and so in a lot of cases. The rating, as far as how low the voltage can go is quite a bit lower than what the highest voltage on the positive side is. Generally speaking, on the positive side, they're doing plus or minus 10 % off of 230 volts you're gon na find that most equipment nowadays is still rated at 230 volts as the baseline, rather than what we actually see, which is more like 240, maybe even a little More than that, in a lot of cases, and so 230 plus or minus 10 % to 30 plus 10 %, which is generally what we're looking at is 253 volts.

So you want to see almost always on single-phase equipment. You want to see below 253, but then on the low side. You're not gon na have quite as much tolerance on the 208 side again, this varies equipment to equipment, but this is why you need to make sure that you check your voltage ratings before you install the equipment now again in 2010, which is what this slide is Talking about a lot of the r22 system stopped being manufactured, so even though it's been 10 years since that point, that was really the cutoff date other than some dry shipped units. There were some units that were shipped with no r22 and they had to be filled charged and some of those were installed well after 2010, but in general, especially for most of the new construction market, we stopped seeing our 22 equipment installed at 2010, even though only Now January, 1st 2020 did we see the restriction where you can no longer manufacture or import r22.

We still have plenty of it in stock. We can still definitely use it, but it can no longer be manufactured or imported, and so now we're mostly dealing with r410a. Most of you have been dealing with this for many years. One of the big changes with r410a is that they all come with pol versus mineral oil, and a common misconception is that our 22 equipment couldn't work with pol and actually it could pol can work with.

Essentially, every type of modern refrigerant that we work with, but we use mineral oil because it was less expensive, more readily available and it wasn't so hygroscopic. And what that means is is that, when you're working with something that has kyoya oil in it like in our 410, a system you have to be even more careful than you ever were about making sure that the system is clean, dry and tight. Let me keep that moisture and oxygen away from that: pou oil and refrigerant. Now this is mentioning that r410a is 50 to 70 percent higher pressures than r22.

That's something again if you've been working in the industry for any amount of time. You know that initially everybody was concerned about the higher pressures, but that's ended up not really being a big deal at all and not not something that's difficult to overcome. Once you understand the pressure and temperature relationships, charging is really no different other than that. We just noticed that the pressures are higher.

Another thing is especially when working with modern refrigerants that use pou. You need to make sure that any time that system is open for service, where we have the refrigerant circuit open in the atmosphere that we follow. All of our best practices, such as purging with nitrogen, flowing nitrogen, pulling a really good, deep vacuum and then also replacing those line. Filter dryers those liquid line, filter dryers whenever the system is open to atmosphere because those can become contaminated with air moisture.

While the system is open, a key thing also because some people will talk about triple evacuation which isn't a bad practice, sometimes it's not necessary when employing a triple evacuation, make sure to break with dry nitrogen, not with air. To prevent some of that moisture from being drawn back into the system by opening it to atmosphere now. This illustration here shows that, while charging a system with r410a or really any blend refrigerant, you should be charging with the tank upside down to ensure that you're charging the liquid and in the process of charging, you need to make sure that you're not actually injecting liquid Into the compressor itself now many heat pump systems that you're going to work on will have accumulators in the condenser, which sort of act as a method of regulating the refrigerant into the compressor. So it's okay! If you get a little bit of a liquid into the accumulator, but keep in mind that that accumulator is going to act as a trap for liquid refrigerant - and you may add in refrigerant and not notice, that your pressures are going up as quickly as you would Think and you could end up really overcharging the system, which is why the best practice when charging any piece of equipment is always use a scale and always meter it in slowly to make sure that you don't accidentally overcharge the system.

Now, here's just some best practices for locating an outdoor unit now always follow your manufacturer specifications, because they're gon na address a lot of these same things and not every piece of equipments the same, but these are just some good general rules. So you want to locate the system away from building or plants by one to two feet again, the more space you can give it the easier it's gon na be for serviceability and the more airflow is going to be able to travel around the unit which can Help with its efficiency, the next thing is, is that you need clear space above the unit and that's generally five feet, and this is for up discharge units. Obviously, if it's a side discharge ductless, then you need space out of the side discharge also think about. If you have top discharge and side discharge systems near each other, you don't want to discharge a side discharge unit into the condenser of an up discharge unit, which we've seen quite a bit.

Actually, you want to make sure that it's elevated above the snowline and drifts, which obviously depends on your local climate, how much you need to elevate it or where you need to position. It have plenty of space around the condenser for condensate to drain, especially in heat pump systems. Now, if you're talking about the location of a condensate drain from the inside, that varies from location to location, municipality to municipality here in Florida, we drain it outside on the ground and in those cases we want to make sure that we're draining it in a location Where that condensate, it's not gon na cause a nuisance such as on a sidewalk or driveway, something that's going to cause a slip. Hazard, don't locate an outdoor unit under a window, especially if it's an egress window, meaning a window.

That's designed for escape. In the case of a fire, so if you are gon na locate it in front of a window which in some cases you don't have a choice, it may be the existing location. There's always make sure that it is not a required egress window, but another factor with windows is it's also a noise factor? So it's really wise, if at all possible, to keep it away from the and doors avoid drainage from the roof so think about where water is gon na come down a roof, especially if you don't have gutters. If you have a valley and a roof, you don't want that to dump right in the unit, because that can cause damage over time, always keep it away from dryer and kitchen vents.

You don't want kitchen grease or dryer lint to make it into that condenser. That's a really big factor, and we see this all the time. There's many cases where we will move a condensing unit away from its original location, simply to get it away from a dryer vent and then make sure that you have a solid level pad. I mean this stands to reason, but you'd be amazed, some of the really flimsy pads that this equipment goes on too, and that can cause vibration, which leads to leaks and other problems over time, so make sure that it's solid and in most cases you want to Go ahead and anchor that down in Florida, that's part of our win code and so we're required to properly anchor these things down.

But in general, that's just a good best practice. Now some manufacturers will actually tell you to pitch the pad slightly away from the structure and in the case of a heat pump. So that way, if there is condensate it drains away from the structure, but in general level is really the best bet. And if you are gon na pitch it away, just very very slightly now, when piping in an air conditioning refrigeration system use, AC are to being only don't use tubing that was designed for plumbing.

First of all, the sizes aren't the same in between AC our tubing and plumbing tubing, so you're gon na run into problems there, but also AC. Our tubing is sealed and filled with dry nitrogen. It's designed for use in a clean, dry and tight system where plumbing copper - you just don't need to be as careful because it's designed to have water flowing through it when you are piping in refrigerant piping, purge nitrogen while brazing and I prefer to say purge nitrogen - That means displace the air in the first place and then flow nitrogen at a very, very low flow rate on average you're gon na say 2 to 5 SC, F, H, that's cubic feet per hour or standard cubic feet per hour. Cf H cubic feet per hour, not cubic feet per minute.

It's just a whisper of flow. If you don't have a flow gage. Well, you should go ahead and get one, but in a pinch you can just use the T handle on your nitrogen regulator and just barely barely flow it so that you can just hear it. You don't want to pressurize the system while brazing you just want to flow a little bit of nitrogen, that displaces the auction and it oxygen, and it prevents copper oxide from building up on the inside, which can act as a contaminant plug up your t, -- xv Screens, filter dryers things like that.

It's a really nice best practice and not hard to actually do once you get to the hang of it. Proper filler and flux must be used now, keep in mind that in copper to copper applications where you're using a phase, copper or a SIL foss rod, you have the phosphorus acts as the fluxing agent, so you don't need to use additional flux in most cases, if You are working with copper to brass copper, to steel brass, to steal, something like that. Then you would want to use an additional paste flux, but always when you are using a flux, make sure not to use too much so that it ends up getting into the lines you want to use just a nice little coating to ensure that you flux the Joint without getting flux into the system lines and always wipe it off when you're done now, there are some fluxes that are non corrosive but just to be safe. I suggest, as a general practice once you're done, brazing and the joint is cooled, wipe it off.

So that way, you don't potentially leave some of that corrosive flux in place. Now, when we say brazing brazing, it says here is a form of welding and it depends on how you think of welding. The technical term that is often used for welding is when you're actually melting the base material, as well as the filler rod. So if you're welding, steel, you're, actually melting the steel in order to bond steel together in the case of brazing you're, not actually melting, the base material you're, not melting, copper or brass or aluminum, or whatever you're working with you're just heating.

It up to the point that the filler metal melts, and so this here says heats metals base metals above 700 degrees. You know, there's some debate about that. A lot of people say 800 850 degrees in that range. That's where brazing starts, when your lower temperatures than that we'll call it soldering the rods that you use in brazing.

We call a brazing alloy or a filler alloy. It's not really. A solder solder is specifically that lower temperature application, when you're brazing you use brazing alloys and flux, is specifically designed for brazing. Not all fluxes are the same for every job, so make sure you're not using a soldering flux if you're working in a brazing application most raising fluxes are oval white paste type, although they do make a very nice high-temperature black paste flux as well.

That's you may find useful when you are brazing using industrial gases like acetylene. You have to take great care and we're going to talk about this in a second, but the most common ways of brazing in our industry in the HVAC, our industry is acetylene. The question is: do we use air acetylene or do we use oxy acetylene and both can work? Just fine air acetylene is a little lower temperature, a little bit larger flame and it does have some in Van with ease and wait. Buttocks acetylene is a hotter, smaller flame and is the widely accepted practice for brazing within our industry in most markets.

Keep in mind that the Department of Transportation is the organization that sets the rules for the transport of cylinders, and so you need to make sure that you follow d-o-t regulations when you're handling and transporting cylinders. You want to be familiar with what those are and those do change like all regulations, so you want to keep in touch with the current Department of Transportation regulations. You always want to make sure, as a general rule, secure all cylinders make sure they can't bounce around. If your cylinders have threads, where you can cap them, make sure that their caps, some cylinders, allow for that, some don't but regardless, if they do have those cap threads, keep a cap on the cylinders, closed valves and completely mark empty cylinders, meaning that once you're done With the cylinder make sure it's fully closed and make sure that you mark it, we use blue tape and we mark on the painters tape when a cylinder is completely empty.

Don't use, unidentified cylinders and wear proper PPE. I'll also add that most cylinders are best stored. Upright, if possible - and you want to keep make sure that they are securely fastened like we mentioned before, but also make sure that your regulators are not stored on them when you're transporting them. That's a big mistake that I see because it makes it much easier for those to be knocked off and then essentially creates a missile out of a pressurized cylinder.

Well, you may think acetylene is one of the most dangerous cylinders and it is very dangerous and requires a lot of care. One of the most dangerous cylinders on your truck is nitrogen, and that's just because of the pressure that were to bounce around and the topper to knock off those things. Turn it into rockets and create can create a lot of damage while oxygen is not actually explosive or flammable in and of itself, it is required for the burning process. So whenever you have oxygen near a flammable gas like a settlin, it makes it far more dangerous because oxygen pure oxygen, like you have in your oxygen cylinder, can greatly accelerate that burning process.

The cylinders are highly pressurized, so that makes them dangerous and you want to make sure to never let pure oxygen come in contact with oil or grease as a best practice. Do not oil or grease threads on cylinders just in general? Just don't do it because you may use the wrong thing unless you specifically have an oil or grease, that's specifically designed for oxygen in the settlement which they do make, but most technicians out there are just going to take. You know ten wait: spouts, oil or foreign oil, or something and put it on threads, don't do that they can cause a form of instantaneous combustion when that oxygen hits that oil, whenever you're working with a cylinder, don't stand in front of it when you're opening it Just in case it were to come apart or something were to fly out that t-handle whatever you don't want your body in front of that cylinder and when you are opening the valves on tanks like oxygen, make sure that you open it all the way. So that way it seals the packing now acetylene is actually absorbed into acetone within the cylinder.

So it's a case where you actually have a porous material in there and it's and it's actually in a liquid form inside that tank. So a little different than some of the other gases that you work with it's not under as high a pressure, but it is very explosive. So acetylene is a compound of carbon and hydrogen. It's versatile! It's inexpensive! That's why we use it.

It's a really great gas for what we do, but it is dangerous and so treat it with that appropriate care that acetylene deserves. Whenever you're working with high pressures, you want to make sure you appropriately use a pressure regulator. I see technicians do this all the time where they'll take a pressure regulator, then the dials will be knocked off of it. The thing will be damaged and they'll keep using it and that's really unwise.

So you want to make sure that when you're using a pressure regulator, you turn that t-handle outwards. So you turn it counterclockwise until it's loose every time and then you dial it in to the proper outlet pressure so that way, you're safely increasing slowly increasing the pressure on your manifold. I see a lot of technicians, try to dial it in at their gauges and that's just not the design of those manifolds use. Your pressure regulator, wisely before opening a cylinder valve, ensure that the tension on the regulator adjusting screws is released Stan so that the cylinder valve is between you and the regulator slowly and carefully open the oxygen cylinder valve and to the maximum pressure registers on the high Pressure gage then open the oxygen cylinder valve completely to seal the valve packing like we mentioned slowly open the fuel gas cylinder valve, and this in this case it would be a settling in the same manner.

However, do not open the acetylene cylinder more than one and a half turn so in the case of acetylene you don't just keep cranking it open. You don't need to seal that. It's not a high pressure. Cylinder keep the cylinder wrench as one is required on the cylinder valves that you can close the valve quickly, if necessary, don't use a refrigeration, wrench and then pull it off and throw it away.

Keep it on the acetylene tank wall, you're servicing it and then only pull it off when you're completely finished, because ox acetylene brazing is you need to know a little bit about oxacillin brazing and what you're looking for in the torches so always clean. The joint before brazing this is just a good practice. Anyway, we talked a lot about reaming or deburring the fittings, that's a really good best practice, but make sure, when you're doing that that you're not getting anything into the lines. Also, if you, when you sand and clean a copper, always do it before you cut it, don't sand and clean on an open end if you can prevent it, because that's only more likelihood that stuff's gon na go inside the line, if you're going to be brazing From copper to another metal, you can use a flux and paint it on, but just make sure to do it in a very, very thin layer.

Don't don't just glob it on so that it gets in the line purge with nitrogen and generally use a neutral flame. This is always use a neutral flame, but actually you're, generally you're gon na use a slightly carbonizing flame, often in our trade, which means that you have that that secondary feather. If you look at the bottom image here, that's the carbonizing flame, that's a very heavy carbonizing flame, often we're gon na use a neutral flame or a slightly carbonizing flame upon completion of brazing when you're done first shut off the torch oxygen valve then shut off. This torch fuel valve the reason why a lot of people don't do this a lot of the reasons why they shut off the acetylene first is because they don't want there to be those little kind of carbon bunnies.

A skilled brazier can often kind of turn them off almost simultaneously. So that way, you don't have so much of that flame. But you don't want to make the mistake of burning it back into the tip as a new brazier start with by turning on the acetylene light it and then add in your oxygen and then turn it off the same way. So, first you turn off your oxygen and then you turn off your acetylene, also shut off your tanks and then bleed out any leftover oxygen acetylene that may be in your hoses just for safety, so that you don't have that stored in your hoses.

Now, I'm just gon na add in a couple other things quickly keep the system clean, dry and tight just through practical means. If it's raining, don't open your copper, don't let rainwater get into the copper lines? Don't drop your gage hoses in the dirt or your copper in the dirt make sure to keep the ends of your copper, sealed up anytime that you're working until you actually get to the point that you're going to make a connection. Keep it sealed up with tape. So that way, things don't get into it when you're reaming hold it upside down and ream so that the pieces fall out.

If you can't do that, sometimes it may be better, in certain circumstances, to not ream than to ream in a fashion that could potentially get some of those burrs into the system. Have I seen a lot of technicians will just you needlenose pliers and in remit that way with the rounded metal on the needlenose inside it's not as good as actually cutting that burr off, but in certain cases it can prevent that copper from getting into the system. There's very practical things: keep stuff out of the inside of the system, purge nitrogen to get all of the oxygen and water vapor out in the first place and then flow nitrogen, while you're braising you're, really careful when you're working with your torches wear proper PPE wear Safety, glasses, wear gloves, make sure that you're safe when you're brazing take your regulators off when you store them in your vehicle, make sure that the they're closed tightly and that they're strapped up in a safe position and you're gon na be in much better shape. And somebody who doesn't pay close attention to their torches.

Hopefully you found that helpful. That's just a brief overview of installing condensers there's a lot more to it in these presentations from our SES, in preparation for Nate, but hopefully picked up a few things there and, as always, works safe and we'll see you on the next video.