chenn49115 asks
I need to temporarily temporarily disconnect and move the our outdoor central air unit so some foundation repair work can be done. I'm a fairly competent DIY. Is a disconnect and reconnect something best left to the pros? If it's something I can do myself where can I learn the steps to do it? The owners manual is not available and the small unit is about 12 years old.
May be quite costly to have the refrigerant lines disconnected/evacuated and reconnected later. Ona 12 yr old unit, may not be cost effective.
Would it be possible to create a "bridge" of heavy planking underneath the unit and not move it at all?
Jim
It would be against the law for you to do it yourself unless you obtain a tech's license.
And also impossible to do legally even with a license without investing in equipment which would cost you far more than having a licensed HVAC tech do the job for you.
Be prepared to spend a few hundred bucks for the job, depending on where you live.
Jeff
This falls in the catigory of 'if you have to ask, then you probably can not do it'.
The electrical part is nothing to it. The problem is the two lines carring the refrigerant gas. YOu will have to have a machine that will suck the gas out and store it so you can disconnect the lines. They are are under a lot of pressure so you don't just unhook them. After you get ready to install the lines you have to have a vacuum pump to suck out all the air and then recharge it with the gas.
Someone mentioned the legal part. About 20 years ago the government decided the refrigerant gas in most systems (especially the r-12 and r-22) was bad for the ozone layer of the atmosphere. You can not just blow the old gas out to the air but must recover it from the system. If you can not put it back in then you have to take it to a place that will recover it. Big fine if you do not do this.
I agree with Jim. The best bet is if you can avoid disconnecting at all. If not, then you need a pro. The equipment and required authorizations are not DIY thing anymore.
I did it myself over 35 years ago, but I would not do it today.
It was not the theme of the show -- the remark was related but in passing -- but I heard yesterday on the radio that the hole in the ozone has closed a little.
My plan was to make ozone down here and use a vinyl hose to put it up in the ionosphere. Vinyl is lighter than copper or PVC.
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