I was just curious, the lines that go into my outdoor Carrier CAC unit there looks like 2 valves(?) with caps on them which say " turn 1/6 of a turn after making contact with gasket". My neighbors on either side of me have identical Lennox units that say " turn 1/12 of a turn after making contact with the gasket". What are these caps for and why is it critical to tighten them correctly?
They are connections where you can hook up the test guages and fill the unit with Freon (what most people call the refrigerant gas). The caps are just to help seal up the valve outlet so the gas will not come out, and also to protect the threads from dammage and getting dirt in the system when the gauges are hooked up. All fittings should be tightened correctly to prevent dammage to the gaskets.
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I'm not sure if you are referring to the shraeder valves, which are on the sides of these " capped valves". The schraeder valves have caps on them. These caps I am referring to are about 1" wide. I saw the A/C tech last time hook up the gauges to the schraeder valves. Are you saying that the bigger capped valves are another point to connect the gauges?
Wrong.
Actually, the caps you're talking about are the covers for the service valves. When a condensing unit is shipped from the factory, it has refrigerant in it. The installers braze the refrigerant lines on, pressure test the joints, evacuate the lines with a vacuum pump and open the service valves. Then they're supposed to put the caps back on the service valves and tighten them to make sure the refrigerant doesn't leak out that way.
Sounds like a king valve. Used to isolate system components when you need to open up the system. They seal to the atmosphere if all-the-way-open or all-the-way-closed, while partly-open leaks very slowly; thus the instructions for opening and closing.
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