Recovery Machine Hose Setup! Step by Step Procedure for Recovering Refrigerant!

In this HVAC Training Video, I show the Recovery Machine Hose Setup Used to Recover Refrigerant out of an Air Conditioner! I go over this Step by Step while Explaining the Procedure! Supervision is needed by a licensed HVACR Tech while performing tasks as Experience and Apprenticeship garners Wisdom and Safety.

Hilmor Tools Used in This Video:
Refrigerant Recovery Machine:
Wireless Refrigerant Scale:
Wired Refrigerant Scale:
Valve Core Removal Tool:
3 Port Manifold Gauge:

My Paperback and E-Book:
My Paperback:
Support the Channel:
Tool List:

Check out our HVAC Calculators at
Check out our newest full articles at
Try our new quizzes! Do you have what it takes?
Check out our Podcast!
Follow us on Facebook!

Electrical Diagnosis Tools:
UEI DL389 Multimeter
UEI DL479 Multimeter with temp sensor
Magnet Jumpers-
Alligator Jumpers-
Irwin Wire Stripper/Cutter/Crimper

Vacuum Tools:
JB 6 CFM Vacuum Pump
CPS 4 CFM Vacuum Pump –
Appion Valve Core Removal Tool –
Appion Blue 3/8” to 1/4” Vacuum Hose –
Appion Red 3/8” to 1/4” Vacuum Hose –
Yellow Jacket 1/4” by 1/4” 3’ hose –
Appion 1/4” by 1/4” and 3/8” hose –
Uniweld 1/4” by 1/4” 2’ hose –
CPS Vacuum Micron Gauge –
JB Vacuum Pump Oil –

Checking the Charge Tools:
Yellow Jacket Refrigerant Gauge Set
Refrigerant hoses with valves
Yellow Jacket Gauge set & hoses
Yellow Jacket 4 Port Manifold w Hoses
Digital Refrigerant Scale
Ratcheting Service Wrench
FieldpieceSMAN360 Digital Manifold Set
FieldpieceSMAN460 Digital Manifold Set
Compact Ball Valve for Refrigerant Hose
QuickDisconnect 90 for refrigerant hose
RectorSeal Bubble Gas Leak Detector
Fieldpiece ST4 Dual Temp Meter
Fieldpiece Bead K Type Temp Sensor
Fieldpiece Wet Bulb Temp Sensor
Fieldpiece TC24 Temp Clamp

Flaring Tools:
Yellow Jacket Flaring Tool
Spin Flaring Bits 1/4”, 3/8”, 1/2”, 5/8”, 3/4”-
Yellow Jacket Flaring Tool with Set Depth –
Yellow Jacket Torque Wrench –
Uniweld Swage and Flare Kit-
Nylog –
Ridgid Tubing Cutter –
Wolverine Tube Reamer –

Brazing Tools:
Air Acetylene Torch setup –
15% Silver Brazing Rods –
Uniweld Cap-N-Hook and #2 Tip Oxy Acetylene Torch Setup –
Ameriflame Oxy Acetylene Torch Setup #1 &#2 Tip –
40cu B Tank to 10cu MC Tank Acetylene Tank Fitting –
Nitrogen Regulator –
Uniweld NitroVue Flow Regulator –
Uniweld Nitrogen Flow Meter –
Stay Brite #8 Silver Bearing Solder and Flux –
Aluminum Braze Rods –

Refrigerant Leak Detection Tool:
Accutrak VPE Ultrasonic Leak Detector

Shop through Amazon! Your Purchases through Amazon provide a means for channels such as mine to earn advertising fees from all purchases after clicking through. Prices are the same as normal.


Today we’re recovering the full Refrigerant charge from this air Conditioning system using our hillmore Recovery machine 338 by quarter inch Hoses a filter dryer a short piece of Hose or an adapter three valve core Removal tools and our digital wireless Scale now we’re going to be monitoring Our refrigerant pressure using our Digital display so we’re not going to Need a separate manifold and I’m also Going to show you the hose setup so you Don’t need a manifold so I’ll take you In real close so you can see each of the Steps of this process one at a time Foreign [Music] So the first thing that we’ve done is Turn the electrical power off to this Unit and now we’re going to be taking These caps off because we’re going to Want to remove these little valve cores Because they’re going to act as a Restriction to our our recovery and so What I’m going to do is I’m going to put Our valve core removal tool onto this Port And we can remove that without losing Any of the refrigerant so it’s very Important that We recover all of our refrigerant per EPA 608 standards and so we’re going to Have this snugged on and then we’re Going to come in here we’re going to

Grab the valve core you can see it just Kind of sunk in right there and then now We’re going to Turn this counterclockwise and we’re Also going to stick our thumb right There to hold it like in position Because we’re going to have force from The refrigerant pressure popping this Out And so we don’t want to slip off of the Valve core either So we’re just going to keep turning this Counterclockwise and then we just heard A click that means that we have the Valve core off of the threads down here Now we’re going to turn this to the off Position and we’re going to Screw this counterclockwise In order to remove the valve core So it’s right here So that’s it If we didn’t remove this what’s going to Happen is we’re going to be trying to Recover refrigerant through this tiny Tiny little hole in the end while we’re Depressing this that’s why we remove This now we’re going to do this on the Other side as well There’s no need to have to do anything Down here on the service valves these Should be in the fully open position and So you can just leave them alone we’re Going to be recovering refrigerant from The outdoor unit from the line set and

The indoor coil so it’s going to be Everything next we’re going to connect Our hoses from here over to the recovery Machine We’re going to attach this to the inlet This is just a little extension hose Because we want to have a filter dryer Before the recovery machine just in Order to protect it and we’re also Protecting the refrigerant before it Enters the recovery bottle right here I’m just using this a valve core removal Tool as a t and I’ve already removed the Valve core out of the end so this is Just an open t essentially now that There is a valve on it of course you Could just use a t like this but I Always have a third valve quarter mobile Tool so I’m just going to use that right Here So attach this on and that’s what I’m Going to do to connect my three hoses So I have one two and then this way Make sure all my connections are nice And snug Now we’re going to work on the output Over to the recovery bottle two quick Things about the recovery tank one we Need to make sure that it has the same Refrigerant as in the unit and this tank Is supposed to have R22 this unit has R22 in it that’s number one number two Is there enough room inside the tank so

That we’re not overfilling it while We’re recovering the refrigerant from This unit so first things first we can Check the pressure and check the Temperature to know what refrigerants in It So you can see our temperature clamp on The on the tank and we’re measuring 70.6 Degrees And our pressure in the tank right here On this hose we’re measuring about 126 PSI on the outer ring we bring it into The green saturated temperature in a Ring for R22 we measure about 72 degrees So we compare 72 to almost 71 we’re very Close and this also came out of a warm Service truck So we do have R22 in here because these Match and so we know we have liquid and Vapor refrigerant in the tank it’s Saturated And uh just so you know we did Previously vacuum this tank and already Have some R22 inside so you always want To make sure you have the right Refrigerant in the tank beforehand and You want to avoid mixing multiple Different types of refrigerants in the Same bottle to avoid overfilling the Tank we look at the the neck of the Recovery bottle and you see that we have A water capacity of 47.6 pounds so That’s the amount of liquid water that You could fit in this tank it’s just a

Measurement obviously there’s no water In here we’re just putting refrigerant In and so in order to to do this we just Take 47.6 and we Times by 0.8 so that Leaves us an extra 20 capacity for Expansion contraction for the vapor at The top of the tank so we have about 38 Pounds roughly that we can put in this Tank and then we have an empty Tearaway Of the tank at 28.1 so we just take 38 Plus 28 and so we have about 66 pounds Total that we could have for this tank And of course you could do the Calculation based on the exact Refrigerant that you that you use but We’re always pretty safe when we just Take 0.8 times our water capacity let’s Go ahead and weigh our tank to turn on Our digital wireless scale we’re first Going to turn on the base Then we’re going to turn on this I’m going to allow them to sync up And We want to make sure to have this zeroed Out so we’re going to just press this So now we’re zeroed And we’ll weigh our tank So you can see with our weight we’re Nowhere as close to 66 pounds but just Say we were close to the full tank Capacity what you want to do is you want To look at the rating plate for the Factory charge of the unit in which You’re going to be recovering and then

You gotta anticipate how much extra Refrigerant there may be in the system Based on the line set length even though This rating plate says six pounds it Could be less or it could be more next We’re going to be connecting our output To our blue handle Now the reason we’re going over to the Blue handle is because we’re recovering Out of both sides of the system so Liquid and Vapor now the system’s also Been off for a while so remember this Blue handle just attaches to the top of The tank and the red handle attaches Down with a dip tube to the bottom of The tank so we can just put this into The tank At the top The next thing we need to do is to get The air out of all the hoses now that we Have our hoses all snug throughout this Whole setup and we have our recovery Bottle valve still in the closed Position we’re going to turn our Recovery machine on We’re going to turn it to recover and That will allow us to purge the air out Of these hoses so it’ll just be able to Go right through And in order to do that we’re going to Open up these valves and then quickly Move over to the recovery tank and we’re Going to purge the air out there So we’re purging all the air out

And then we can go ahead and open the Tank I want to make sure that we don’t Accidentally put air Into our recovery bottle now we’re going To turn the recovery machine on Now we want to see if the pressure Rises So we pulled this down to zero PSI if You know just for a note if this unit Had a leak you would not want to pull it Down below zero PSI because what’s going To happen is you’ll pull any air that’s Surrounding the unit or the leak spot Into the system and then into the Recovery machine and then into the Bottle and contaminate it we put it down To zero and now we’re just waiting to See if that pressure Rises You also notice that our scale right Here was still increasing uh in in the Amount of weight while this recovery Machine was reading zero PSI and that’s Just from the liquid refrigerant in the System vaporizing so it was very very Close to zero but you see how much Refrigerant we actually pulled out During that time period when it was zero So we’re going to give it some time and See if our pressure Rises So as you can see after about 10 minutes Our pressure has risen to about 13 PSI And that’s due to the liquid refrigerant Vaporizing within the system and so you Got to think that when you’re lowering

The pressure you’re lowering the Temperature and now you got to give the The liquid a chance to expand so you may Have to turn the recovery machine on a Second time but it’s always a good idea To run the indoor fan so it’s going to Provide a heat load across the indoor Coil while you’re doing a recovery And you just make sure that your outdoor Disconnect isn’t in the off position so The compressor does not turn on so I’m Going to open up our recovery tank and Recover this last refrigerant [Music] Now that we got all the refrigerant out Of the system after doing a recovery and Turning the system on twice we can now Go ahead and Purge the refrigerant out Of the recovery machine And we can turn the system on again Now we’re going to close our recovery Bottle handle And now we’re good now you’re going to Have some refrigerant in this hose when You disconnect there’s no way really to Recover this part right here so this Should all be empty and then this is the Only hose that’s going to have Refrigerant in it so as you can see we Have almost four pounds out of the System and so we can go ahead and Disconnect right here And that’s it so it’s really not that Much you always want to use a short hose

For the recovery machine to the tank and So we should be good now we can just go Ahead and disconnect right here at the The input for the recovery machine so we Can go ahead and remove this outdoor Unit now and cut the lines up because There’s no refrigerant left in the Tubing I hope this video on refrigerant Recovery has helped and if you’re Looking for any of the tools used in This video I’ve got links on each one of These down in the description section Below and if you’re also looking for the Three port and the four port manifold Gauge sets I’ve got links to those as Well if you want to learn more about Refrigerant recovery vacuum procedures Pressure testing or anything that has to Do with refrigerant on an air Conditioning system make sure to check Out a refrigerant charging and service Procedures for air conditioning Buck we Also have a thousand question workbook We also have polystyrene quick reference Cards and these cards can be thrown Right in your service bag they hold up Really well so make sure to check all These out over at aecsurfacetech.com and Also on Amazon hope you enjoyed yourself We’ll see you next time at easy service Tech Channel

You May Also Like