Why You Should Not Recharge Your Truck or Cars AC Yourself

Okay. I know it's hot out. In this video, I'm gonna show you why you should never add one of these cans to your AC.

All right. This vehicle is 20 years old, there's never been any AC service or anything done to the AC and it still works fine. The air conditioning system is a sealed system, in most cases, you should never have to add refrigerant. Now if you have to add refrigerant, most likely you have a leak and it needs to be addressed.

Now if you add the can of this it may last you a day, it may last you the season but it's not gonna last you 20 years. So inside your air conditioning system, you have your refrigerant and you have oil, and there's a high-pressure side and a low-pressure side and there's a compressor. Now there's a calibrated amount of refrigerant that has to go in the system. If you put too much refrigerant in the system, it's not gonna work, if you put too little in the system, it's not gonna work. And same with the oil in the system, if there's too much oil, it's gonna cause damage, if there's too little oil it's gonna cause damage.

Now in this can it has 11 ounces of refrigerant and 1.5 ounces of oil, now if you add that in, that might be too much oil. Most vehicles have a key on here that actually tells how much refrigerant and what type of refrigerant to use. This vehicle requires R134a and 2.5 pounds. Now if this system was completely empty, this being 11 ounces, you're gonna need 4 of these cans. So if you've got four cans of this and you put it into the system, you'd have an extra four ounces. What are you gonna do with that extra four ounces? You're not gonna be able to just throw this away, you're gonna have an extra four ounces. And how are you gonna make sure that only four ounces was in this can leftover when you're done?

Now there is a gauge on here to help add the correct amount of refrigerant which it is not very accurate being on the low side, you're better off with a gauge system with the high side and the low side. And if you have a scale and able to add the refrigerant properly, that's the way to go. With this system, you may cause damage and it's just gonna cost you more in the long run. Now the system being sealed, there needs to be no moisture in the system which if the gas is all leaked out, the refrigerant, the R134 or whatever kind of refrigerant your system has, then there's gonna be open air, there's gonna be atmospheric air in the system, there's gonna be moisture in it. And how you get that moisture out? You need to put a vacuum on the system for a certain amount of time.

If you don't get that moisture out and put a vacuum on the system and you just add the refrigerant just putting it in, you're gonna cause corrosion on the inside of the system, it's gonna cause more damage in the future. If you do have a leak in your system and you add this and it leaks out, not only are you gonna lose money but it's also bad for the environment. Unfortunately with the AC system, if you don't have the proper equipment to evacuate the refrigerant or to add the refrigerant, there's not a lot of things you can do to the AC system at home.

Another disadvantage of putting this can in, this can has 1.5 ounces of oil in it, if you put four of those in that six ounces of oil. Some systems only require about three ounces of oil. That's gonna be too much, that's gonna cause damage to the AC compressor and you don't want to do that. Now with the proper equipment when they vacuum or evacuate the system, there is a gauge to tell how much oil comes out of the system. If you added all that oil into the system, you're not gonna be able to get that six ounces out of the system, it's gonna be very hard, you would need to completely clean the system. No one is gonna know how much oil is in the system and, unfortunately, it's gonna cause damage.

Another thing is safety. The contents of this can are very unsafe to breathe in or get in your eyes or even get on your skin, there's toxic chemicals in there and they could cause harm. The best thing to do is go to a trained professional to have your AC system serviced. If you enjoyed this video, please subscribe to our channel. Make sure you ring that bell, turn on all notifications so you don't miss any of our videos.

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