What do you need todo to an old frige to recharge it?

[Treker]

I'm going to be tearing apart my old dorm frige soon, that is if I cant call her back into service for a soda cooler but last look she had a busted door :/

Anyways, I'm wondering what all I'd need to do to her after I was done rebuilding.. I saw somewhere that you need to recharge it.. and then another mention of an R12 to R13a or something along that line, and then another mention of a vacum??

Ok, forgive me, but I am completely lost here!

Any help?

-Trek

[outhouse]

Well theres a set of gauges used to recharge it as well as the tank that fills the system and I believe they need to haul off the old freon [vacume][not sure] unless your a refrigeration repair man or coolant expert I would have someone else do the work you need unless you can find a how to book as well as a place to rent the tools. Its been about 15 years since i last did a house system and 10 years the last time i did a cars air con system, sorry i cant be of more help maybe this long bump may help.

[ken257]

You said the fridge is old so I don't know what type of coolant it uses. There are serveral coolant types. One is R12, this is the old freon that uses the ozone layer as a snack so this stuff is done and you can't but it anymore. R134a is a newer type of coolant commonly used in automobile AC systems and is available at many autoparts stores pretty cheap.
If you break the system apart in order to construct a cooling system it will need to be recharged. Now since we don't know what the original coolant was it will prob be best to flush the system to get out all the old oil. There are differant types of oil used with differant coolants and they don't play nice together. Basically you need the right type of oil that mixes with the type of coolant you are going to use.
You are going to have to add a fill valve to the system. You should see a tube that is crimmped and solderd this is where you fill it from.
To do the job right you are going to have to pull a vacume before you refill the reason is to get any moisture and air out of the system. You will need a set of gauges and a vacume pump in order to do this and then fill with new coolant and oil.

[dimmreaper]

I've herd rumors to the effect that R12 systems can be recharged with LPG (Liquid Petrolium Gas, more commonly Propane). But it is dangerous, and illegal, so proceed with caution if you need to take that route to recharge an old R12 system

You can also buy conversion kits o convert R12 systems to R134A, but that might cost as much as a new refridgeration system.

[ken257]

Actually propane is an excellent coolant but if you blow up your system don't come crying to me, that is if you wern't sitting next to it when it went! :D

R12 to R134a conversion kits can be had in autoparts stores for about $30 so it is not to bad. These kits come with 2 cans of R134a refrigerant, a can of oil, refilling hose, and adapters.

Individual cans of R134a are about $7.

If you are not sure of what you are doing your best bet would be to construct the new cooling system and take it someplace and have it professionally filled.

[The Overclocker]

recharge it, what about plugging it back in?