R22 Cooling Rig meets it's end?

Don't ask me silly questions, as I don't know 1/100th of the things Andrew does, but we have a problem.

2 years ago, for Andrews EXTREME server rack (58 Servers to be exact) We constructed an Intense cooling solution. 8 Massive R22 units in his backyard. Sound overkill, but it barely works... I'm scared at what his monster servers do. And his power bill.

Anyways, we spent probably about a 2 years setting those things up, but we have a problem. He needs to move... So this means 2 things. We need to either remove the current system, or leave it. While we have charged cans of R22, we have no way of discharging it into other cans. We don't think we have enough to recharge 8 compressors(probably about 4 full charges are left), so the problem is, we don't want to switch to inferior R410A units. Any ideas what to do.

I have no idea what kind of stuff he does, nor do I have a clue if it's overkill, but he told me they are dual CPU servers maxed out to the limits of the cooling... That worries me.(If I recall, they are dual Xeon 1366 systems, with I think Dual Teslas)

Whatever else you do, get a pump and recover the R22, using empty cylinders for capture. It's both expensive to simply discharge, and nasty to the environment as well. And it can be re-used. If you want a professional extraction and recovery, hire a licensed A/C tech. You'll pay a little, but save a lot in the long run.

We can discharge it if we get a pump. We don't have one or empty cans. But thats easy. Thanks, will do.

If you have a container to put the refrigerant in but no pump, you can simply connect the container to the system (after removing any air, of course) and pack it with ice. (Regular ice would work fine, dry ice does it a lot faster.)

Enviro-Safe makes a HFC mixture that is a drop in replacement for R22. I have used it with great luck on an older A/C system. (Did that about 6 years or so back, system still works last time I checked.) Not sure if it's going to work well for computer cooling since it is designed for A/C use.

R410a has a lower boiling point than R22 so it should actually work better for computer cooling. You will need to replace basically the entire system, which makes it uneconomical if you already have R22 stuff that works.

From what I found R22 got colder than R-410a. Anyways, we are gonna try the Dry ice trick you speak of.

If you decide to do this yourself instead of hiring someone, whatever you do, make sure that you pull a vacuum on the empty cylinders before you pump the refrigerant into them. If you don't, you are basically going to ruin your refrigerant. You'll need to use a vacuum pump to do this.

Gonna have too.