When having your home’s heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC) system serviced, the technician may perform a refrigerant evacuation.
HVAC systems, of course, use refrigerant to transfer heat. The refrigerant collects heat from inside your home, after which it transfers the heat to outside your home.
Refrigerant evacuation is designed to protect against refrigerant-related problems caused by contaminants.
What Is Refrigerant Evacuation?
Based on its name, you may assume that refrigerant evacuating involves removing or “evacuating” refrigerant from an HVAC system. However, it’s actually designed to remove contaminants rather than refrigerant itself.
Specifically, refrigerant evacuation involves the removal of air and moisture, as well as nitrogen, from an HVAC system.
HVAC systems contain refrigerant in a closed and pressurized environment. If your HVAC system has a breach in it, refrigerant may escape. Moreover, contaminants like air or moisture may enter your HVAC system through the breach.
The breach may not drain all your HVAC system’s refrigerant. As some of the refrigerant escapes, though, it may be replaced by air and/or moisture.
Air will take up the valuable space that could otherwise be used for refrigerant, making your HVAC system less effective at cooling your home. Moisture, on the other hand, will both consume space and contribute to corrosion.
Refrigerant evacuation is an HVAC service that uses a vacuum to pump air and moisture out of your HVAC system’s refrigerant lines. An HVAC technician will pump these contaminants from your HVAC system so that they don’t cause cooling issues.
When Is Refrigerant Evacuation Needed?
Refrigerant evacuation should typically be performed anytime your HVAC system refrigerant environment is opened.
If you’re simply changing the air filter, you won’t need a refrigerant evacuation service. You can remove the old air filter and replace it with a new one without messing with the refrigerant.
If your HVAC system is damaged and the technician needs to open it to perform the repair, a refrigerant evacuation is a good idea.
Whenever your HVAC system is opened, air or moisture may enter the refrigerant lines. Therefore, an evacuation will ensure that no air or moisture inadvertently enters your HVAC system during the repair.
Refrigerant evacuation is often performed prior to recharging HVAC systems as well. If your HVAC system is low on refrigerant, the technician may perform an evacuation first.
After removing all air and moisture from your HVAC system, the technician will then recharge it by filling your HVAC system with refrigerant.
If you are experiencing a problem with your air conditioning or heating call us at 512-336-1431 to schedule an appointment. We’ll be glad to come out and take a look at the issue.
1431-183 A/C & Heating proudly serves Round Rock, Georgetown, Cedar Park, Pflugerville, Leander, Liberty Hill, and North Austin.
