AC Refrigerant Removal - How?

Unless you can find a salvage yard or you go buy a reclaim unit the only way is to dump it to air. It will come out as a gas and most salvage yards have a reclaim system. Otherwise you'll need to drive to an AC place.

 

Seems to me if it really were that bad you could go somewhere to reclaim for free.

I have to wonder, given the uncountable daily leaks all over the world due to poor quality fittings, compressors, and workmanship why exactly is it bad for a generally conscientious DIYer to dump to the atmosphere?

Seamus

 

I don't think anyone will take the R-12 unless you have it removed by technician. They remove it and store it in a special container. The reason why they are careful about taking it is that they recycle it and they don't want it contaminated.

 

Call a refrigeration or HVAC service company. They should be able to lead you to a reclamation service.

 

Vincenzo you need either a reclaim unit or a few empty cylinders suitable for holding cfc refrigerant and a vac pump.If you have a vac pump then you can pull a strong vacuum in the cylinders and suck the gas in to them.The empty gas cylinders under negative pressure will suck most of the gas out.It might not get all of it out but it will get most of it otherwise call a A/C tech to come on site and do it for you

 

When the A/C fluid was changed on one of my cars (not an F-car) for the new environment friendly sort, I watched with interest.
The guy had a small transfer compressor and a set of pipes to connect to a small receiver cylinder for the waste gas.
He placed that on a small digital weighing scale and logged the weight at the start.
He started the transfer compressor and monitored the pressure on the car's system. When that was down to zero he stopped pumping.
He checked the weight increase on the scales and calculated how much fluid had been removed.

Before putting in the new fluid, he added some compressor lubricant to the A/C circuit.
Then he connected up the transfer pump to a cylinder of new gas/fluid
(R-12?). This was placed on the scales to monitor the weight fed into my car.
The compressor was started and the car system pumped up (to about 30 psi from memory)
During this process the supply cylinder goes very cold due to evaporation and he had a heating jacket on it to compensate for that.

That's how its done, took about 45 mins maybe an hour.
He had to take the old stuff back to a processing plant by law (local regs).

I'm afraid several not very good citizens just blow it off to atmosphere, but then when did you here about volcanos getting permission before belching a few million tons of not very friendly gas into the atmosphere.

Sensibly, you will want to fill it up at some stage, set that deal up first and get them to take the old stuff.
I'd worry a little about compressor wear if it was run for an extended period without fluid/lubricant in it.
I note my F-car has a compressor with a separate lubricant top up on the non pressurised side. Whether it needs some lube in the fluid too, I don't know, I'd have to check with the part's maker.

 

imho, venting to atmosphere is not cool