Thermodynamic water heater installation problems

littlejonnyB

Hi all, I'm looking for a bit of advice regarding my 2nd hand thermodynamic water heater, I'll keep things as simple as possible but here's my problems…

1. I live in France and nobody wanted to fit my 2nd hand unit so I did it myself

2. I couldn't get r134a gas so was informed that I could get r600 as a replacement (correct/not correct ? compressor compatibility ?)

3. I could buy the gas no problem, but couldn't find what the capacity needed was (came in 420g canisters)

4. filled the unit with gas and got the unit working to a degree but have two main problems, one is temp as it can only achieve 3.5 bars on the display and I presume it should light up all 5, and secondly when filling the gas I could only achieve about 2 bar pressure.

I did buy the pump when I bought the gas, purged the system of air and let it sit at a minus value for 30 mins as instructed, no leaks indicated, the panel is outside about 3 mtrs from the unit on a north facing wall

basically I need to know the gas capacity needed, if r600a is ok for a r134a compressor, how to achieve a higher bar pressure if thats whats needed needed.

any help offered would be greatly received and I will add that I know a pro should have fitted it, but when nobody wanted to fit it here in France, perhaps due to regulations or low profit margin, I was left with no option

thanks in advance

John

10-10-20

Hi, normally the gas capacity is printed on the service-plate or within the manual, but you need to know that for sure. There might be a conversion factor from R134a to R600, so you'll need to factor that in too. Also you are supposed to purge the old gas fully from the system, then replace the gas dryer too.

As to the main question through - I don't know if you can do a straight-swap from R134 to r600 on any old system.

littlejonnyB

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122354392#Comment_122354392

thanks for that, unfortunately as it was second hand I didn't have a manual but have managed to download one, but it doesn't show gas capacity, also when we got it the previous owner had literally just cut the pipes to take it out and it had been stood for a week or so, I presumed (like an idiot) that any gas would have escaped. the gas dryer is something I can look into

cheers

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122354487#Comment_122354487

The gas pipes were cut or do you mean the water pipes? If the gas pipes were cut then the gas probably all escaped (by right if it was R134 then it should have been collected and recovered). Do you know if the oil remained in the system or could that have leaked out also? If so you'll need to replace whatever escaped.

littlejonnyB

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122354755#Comment_122354755

the gas pipes were cut and as far as I could tell the system was totally empty, however I suppose its a possibility that something was left in the compressor, not sure if that would affect it, I am thinking of emptying the entire system and totally re-gassing it