Well, it's that time again... I get to go back from school to my xtype that needs repairing

I'm looking at this type of vacuum pump Vacuum Pump - AC Vacuum Pump w/ R134A & R12 Connectors which uses an air compressor to pull a vacuum on the system, or so that's what it claims to do. Has anyone used this type of vacuum pump?

This is the only low cost option for a vacuum pump I have found as autozone has stopped renting them.

 

I have one of those and it works fine. I use it to pull a vacuum on the VW diesel pumps when the injection pump runs dry. It will suck fuel to the pump.

There are no moving parts like my R134a recovery machine pump so if it gets a load of fuel it wont damage anything.

It will work to remove air from the A/C system just fine.

bob gauff

 

My compressor isn't very big, but I was thinking of putting in a ball valve so I could charge up the compressor and then open the ball valve and keep doing that to avoid having to buy a bigger compressor. Would this work?

 

I've got one of those things too and my experience is that it will not pull a vacuum down to 29 hg like they say you're supposed to in order to get any water in the system to "boil off" and get sucked out. It'll do 27 hg mabe with my big 60gal compressor giving it all its got. I've not had a problem so far, but if I were say working on a system that had been left open, i.e. pipes disconnected, for a while, then I might try to borrow a real vacuum pump. The other thing is that I've always pulled a vacuum for at least a half hour or so. My 60 gallon compressor cycles but runs more than I'd like it to while operating this device. A smaller compressor will likely run constantly trying to keep up. The ball valve is not a bad idea, but if you need to let your compressor cool down, be sure to shut off the valve on your gauge set to maintain the vacuum so that it doesn't suck ambient humidity back inside the instant you shut off the air flow from the compressor.

 

Sounds good! I'll try it out then!