we're talking about two different things and getting confused. BTW I completely agree with you on half assers making the world think proper work is overpriced.
Compressing all the refrigerant into the condenser is what they do on home systems to move them. Yes, on a small unit they will need to remove the refrigerant as, like you wrote, no way to valve it off.
What I'm going to find is a guy who fixes window a/cs to do the work. I've seen the signs around town on backyard garages where retired HVAC guys do this. I assume a guy like this will have a recovery machine and obviously has the rest of the required equipment. I am not an HVAC guy, but I know enough about it to set up a new system, I've done several when I was younger, I understand the engineering (aka plenty enough to know how to hire someone who knows what they are doing). The only reason I'm looking for someone else to do the exchanger is because I can't recover the refrigerant from a window unit. If I wasn't worried about releasing the refrigerant, I'd go to harbor freight, pick up a (one use) vacuum pump, some gauges and do it myself.
Trust me, I'm not the guy you think I am, I hate that guy too.:friends:
Take the evaporator out of a window a/c leaving the lines connected. Drop the evap into an ice chest filled with water. Run a pump from your res through a loop of vinyl tubing in the ice chest and back to the res.
Had mine going a year so far that way.
