164.Refrigerant charging

There are two methods for charging reefer plants: Liquid charging and Gas charging.

Now a day’s gas charging is preferred over liquid charging because it is more safe and

simple.

For gas charging, a special T piece valve block with mounted pressure gauge is provided to

combine three connectors inter-connecting:

1.Vacuum pump

2.Charging Cylinder

3.Charging Point

Following steps are to be taken for charging gas into the reefer plant:

1. Connect gas bottle or charging cylinder, vacuum pump and charging point in the reefer

system to the valve block.

2. The discharge of the vacuum pump is to be connected in the empty recovery bottle

3. First open the valve between vacuum pump and charging bottle located in the valve block

without opening the main valve of the charging cylinder. This will remove all the air inside

the pipe. Once vacuum is reached, close the valve of charge cylinder in the valve block

4. Now open the valve of the charging point pipe in the valve block and run the vacuum

pump until the vacuum is reached. This will remove the trapped air from this pipe. Then shut

the valve in the valve block

5. Now keep the system idle for 5 minutes to check there is no pressure drop. This will

ensure there are no leakages in the system

6. Now open charging bottle pipe valve and the charging point pipe valve located in the

valve block. This will set the line for charging. Ensure that the vacuum pump valve is shut

7. Now open the main valves in the charging cylinder and charging point of the reefer

system

8. Do not overfill the system. Make sure the receiver has 5 % space for expansion

Ensure that no refrigerant is leaked out in the environment as these effects the ozone layer

in the atmosphere.

Note* :Gas bottle is kept on weighing scale for measuring the amount of charged supplied to the system.