Sanden 1102 blew a hole in its side

[Blowout]

... and spilled its guts all over the road - screaming its head off, until it ran out of refrigerant.

Photo of hole:

y.jpg (129.42 KiB) Viewed 167 times

Has *Anybody* seen an A/C compressor do *that*?

Obviously it had overpressure "Issues"... But how the **** could it do *That*?

[Tim]

It happens, normally more with the scroll compressors. What refrigerant were you using?

[Blowout]

It happens, normally more with the scroll compressors. What refrigerant were you using?

It's Complicated (which probably explains the trouble I got into...)

There was a slow leak at the Schrader valve on the low side... so after replacing that valve I repressurized with a can of R134A + oil from << gulp >> O'Reilly.

I undoubtedly ended up with too much oil in the system, at the very least - But I'm just amazed that *that* much pressure could have built up.

Now I'm just wondering if whatever "event" occurred to blow a hole in the housing like that, could have scattered metal fragments into the AC... i.e. do I now have to replace the condenser/drier/ etc., and flush the hoses (Etc. ...)

But if the refrigerant all exited through that hole under pressure, leaving no metal fragments behind, maybe I can get away with just replacing the compressor?

Hope Springs Eternal... but, yeah, I now realize I had it coming.

[Tim]

Sadly, the magic in a can product is not going to warranty your system. The system should be charged only with refrigerant and a complete gauge set. But you know part of that already. Judgment call: do you want to risk a poor repair and have another compressor issue? I only suggest doing repairs correctly as the industry suggests.

[Blowout]

Sadly, the magic in a can product is not going to warranty your system. The system should be charged only with refrigerant and a complete gauge set. But you know part of that already. Judgment call: do you want to risk a poor repair and have another compressor issue? I only suggest doing repairs correctly as the industry suggests.

I wouldn't even bother asking the can vendor for a warranty...

I do have the gauge set - however, I also suspect the overpressure condition could have been due to "slugging", with too much lubricant in the system -and if I understand correctly, ensuring the right amount of lubricant is in there, would require completely purging the system (with nitrogen? and I don't have a nitrogen bottle) first.. And if the dead compressor could have somehow barfed metal particles into the AC during its last gasp, before the clutch disengaged... now we're into disconnecting all the lines and flushing them with solvent and... .

So I'm hoping somebody somewhere has actually seen this type of failure before and maybe has disassembled the compressor to see exactly how it had failed, and so would know what the risk is of just replacing it (and the drier, no doubt...),

I.e., maybe "the second mouse gets the cheese"... but I definitely don't want to end up being the *first* mouse...