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Refrigerant line traps and R410a

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jimg
jimg Member Posts: 6
in THE MAIN WALL
I'm very familiar with piping practices on R-22 and where traps are needed in the suction and hot gas lines. I'm hearing from a lot of sources that traps are not required with R410a. Anyone have this in writing from a reputable source?



What I am hearing is that whereas with 22 the oil crawled up the walls of the tubing, with 410a the oil stays in mist form and travels quite well with the suction or hot gas, so no traps are required.



I cannot recommend this to my service guys till I see it in writing from a reputable source, and ASHRAE Refrigeration 2014 is silent on the issue.



Thanks!



Jim.

Comments

  • Spence
    Spence Member Posts: 316
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    Traps

    I don't believe this is an issue with a blanket response. My own comfort level was contacting the makers of several units that were popular in my area for their answers.
  • jimg
    jimg Member Posts: 6
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    Source

    I just found a source, a blog post from Mike Bishop at York, saying these traps are no longer needed. I'm looking for backup for that statement. If this is important to anyone, let me know and I'll share the document.



    Jim.
  • Eugene_Silberstein
    Eugene_Silberstein Member Posts: 349
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    Johnson Controls Unitary Products has this document regarding general piping recommendations (refer to page 2):

    http://www.usair-eng.com/pdfs/long-line-piping.pdf

    Also, for the most part, manufacturers of R-410A ductless split equipment do not want filter driers or "excessive" refrigerant traps installed on their equipment.

    Hope this helps.

    There was an error rendering this rich post.

  • MichaelK
    MichaelK Member Posts: 34
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    Traps are not needed with R-410a. I have seen some variable refrigerant flow equipment that called for it but only on excessive runs. Always refer to the manufacturer but in most cases its no longer needed.

    Worst I've seen is a R-22 system converted to 410A and the installers left the old traps. All that mineral oil saturated with R-22 was just waiting to head up to the micro channel coils and cause all sorts of fun issues. Get rid of the traps!!

    Mike
    Michael Knight

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