Brazing vs press vs flare etc

what i see up north MI. flare for mini splits, brazing whenever its allowed. Press is still not super popular here but its catching on. it still hasn't been fully adopted here like out east. most equipment manufacturers have modified their connections to better accommodate press as it has become more and more requested, so that tells me somewhere in the US its really common for A/C

Flare the ends of mini split linesets, braze any splices. I'm old-school, so 15% everywhere I can. We've got the press tools, and they work fine on ACR…but I'm old-school.

flare seems better than press in every way possible. get the hydraulic flare tool if an extra 3 minutes on the job is that important to you.

I use an Anchor brand eccentric-cone flare bar I got from United Refrigeration for most of my flares, and the Yellow Jacket bar for the big (⅞" flares) when I have to. They both work good, but flaring ⅞ & 1⅛ is a chore.

I also have a Mastercool 71475-PRC that I use for inverted & bubble flares, it also does regular flares if I wanted to drag it out. Perhaps it's from the extra steps in making a bubble flare, but the hydraulic tool isn't anywhere near as fast as the eccentric cone tool.

I really like mine.

I've seen guys use those spinners you chuck in a drill, but I'm unimpressed. One of the repeated selling points I've heard was "you can't mess it up". Well, the very first YouTube video I watched (I know, I know) the guy made that statement, then started one, overdrilled it, then said "oops, messed it up" under his breath, cut it off, & started over. It sticks in my memory that he said "can't mess them up" again , but that's probably not accurate. I can't see how a flat bar will make a round flare, no matter how rounded the edges are.

I respectfully disagree. Ive got flair fitting out there that are 20-25 years young and still holding.

Temperature changes i Assume your speaking of x-valves. Some nylog on the face and threads keep the moisture from freezing and expanding the flair nut.

plenty of hermetic systems with flares.

I have more faith in a brazed connection over a mechanical . With the higher gas pressure I not liking the flair .. Just thinking could the copper tube and brass fitting loosen over time with change of temperatures ? I am thinking mini splits ..

brake lines use double flares on very small diameter steel or other harder line. copper flares are good for fairly high pressure too though. flares generally fail in freezing conditions where water gets in the threads and pushes the connection apart. that can be solved with pipe dope or special nuts with a relief path cut in them. flares also don't need a purge gas to prevent soot and corrosion.

Everything York make now is JUNK. But back in the day they were the Cadilliac…………except your back would go out trying to move one.

The oil company I worked for was a York dealer way back, 40s-60s I worked on some open drives and their stuff was really built.

We had tons of old York service manuals at the old office that i used to take home and read when I was trying to learn this stuff.

They wanted everything brazed or silver brazed if it was steel to copper. They insisted on it. They didn't want any service valves on the smaller stuff either, evacuate it, charge it and pinch off the access. Some things don't change, I would trust brazing over anything.

Flaring just takes practice. Tubing can get work hardened and a flare can split but all you have to do is torch it to anneal it if need be and ream the burr and you should get a good flare. I agree with @ChrisJ the newer flaring tools make a better looking flare but I didn't have many issues with the older flare tools.

I had an Imperial that would flare 5/8, 3/4. 7/8 and 1 1/8. In 46 years it hardly got used.

Luxair was bought by C A Olsen in 1939. They were bought up by Westinghouse in 1955. Borg Warner who used to own York bought Westinghouse (heating and cooling) in 1981. Looked it up.

I worked on some old Westinghouse roof top units and 1 chiller and there stuff was very good.

Funny story. I bought my house in 86' and it was a ranch. Masonry construction. It had no AC and the first summer it was awful. When the weather got hot the inside was nice and cool for 2-3 days. When it got hot it was like a brick oven and stayed hot even if the outside cooled off. Window fans did nothing and it was all casement windows, so window units weren't a thing for casements then.

Didn't have any $$$ but I bought an R-22 AHU and put it in the attic and installed the ductwork and insulated everything.

Now I needed a condenser. We had tons of old York equipment at the shop. I needed 2 1/2 tons.

I found an old unit brand new still in the crate made in 1952. It had 2 1hp compressors R-22 2 refrigeration circuits. This unit had to be installed indoors, and you were supposed to duct the condenser air in and out. It had a belt drive condenser fan and had the evaporator coil on top so it was supposed to be installed next to a warm air furnace and use the furnace fan for the evaporator.

I put the condenser in my garage "attic" that had vents. Went through the wall into the house attic with 2 suction and 2 liquid lines and mounted the coil in the return air duct of my new AHU. Funny looking for sure but it worked so so. 1hp compressor doesn't get you a ton of cooling when its air cooled (it does when water cooled) so I only had about 1.8 tons for a 2 1/2 ton load but it was better than nothing. Ran that for 3-4 years till I saved up some $$$$.