Electronic Portable Air Conditioner

Can you re-gas a portable air con unit?

I have a portable Air Conditioning unit that does not pump out cold air any more. The blower works fine and the air is cool but not cold like it used to be. Do you have to re-gas a portable device like you would have to in a car?

Public Comments

1. You can, if you buy a straddle valve, a/c gauges and the freon for it.
2. You can as indicated in answer one, BUT... note the equipment and gages which cost a lot, AND note the fact that IF a leak [only way to lose Freon gas] is present you will have to continue adding gas which can get very expensive. Also, the Freon gas is very expensive, and in some places [like here in the USA] you have to have a special license to even buy it. You can do it, or have an air conditioning technician do it, BUT it probably would be a lot less expensive in the long run to simply scrap the old one and buy a new one [which may well be a higher efficiency device and therefore "greener," and less expensive to run].
3. Because of EPA restrictions on who the suppliers of refrigeration gas can sell their gas to, you will have to have a qualified licensed HVAC tech refill your air conditioner. And yes, it is just like your car AC, except it uses a different gas and requires a different class of certification to do the work.
4. If you talking about cold system for sure there's have a compressor together. For you information for the portable ac unit there's is lot of brand and design outside there. Some of the portable unit don't not have the re-gas device ( Built it compressor once spoiled unit can't use anymore ) But some of the portable unit they have re-gas device. If your's once have that device so you can re-gas it and use the gas pressure gauge.
5. Portable and window units can most likely be brought back with a very unique device, a common garden hose. Clean it! You will need to remove the housing to access the coils that need cleaned.
6. possible,but if needed a leak must be repaired first.Freon never breaks down,also could be valve or restriction of air across coils
7. Do this test first to SEE if you really need freon. Cover the evaporation coils(those inside the house) with a piece of cardboard. remove the temp probe from behind the cardboard. If the suction line(the big one) going back to the compressor frosts up all the way back to the compressor guess what? You don't need any freon! What you need to do is CLEAN the coils. Get you some coil cleaner from the hardware store. The foaming action of a good coil cleaner will deeply remove the nastiest funk and drain away down the base of the unit unclogging it in the process. Another product called Blowout is used on the outside coils of a window unit. This knocks out dust and rust that may cause the unit to become less efficient. If you need to add freon to the system the newer environment friendly NU-22 is probably available to anyone like r134a (why shouldn't it be if it does not harm anything?) Get your suction pressure to the 68 PSI point and you will be close. Your suction side will always be larger and colder than your high pressure side.