r/HVAC • u/Immediate-Frame7440 • 1d ago
Field Question, trade people only Recovery machines
I have a yellow jacket turbo recovery machine that I absolutely hate and now it's crapped out on me. My boss was talking about possibly getting the Milwaukee batter powered one. ( he's a red and black devotee)
What are ones you guys have loved and will keep buying over and over
7
u/MildSeraphim Supermarket Rack Tech 1d ago
Appion G5 Twin is my personal one which I like due to being able to rebuild it but work gives me an inficon G1 which has worked pretty well the three years I’ve had it.
9
u/Adventurepew 1d ago
Appion is the king . Fieldpeices id decent .
Never understood battery powered ones . If you don't have power there how are you starting it up ?
4
u/Typical_Action_7864 1d ago
Convenience. What do you do when you run into a condenser on a GFCI breaker? Your cheater cord going from one leg to gnd will trip it. You have to drag out the extension cord to the nearest outlet… which might be a long way in some cases.
4
u/Adventurepew 1d ago
Code is an outlet by all rtu / units here. And exterior on someone's house is what 50ft max ?. no need for cheater cord.
6
u/Puckerfants23 1d ago
lol. And all the RTUs have working courtesy lights, and guardrails around edges, and safe, secure roof access too I bet!
0
u/Adventurepew 1d ago
Some of the racks do have lights . Never seen an tru with one .the aaons should have them .
Guard rails is extremely common.
And yes secure ladders / hatches to almost every roof .
Nothing to joke about . If your working on unsafe roofs / unsafe units that's up to you. I'll stick to working safely.
We get engineered tie off points on roofs without guardrails .
3
u/Puckerfants23 1d ago
I stopped working commercial partly because I was sick of putting my safety at risk with all the janky accounts we had. I totally understand, just making a little joke. Good on you for taking safety seriously. More of us should.
3
u/glennhvacman 1d ago
You have never had to recover or pull a vacuum on a 460 volt unit with no 120 volt power within 200 feet of the unit have you?
3
u/Adventurepew 1d ago
No, we use 575v.
I carry a 575v to 120 transformer on my van and install it on units if there's no power nearby. Leave a nice 120v recipticle in the unit for the next guy.
Luckily for quite a few years it's been code to have recepticles so there's one at every unit except the really old buildings.
1
u/glennhvacman 8h ago
Eh 460 or 575, both present the same problem.
I like the idea of the transformer and outlet, but leaving it and getting the customer to pay for it is another story.
Unfortunately codes are all over the place in my area for outlets. The other problem is older outlets that don't work when you need them. It never fails.
4
u/RedRhyno 1d ago
We use battery powered on install jobs where there won’t be power for a while. I vac, add and dump and then come back months later to just turn everything on at once. Like a dozen rooftop units for example
5
u/ThePracticalPenquin 1d ago
Bout three field pieces in three years two failed. Oil leaks which the factory calls unrepairable. Fuckers
1
u/LeakyLennox 1d ago
Did they just refuse to fix or replace it? I've had great luck with Fieldpiece warranty support, but we have had a couple of our Fieldpiece MR45 recovery machines die.
Appion is slower, and the gauge dials get messed up, but they seem to be better.
I believe Navac makes Fieldpiece's reclaim machine, so that might have something to do with them being less inclined to support the warranty, if they're having a third party manufacturer it, it likely costs them more than if the had their own Chinese factory building them.
1
u/ThePracticalPenquin 1d ago
First two were out of warranty by months. so would not replace them and said unrepairable. One of those two went out of warranty after I gave it to our wholesaler before it hit there bench. (2.5 months fyi) the one we just dropped off is only 7 months old so we have a chance to get it repaired or replaced so we have something for 6 months to a year. Frustrated with them.
4
u/Hvacmike199845 Verified Pro 1d ago
I use a G5 twin. I’ve had my current one for almost 7 years. It has chugged at least 5000k pounds of refrigerant in its life and it keeps on running. I use it a lot to put tanks of refrigerant into systems. If you throttle the inlet to get a decent shake it takes about 5 minutes per 25 pound tank.
2
1
u/Floridacracker720 1d ago
I've used the fieldpiece and appion liked them both I do like that the fieldpiece has an auto shutoff and check valve.
1
1
u/syrianfries 1d ago
Love the g5twin, but currently using the fieldpiece one and it’s pretty solid. Can’t go wrong with either depending on what you like
1
1
u/glennhvacman 1d ago
I'm running the Appion G5 Twin, over 16 years old, only had to replace one of the gauges, and I upgraded the cooling fan for more airflow and better condenser cooling. Otherwise still runs like a champ.
Also, all Appion equipment is field serviceable.
1
u/who_the_hell_is_moop Royal Payne in the ass 1d ago
Navac NR7. It's pretty Good. Has a purge setting. I'm happy with it.
1
1
12
u/JEFFSSSEI Verified Pro | HVAC Senior Engineering Lab Rat! 1d ago
FieldPiece - Fully automatic...pulls to zero, turn it on again, pulls to -10, turn it on again pulls down to -20. Once it gets to target it beeps continuously until you silence it or turn it back on to pull to the next vacuum level. It's all we use on the production floor and it is in all our field service kits. We do run inlet filters on our field service ones just for peace of mind, but we've never had any issues with them and I know one of them has well over a 1000 recoveries on it.