I walked into a supply house the other day and looked at a “universal” expansion valve on the shelf. The friendly guy behind the counter saw me and walked over. After saying hello, he said: “That's a great valve; it's even balanced port.” Now, I am a bit of a troublemaker. I should have […]

We all know (or should know) that venting refrigerant is a big no-no and can result in trouble from the EPA. There are many other potential violations, but two of them can easily occur if you aren't thinking ahead at the disposal of mercury and oil. Mercury is found in fairly large quantities in the […]

Net refrigeration effect (NRE) is the quantity of heat that each pound of the refrigerant absorbs in the refrigerated space to produce useful cooling. That’s a pretty vague definition. We know that it’s an amount of heat in processes that take place within the evaporator. Still, the phrase “useful cooling” seems rather broad. Even though […]