Expanding the copper pipes of the air conditioner • How it’s done

When both units of the air conditioner are already installed, you need to take one of the most important steps — you need pipes for the air conditioner connecting the outdoor and indoor units, through which the refrigerant circulates. These routes are made of copper, they are connected directly to the blocks, and the performance of the entire system depends on the quality of the connection. The first thing to do is to determine the freon supply pipe to the external unit and the one that is responsible for the return flow of the material. This is easy to do — the line that supplies the refrigerant to the outside has a larger diameter. It is also necessary to consider whether oil traps are needed and to prepare the return nuts. In this article, we will tell you how to properly make and connect copper pipes for an air conditioner through which freon circulates. Why is it more profitable to build highways on your own? Lots of advantages:

• the system can be made of any length;
• too long tubes easily turn into winding highways;
• any arrangement of air conditioner units is allowed;
• installation of modules is not limited by anything.

In addition, installation is not difficult, you just need to follow our recommendations.

Air conditioning pipes: installation process

The laying of tracks includes several stages:

• determination of the need for the presence and installation of an oil trap;
• measuring the length of pipes and cutting them;
• bending and installation of tubes;
• using a deburring reamer;
• installation of reverse nuts and flaring of tubes.

Let’s consider each of these stages in more detail, and give recommendations for their implementation.

Is an oil trap necessary?

First you need to decide in which cases it is necessary to install such an element of the route. Read the installation instructions that come with your air conditioner model carefully. It is most often recommended to install an oil trap if:

• the level of the indoor and outdoor units differ by 5 meters or more;
• the track is designed in such a way that there are many vertical sections;
• the total length of communications between the blocks is 30 meters or more.

An oil trap, also called an oil lifting loop, is needed to make it easier to lift the oil if the A/C tube is vertical. The fact is that some of the lubricant from the compressor enters the line as part of the liquid refrigerant. Essentially, the oil passes through all the pipes, returning to the crankcase of the outdoor unit. Accordingly, the more vertical sections and the higher they are, the more often the oil under the influence of gravity does not reach the top. This threatens with a lack of lubrication of the compressor, which will inevitably lead to its jamming. The oil lifting loop allows you to accumulate oil in one place, thereby narrowing the passage for the refrigerant, and increasing the speed of the latter, and hence the pressure, i.e. in fact, freon, passing through the trap, accumulates oil particles, raising it to the top.

The oil lifting loop itself is made of pipes — you have to bend them into the shape of a knee. Such a device is installed on vertical sections of the route, the length of which exceeds five meters. The first trap is placed directly in front of the vertical segment. If you still need to install traps, then you can find the specific dimensions in the instructions ..

Measuring and cutting pipes

The main thing here is to adhere to the principle — accuracy above all. The tightness of the route depends primarily on the cleanliness of the cut. You need an angle of 90 degrees, which can be achieved with a special pipe cutter. It is fixed at the place where the tube is cut and cuts off part of the tube with a rotational movement. Another important point is the cleanliness of work — do not allow dust and copper particles to get inside the pipe for the air conditioner. It is very difficult to blow through it, so work carefully and carefully monitor the cut, because the edges are made:

• as even as possible;
• without bevels;
• without blockages, both inside and outside.

Also, do not forget to clean the cut from defects: burrs and dust, chips and notches.

You will need two pipes:

• narrow, to direct freon to the indoor unit;
• wide, through which the refrigerant moves to the external module.

The diameter depends on the capacity of the air conditioner units. In addition, these data can be found in the specification for the technique.

Tube bending

This process is done with a pipe bender, another special tool. It is impossible to bend pipes manually — they will definitely get damaged and the work will have to be started again. . In the process of bending, it is possible to adjust the angles of inclination by trying on the tubes directly to the installation sites. This makes it possible to make the bending more accurate and check the previous theoretical calculations.

Stripping tubes

When the cutting work is completed, you need to put the final touch — clean the edges of the pipe for the air conditioner from the burrs formed during the cutting process. This is done by means of a sweep with its slow rotation. This moment is ideal for another action — inspecting the cut edge for cracks, kinks and other defects. When reaming, the pipe must be kept at an angle downwards so that the chips from the reamer do not fall inside the pipe.

Air conditioning tube: flared ends

Now you need to proceed to the most important stage — flaring and connection. This will require return nuts and fittings. All air conditioning pipes are equipped with fittings located at the joints, so there will be no problems with this. But for the installation of return nuts on each tube, it will be necessary to carry out flaring, despite the fact that the nuts have their own diameter that matches the dimensions of the tubes, according to the factory marking. You need 1 universal tool consisting of:

• a vice in which the tube is clamped for the duration of the work;
• rolling, which performs the main action.

Act carefully and consistently, and if the disassembly did not work out the first time, try again, after cutting off the defective area. The main thing is to maintain the integrity of the pipe.

Flaring is performed as follows:

• the first step is to put the return nut on the tube;
• then clamp the pipe in vise so that the cut extends slightly beyond their limits;
• before starting, it is recommended to slightly lubricate the rolling cone with oil;
• and end up breaking it down.

Dimensions of unrolled copper tubes

There are standardized diameters that must be adhered to when flaring. They are presented in the form of a table:

To determine the diameter of the pipe and flaring, an additional tool is used — a caliper. It is very important to observe the ratio of sizes, because the tightness depends on it, and hence the performance of the entire split system.

Stage end

So you have:

• bent and flared tubes with dressed thermal insulation;
• gates or boxes for fixing communications;
• drainage and electrical lines.

But if something went wrong with you, you can always order the installation of a split air conditioner from specialists with extensive experience in this field.