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I recently acquired a Westinghouse WB-174 which still had a light charge when I installed a service port on the low side. I pulled vacuum for three hours and it held overnight but I got distracted and instead of adding ester I added 2 oz of PAG oil. This was before I added Freon but now I guess I'll need to flush the entire system to get the PAG oil out. I have worked on auto A/C's and have followed the rule that ester is for R-12 and PAG is for 134A and the two don't mix and that PAG with R-12 creates some sort of sludge. It was PAG 150 too! I've found opposing recommendations online but hope someone can tell me if I now have to install another service port on the high side and do a complete flush. I've thought of just opening up the low side service port and seeing if any oil drips out but I let the vacuum suck in the oil so it's probably all over the system now and I don't want to start up the compressor in case of damage. I know the compressor works because I've changed the capacitor and it kicked over, I did not run it but a few seconds but still I don't know it's history and I guess it could have been run on a low charge for a while...

Can someone let me know their opinion; should flush completely and if so the recommended procedure? If I completely flush, how much ester oil should I add back? I just guessed at 2oz. to top off but that could still be too much.

Thank you all so much for the forum! I hope to have a working coke machine soon,

The system probably had mineral oil in it if it was a R12 system from the 60's, so ya, you screwed up, you now have a nice waxy mess inside, so you'll have to drain the compressor, flush the system & change out the filter dryer. see if your compressor has a traceable/cross referenced part no. & look up the spec's to see how much oil it held to begin with, sometimes the spec plate on the refrigeration deck states the oil charge for the OEM.

As for a flushing process, I'd google up some of the procedures from similar systems, but I'm betting your going to have to cut the old compressor out of the system & open the process tube & tip 'er over to drain it. but so long as your going through all of that trouble, you may as well replace the old unit with a new one.

Good luck.

auto a/c huh?.... yeah, you're qualified.   :glare:

Wow i cant believe you said that GLOBAL !!!!!!!!!Well i guess i can, you do it often !!

just call me...... 'Mr. Wonderful' !!!   :upside:

Thanks for the confab guys. It don't make the news easier to take but yeah, you gotta check your head when you work with one system and then switch over to a new system.... I hope I ain't got too much oil in the compressor but as soon as I throw some flush in there, I guess I'll see.  I'm still collecting parts so a new compressor could be in order... I'll thank Mr. Wonderful maybe later!

anytime... glad I could help!  :biggrin:

also, seriously... sometimes it's easier to ask for advice up front, (and cheaper) than after
a potentially 'fatal' mistake.

and I thought "Mr Wonderful" was that jacka$$ on "SharK Tank". 

Good advice Eric!

nope...we're two different people, he's rich and a jacka$$...... I'm just a 'jaska$$'... that's it!   hahaha   :glare:

Well, I spent $50 on this machine and the only "fatal" mistake I made was thinking I could get it past my wife! I already have one of those 50's vendo's waiting for who know what and as far as coke machines go, one is supposedly enough. Big stuff she will have trouble moving when I am dead I am sure.

But look, it'll will teach me not to buy anything that will allow my wife to say, "I told you so" and then leave it up to her to rush me out of the house ensuring I don't have what I need to do the job right. This was as simple as grabbing the wrong oil from the shelf on the way out and not checking later. I swear, it wasn't until I got home until I realized what I'd done and what a crummy feeling. I'm still trying to keep this under wraps with the hope that I can get all that PAG oil cleaned up because the compressor being trashed already is one thing, while me trashing the compressor is completely another thing... I'll have to wait several years then drag the vendo out and ask for help with that.

your secret's safe with us... well, all except Johnie and that other "guy" Creighton. Gotta watch out for
those two!  :Oo:

Good luck... and I hope you get it up and running!