How To Add Bullet Piercing Valves Video To Recharge Fridges Freezers Or Air Conditioners Low On Refrigerant

Kung Fu Maintenance demonstrates how to install piercing valves to charge sealed system refrigerators or air conditioners that are low on freon.

OK. So today I’m going to be installing a bullet piercing valve on this line here, on the suction line. And we really want to do this as close as we can to the compressor, but it’s also got to be at a straight point on the compressor. A couple other factors is we’re going to need to be able to tighten down the Allen keys on the valve as well as be able to hook up our gauges, so it’s got to be aimed. Also we’re going to need it to be able to close inside there, so couple different factors. It’s most likely going to go right here aimed this way so that I can tighten the valve down and put it inside there.

You see it’s got a little gasket inside there. The gasket presses against the material here. It also has these little adapters for the different size tubing and handy little instructions here. This particular valve can be used for 1/4, 5/16, or 3/8. This one’s pretty straightforward. We’ve got to separate both halves of the valve by loosening all of these hex head screws.

OK, so now we got both halves separated. Again you can see the gasket inside that presses against the line. And we want to go on as smooth a spot as possible, so I’m going to clean that up real quick, make the copper nice and shiny. There’s a couple ways we can clean the copper up. We can either use, this is like a waterproof abrasive cloth, sometimes called emery cloth, or a wire brush. So you’ll be able to see how the copper gets nice and clean right there.

And then the method the wire. With this, which with this one I think is going to be better. And of course you want to make sure your machine is unplugged for sure. You don’t want any jolts.

So now we’re nice and clean there, and we’re ready for our valve install. So here goes that. So I’m going to be installing this on a 5/16 inch tube. So what I’m going to need is this little adapter here to go on the bottom. And then our valve is going to go on the top.

And this adapter, I don’t know if you can see that too well. It’s got this little keyed part that fits right into the bottom of this, so it’s nice and snug in there. And we just take that and put it on like so. And now we’ll tighten down our hex head screws and position our line for optimum usability.

OK, we want this to tighten down nice and snug here. OK, and we’re nice and tight, getting nice and tight there. OK, we’re nice and tight there.

Now we’ll be able to use the self-piercing needle and pierce the line when we want to charge the system, or open the line, we’ll just loosen the hex head. The piercer will pierce through, and then opening the line will be done by loosening the hex head in the center. Now some of them have a straighter valve. This particular one does not, so this one is just a straight feedthrough valve. Again loosening the center hex head lets the refrigerant flow, and tightening it down seals it off.

Anyway, that’s how to install a bullet piercing valve. I’m going to go ahead and pierce the line now. Basically it’s just got a little sharp edge on it that pierces right through the copper, and then our gasket seals all the way around that.

Before it actually pierces, it’s a good idea to wear gloves for this. OK, so I’ve got two pairs of disposable gloves on and then also safety glasses as we go to pierce the line here. And now we’re pierced. And that should do it. You can hear the refrigerant is able to flow through here now.

I’m just going to close this off all the way. OK, and now we are sealed. Now in order to get refrigerant, we’ll just loosen this, and that will allow the refrigerant to flow. And now we’re ready to charge the air conditioning unit, to recharge the refrigerator.