anyone ever opened up house ac compressors?

Originally Posted by Patriot76

I forgot how much info Idahoscrapper has provided on this subject as well as condensers. Personally I interchange the terms all the time. Here is a previous thread with advice from many of the same individuals posting here as well as some old timers. As you can see many prefer cut off wheels, personally I prefer a torch.

http://www.scrapmetalforum.com/scrap...can-worms.html

Patriot - I don't have any experience using a torch, but I can cut any piston type compressor open in less than a minute with a plasma cutter and the compressor on a lazy susan. These are the ones with the weld going around the circumference of the unit. Refrigerator compressors are this type, and also some a/c compressors. The other types take me longer as there are more cuts to be made.



Refrigerator ones average conservatively 8% copper recovery, and a/c piston type 6%. However, the refrigerator ones average 20 lbs each and the a/c ones can be up over 100 lbs. Time spent handling the smaller ones can add up, although I'm not sure which I prefer dealing with the most. Also, these types can contain aluminum windings, but you won't run across too many like that.

There are two other hermetic compressors that you'll run across -

Scroll Type - About 6% recovery. These are large and annoying to deal with (to me at least). Very similar dealing with these as with the rotary type below.

Rotary Type - You'll find these in PTACs and window units most of the time. They're not so bad to deal with. 10% recovery on these, more if the suction accumulator on the side is copper (hint- there's a steel filter inside one end of these, use a magnet to locate it). I make 5 cuts on these laying them on their side. One cut right under the weld on the top cap, one above the three spot welds near the bottom. Three lenth-wise evenly spaced cuts connecting the top and bottom cuts (this deals with the stator that is pressed in). I make three cuts because the stator is pressed right against the case, and more often than not, one of the cuts just melts the case right to the stator in a couple spots. After I'm done, I drop it on the ground next to my table and it all falls apart. With all this cutting on such a smaller compressor, things get hot, and the windings get burned and scorched most of the time.