Copper cylinders on refrigerators and A/X units

Originally Posted by IdahoScrapper

I cut all of mine open, dump the beads and remove the steel screens. If there is a steel soldered connection, I either heat it up and pull it apart, or cut it off so I have clean copper.

I see you are talking about the inline dryer, I find most of them are steel with copper fittings on the ends.

At first I thought Wayne was talking about the reversing valves. These have three copper lines coming in and a solenoid coil on them. These are pretty heavy with just steel pistons in them. The body of this valve is brass and like I say heavy.

For these I cut in half after smashing the steel bracket that holds the little electric coil on the side. I put in my vise and whack the crap out of it with a beveled hammer, it's held on to the brass like a monkey clinging to a banana! After it is off I cut in half in the middle, then I reach in with needle nose pliers and pull out the pistons from each end. I say "pistons" for lack of a better word. They slide together too and fro, to reverse the freon direction. ( Sorry for the unnecessary information there) .

The coil that was on there is full of copper, but it is a pain to get out, yes even I hesitate when it comes to cleaning them. I've got a big bucket of just them Should I need money real bad that will be there.