Central AC compressors

I just thought of something if you have one central ac 3ton and a 5ton are the compressors going to have the same weight in copper or is the 5ton going to have more copper in the compressor than the 3ton hypothetical since I don't currently have any. Also about how much copper is in a central ac compressor and does it matter what ton it is or not??. I'm going to say they have 2lbs of copper in them maybe.

Originally Posted by mike1

I just thought of something if you have one central ac 3ton and a 5ton are the compressors going to have the same weight in copper or is the 5ton going to have more copper in the compressor than the 3ton hypothetical since I don't currently have any. Also about how much copper is in a central ac compressor and does it matter what ton it is or not??. I'm going to say they have 2lbs of copper in them maybe.

The 5 ton will have more copper regardless if its single or three phase.

There's a fair amount of work involved with tearing down sealed units. It's a messy job and you have to figure out what to do with the waste oil when you're done. It might make more sense to sell them whole.

3 ton and 5 ton units do not necesssarily have the same size compressor across various brands and generations so that's not a good way to guess recovery. You should expect 5-10% copper recovery in a very labor intensive process if you don't have a plasma or oxygen torch to make it quicker (or a truly massive shredding operation that can handle them)

It also depends on what type of compressor the unit has. like a scroll or a hermetic compressor.

I never really weigh anything, just toss it in the bucket when finished. But i do know that theres 10 lbs of copper in a 220 lb compressor. but those are from giant rooftop units

Wow thanks for the advice. So I'm going to figure if a central ac for say a office trailer 12 feet wide and 60ft long would have a 80lb compressor in it ? Of course if you take it in whole then you don't have to get burned on work if it's aluminum and not copper haha. I'm thinking about letting my work have them and have money for pizza and I'll just take 7 A frame coils once you break them down it would be about the same price as 9 central ac compressor tanks broken down I figured. I figured 7A frame coils should be 70lbs once the ends are cut off but I'm not sure about the loops am I correct in figuring that each A coil has 2lbs of loops for both radiators?.