How to Charge a Scroll Compressor on Both Sides

The compressor on your home’s air conditioner is used to compress the air before sending it through refrigerant and into your vents. If you are not getting cold air through your system, you need to charge the unit. The compressor has a high side and a low side for refrigerant pressure. The high side controls vaporous refrigerant and the low side controls liquid refrigerant. AC units are always charged on the low side. Once charged, the low side will send the refrigerant through the condenser to the high side.

Safety gloves/eyeware
Refrigerant
Gauge

Instructions

- 1
  Turn your home thermostat to the “Off” setting. This will turn off the air conditioner. You do not have to cut off the water, gas, or the electricity to the unit. Turning the thermostat to "Off" cuts the power to the unit.
- 2
  Put on safety gloves and protective eye wear.
- 3
  Connect your refrigerant tank to your gauge and then connect the gauge to the low side service valve. The low side is the bigger of the two pipes on your unit. The service valve will have a small cap on it.
- 4
  Open the gauge to purge the lines of air. Open the refrigerant tank line and then open the gauge line to start pumping the refrigerant into the system.
- 5
  Wait for the gauge to reach the green level. This means that the unit is fully charged.
- 6
  Go back to your thermostat and turn on the unit. Allow the unit to run for about 20 minutes at a low temperature setting. 65 F is typically a good setting. This will allow the unit to mix the new refrigerant through both the low and high sides.

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