Newsletter Third Quarter 2012
Service Department Update Mineral Oil and POE Oil Mixes
July 25, 2012
By Rick Roland, Vice President, Engineering
C
ertified Refrigerant Services, Inc. has
always been in support of their service
contracting customers
and worked hard to stay up-to-date
with technical issues related to
refrigerant systems. Recently CRS
has had numerous calls with service
companies requesting to have the
refrigerant system’s oil tested for
contamination of POE oils in a
mineral oil system.
Rick Roland
CRS has researched the related
issues and invested in a Refractometer that can help
to identify and quantify a mix of mineral and POE
oils. Professional testing labs don’t quantify the
amount of POE oil in the mineral oil with the typical
oil analysis.
The service problem that we are addresing is
the inadvertent adding of POE oil to a mineral oil
system when the compressor is changed. Nearly all
compressor manufacturers make compressors to
satisfy needs where a compressor might need mineral
oil or POE in the same physical compressor.
The oil type in a compressor will be indicated in
the model number of the compressor. It is easy to
miss this detail and install the compressor without
realizing the mistake. If a system has all mineral oil,
that is not a problem. If it has all POE, with mineral oil
mixed in it and the replacement compressor is
shipped with POE, and installed, then we have a
potential problem.
Oil Refractometer measures amounts of mineral and POE oil.
The blend many times forms a thick globular
mass that when traveling through the system does
not allow the refrigerant to flow as needed to perform
properly. We have repaired systems that were
essentially not working because of the restriction the
POE/mineral oil mix was causing. The cure for this
problem is to flush the entire piping system and the
compressor. CRS specializes in this type of system
flushing for the larger system.
We come to the job with clean refrigerant to act
as a cleaning and flushing material. The system is
piped to allow effective flushing and the process
continues until the oil is completely flushed out. With
all the oil flushed from the system, the proper type
and grade of oil can be added and the system can
return to good operation.
The test for mixed mineral oil and POE can be
simply done with a small oil sample from the system,
this is just one of the many tests that CRS performs
to better support our contracting customers.
Contact Sean Maycock, CRS’s service
manager (941.637.6300) for help with this or any
refrigerant related issues.
© 2012 Certified Refrigerant Services, Inc. www.certifiedrefrigerant.com (941) 637-6300