My first ac teardown

Hi to all, did some real work today.A friend gave me 3 ac/heat units like in a motel already drained of freon.I'll take an electric motor over a compressor anyday,those compressors must have been 3/16 thick.Anyway as I understand it the coppper lines have to be free of solder to be #1 is that correct? I'm also guessing there's not anything to be done about all that fuzzy aluminum on the rest.

#1 has to be free of solder and corrosion. You must have gotten some older GE ones. The fuzzy copper/aluminum goes as clean Cu/Al radiators. Those older GE's are the worst ones to tear down.

each ac had 2 radiators,I quess 1 evaporator and 1 condenser? All together there was 1 that was all aluminum and 1 of the fuzzy's the rest were were copper tubing with aluminum fins.These have all the little loops of copper sticking out of the ends and I was thinking about cutting them all off for #1

On the cu/al coils, don't forget to cut off the piece of steel on each end. If you don't, they go as dirty radiators.

At my yard the little copper elbows go as #2. Also take the heat elements out, they look like coild wire, they ar Nichrome. I don't cut the compressors, I sell them as sealed compressors at .28lbs I think thats the price.

are you talking about a weed eater? Thats what came up on goggle.I'm not sure what you mean by 2 handle brush cutter?

I was wondering about a two handle brush cutter too. How would you cut copper with a draw knife? Don't they use those for cutting wood?

I use a sawzall, goes pretty fast.

By 2 handed brush cutter he means pruning shears

Thats a pretty good idea, they are thin enough to get into places bolt cutter could not.

I use a angle grinder with a metal cut-off wheel, just runs down right next to the metal takes the loops off clean. Also i don't mind cutting compressors as some bigger ones have alot of copper.

Yea I cut the loops off first with a saws all. Then I cut the metal plate off on the ends. That way you get the number 2 copper loops and the little bit that is left in the steel I just throw it in shred. Not enough copper to mess with.

Sorry for the double post but the yard that I go to quit taking sealed units so I always cut them open. They are pretty easy and I wait until I have a bunch of them at a time to do. The only bad part is when you cut one open and then cut the "copper" windings only to find out that it is aluminum.

^^^Mine wants them at the very least drilled out. Sometimes I cut them open and sometimes I don't, it depends on how tired I am and it takes almost one whole side grinder wheel to cut one open so I also have to think if its worth it. Also, my yard used to take them as motors but I noticed this year they take them as steel but you still have to keep them separate so they know they've been drilled out and they weight them separate too.

Originally Posted by freonjoe

#1 has to be free of solder and corrosion.

Hey Joe, I have a bunch of copper plumbing tubing that came out of a fire, and was thinking I should cut the joints to go in #2 and that would make the tubing #1. It will probably still have a scorched color to it, will it all be #2 anyway?

Originally Posted by Mechanic688

I didn't know the exact name for them till I looked them up on Home Depot, these things slice copper tubing real well as long as their sharp. They call them loppers, good thing they have long handles or you'd be "lopping" your fingers off,,,lol

I use loppers to cut the wires off of power supplies.