Robinair Cooltech Refrigerant Recovery AC Machine

By Dennis Bandy Copyright © 2008
DenLorsTools.com

A little history on Robinair. Robinair is not just a popular brand for AC equipment, Robinair is a pioneer in the air conditioning field. Robinair was founded back in 1956 by the Kent-Moore Corporation in Michigan. The new division of Kent Moore was formed to design and manufacture specialty tools for servicing and the repair of appliances. Robinair's name was a combination of two Kent-Moore executives, Robinette and Adair. Fortunate use of the last part of the second name and with the popularity of A/C being used increasingly in homes and cars, Robinair found it's direction in this new market. Robinair evolved quickly to meet the needs of the air conditioning service market and it's name today is still a favorite among AC automotive technicians.

Green before it was popular, Robinair was the first company to offer a refrigerant recovery and recycling unit in response to environmental ozone concerns. Robinair AC machines are the industry's standard that all others are judged by.

New Rules. The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) launched a research program to reduce the escape of R-134a refrigerant. The program was called I-MAC (Improved Mobile Air Conditioning), the goal was to reduce emissions of refrigerant into the atmosphere as cost effectively as possible. I-MAC has designed smaller systems with fewer leaks. The SAE recently passed more strict rules for automotive air conditioning recovery, recycling and recharging equipment. The new standard called SAE J-2788 mandates that all AC service equipment manufactured after November 1, 2007, must recover 95% of the refrigerant and recharge to within 1/2 ounce.

The Robinair CoolTech ROB 34788 meets the new J-2788 standards. The ROB34788 is an AC machine for servicing automotive ac systems. It has the capability to properly recover, recycle, vacuum the system and correctly charge the car's air conditioning system with manual or an automatic function. The minimum required CFM's (Cubic Feet per Minute) for AC vacuum pumps used for cars and light trucks is 1.2 CFM. The Robinair 34788 has a 3 CFM vacuum pump onboard. With this higher rated vacuum pump the system is pulled down into the proper vacuum faster. Once this vacuum is reached the boiling point is reduced and problematic moisture is boiled and removed from the system more efficiently. Not only can moisture cause freeze-up in the expansion valve or evaporator, moisture combined with refrigerant under pressure can cause a corrosive acid that can deteriorate AC system components from within over time. AC refrigerant oil is prone to absorbing moisture and cause the oil to turn into sludge, so the proper evacuation of the car's AC system is important to remove this harmful moisture.

Proper charge. Many cars have the refrigerant charge amount on the service label somewhere under the hood. If the tag is not there or cannot be read for whatever reason, it is important to obtain the correct charge amount. More is definitely not better in this case. The ROB 34788 has an optional database for refrigerant charge amounts, the disks that have this information stored is inserted in the expansion slot on the 34788 AC machine, an exclusive feature at this time.

The J-2788 mandate requires that the AC machine's filter be changed after recycling 150 pounds (68 KG) of refrigerant. The ROB 34788 makes this easy to keep up with, after this amount has been recycled the machine prompts the technician to change the spin on filter (ROB 34724). The machine also has a compartment on the back for storing a spare filter.

Automatic functions like oil purging and automatic refrigerant refilling from the virgin tank makes this machine easy to use and the auto technician more productive.

For a limited time DenLors has a promotion on the Robinair Cooltech 34788 AC machine that includes up to $695 worth of free products with the purchase of this unit. Free shipping is included and no sales tax is charged outside the state of Florida.