If a blend leaks out of the system, will I need to pull the remaining charge and recharge, or can I

Question

Accepted Answer

It depends. Studies were done a few years ago to show how higher glide blends behave during leakage and they showed significant fractionation, which affected the properties of the blend. When the system was topped off, the properties came back close to original. The cycle was repeated to see how many times the system could leak before topping off became a problem (the recommendation was not more than five). These studies were done on containers at rest, which promotes the worst case of fractionation.

Another study was performed recently on a system running full time, then cycling normally (2/3 on, 1/3 off), which found that the blend did not fractionate when the refrigerant is moving around inside, and not much fractionation occurred when cycling. Low-glide blends didn't show much fractionation in any case.

What this means is that running systems found to be low on charge have probably not fractionated the blend much, and can be repaired and recharged directly. If the system has been off for a long period (more than a day) and found to have leaked (worst case is about half the charge), it's best to pull what's left and charge with fresh, unless very little is gone, or very little is left. Low-glide blends won't cause any fractionation-related problems.