The purge unit on an R-123 chiller has failed and its compressor has to be replaced. What has to happen to the refrigerant sitting inside that purge unit before it is opened up?
Correct Answer
C) It has to be recovered, because the purge unit is part of the appliance's refrigerant circuit
The purge unit is piped into the chiller's condenser and holds refrigerant in its own drum, condenser and lines. Opening it opens the refrigerant circuit of a low-pressure appliance, so whatever refrigerant it holds has to be recovered first. Nothing about its small size or its exhaust function creates an exemption. The small appliance limit describes factory-sealed units charged with five pounds or less, not a component bolted onto a chiller holding hundreds of pounds.
Why This Is the Correct Answer
A purge unit is plumbed into the chiller and forms part of the same refrigerant circuit, so refrigerant inside it belongs to the appliance. Before the purge compressor is unbolted, that refrigerant is recovered with certified equipment the same way the main charge would be. The venting prohibition does not stop at the chiller shell.
Why the Other Options Are Wrong
Option A: It can be vented off, because the purge unit's normal job is to discharge gas to the atmosphere
The purge discharges non-condensable gas, not refrigerant. Treating the exhaust function as permission to release the refrigerant inside the unit is a deliberate venting violation.
Option B: It can be left in place, because a purge holds less than the five pound small appliance limit
The five pound figure describes factory-sealed small appliances. A purge bolted to a five hundred ton chiller is a component of a low-pressure appliance no matter how little it holds.
Option D: It has to be logged and then released, because a purge drum's contents count as de minimis
De minimis covers the traces that escape during a good-faith recovery, not a decision to empty a component into the room and write it down afterward.
Memory Technique
If refrigerant can get into it, the rules can get into it. The purge is part of the machine.
Reference Hint
Recovery is required before opening any part of the refrigerant circuit, including accessories such as the purge unit.
More epa-608-type-3 Questions
Some jobs on a chiller count as a major repair under the refrigerant rules, which changes what a technician is allowed to do with a badly leaking machine. Which job falls into that category?
An owner asks how many pounds of refrigerant the rules allow to be left inside a chiller once the recovery has been signed off. What is the correct answer to give him?
The motor of a hermetic centrifugal chiller sits inside the pressure boundary rather than outside it on a shaft. What follows from that construction?
An oxygen monitor is used to decide whether a chiller machine room is safe to enter after a refrigerant release. Below what oxygen reading is the atmosphere treated as oxygen deficient?
A low-pressure chiller's rupture disc has a discharge line running from it. Where does that line have to terminate?
A refrigerant vapor detector in a chiller machine room reaches its alarm level. Besides sounding, what is that alarm expected to do?
Which piece of equipment requires a technician to hold Type III certification before it may be serviced?
What property of the refrigerant is what actually places an appliance into the low-pressure category?
During normal operation, what condition exists inside the evaporator of a running low-pressure centrifugal chiller?
In what unit is the required final recovery vacuum for a low-pressure appliance normally expressed?
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