[winsen]

So I visited the A/C place today. The system was able to keep vacuum for 5 minutes, so it was filled up and is now working (at least for the moment). It can now blow at 4 degrees Celsius. So far, so good.

Interestingly, the A/C guy said the system was completely empty, which is different from what VIDA suggested. It could be that the VIDA reading is absolute anyway (so a 100 kPa reading is atmospheric pressure, not 100 kPa above atmospheric pressure). However, pushing in the fill valve gave me a little "hissss", suggesting there was at least some pressure. The hiss was very soft though, so it could be that the pressure in the system was very close to atmospherics.

I will see now if the system keeps pressure. The A/C place added UV dye, so if it is leaking I should at least be able to find where. The A/C guy also claimed that the dryer/receiver is still fine (because otherwise the system would not be able to cool as well, he said), so if pressure is kept, I will leave things as they are.

If I loose the charge over next couple of days / over the summer, I'll look for the leak using the UV dye, and I'll probably replace whatever is leaking + the condenser (because the lower part is rather beat up) and the receiver/dryer.