Terminal Venting
Provides information to heating, air conditioning and refrigeration service technicians about an important safety issue: terminal venting.
If a compressor’s electrical terminal pin is damaged, weakened or otherwise loses its seal and separates from the compressor terminal, pressurized oil, refrigerant and debris may spray out. This is called “terminal venting.”
The ejected debris, oil, and refrigerant can injure people or damage property. The oil and refrigerant spray can be ignited by electrical arcing at the terminal or any nearby ignition source, producing flames that may project a significant distance from the compressor. The distance depends on the pressure and the amount of refrigerant and oil mixture in the system. The flames can cause serious or fatal burns and ignite nearby materials.
A variety of abnormal conditions can cause terminal venting, including internal or external electrical faults/shorts, or mechanical damage to the terminal or compressor.
Never reset a breaker or replace a blown fuse without performing appropriate electrical testing
Never energize the compressor unless the terminal cover or terminal plug are in place. Keep clear of the compressor when power is applied.
Keep all non-essential personnel away from the compressor during servicing.
Always follow all safety precautions provided by the system manufacturer.
Before energizing the system:
Yes. Under the right circumstances, even non-flammable refrigerants (class A1) and oils can be ignited when they spray out of the terminal under pressure. The finely atomized spray of refrigerant and oil may ignite, even though they may be difficult to ignite otherwise. All flammable refrigerants pose an even greater fire or explosion risk if terminal venting occurs, including both A3 (flammable) and A2L (mildly flammable) refrigerants.
Copeland uses or may use in the future, the flammable refrigerant types set forth here: https://webapps.emerson.com/online-product-information/Publication/LaunchPDF?Index=AEB&PDF=93-11. The Copeland compressor models indicated at the following link are currently designed for use with various flammable refrigerants: https://webapps.emerson.com/online-product-information/. Please click on the model number to access the service manual for that compressor model, which will indicate whether a compressor model was designed for use with flammable refrigerants and the list of refrigerants specified for the compressor.
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