We use subcooling for a range of AC diagnostics. Both high subcooling and low subcooling will give us a key insight into what might be wrong with our air conditioner. To fully take advantage of our subcooling measurements, we are going to check these two insights: Low Subcooling Causes. As we will see in the … Read more
Low superheat can flood your compressor. That will ruin the compressor, and you will likely have to spend $1000s for a new air conditioner. That’s why it’s very useful to understand what causes low superheat and how to fix it. We are going to cover all 6 low superheat causes, going one-by-one, detailing why low … Read more
High superheat is an AC problem that won’t go away by itself (except due to the #4 cause). We have to fix high superheat. In order to do that, it’s particularly useful to understand what causes high superheat in air conditioners. There are 6 common high superheat culprits that we always check, and we’ll go … Read more
One of our readers asked us if there is a target subcooling chart. Namely, we do have the most extensive target superheat chart here; shouldn’t there be a similar target subcooling chart as well? Well, there is none. That’s because the target subcooling doesn’t significantly depend on the outdoor temperature (like the target superheat). Example: … Read more
When diagnosing air conditioners, you will probably need to consult the target superheat chart. Here we are going to take a structured approach to how to calculate and use target superheat. Namely, we are going to go through these 4 very useful resources for target superheat: Target Superheat Formula. In order to calculate target superheat, … Read more
Do you know what’s easy? Calculating subcooling. It’s a piece-of-cake calculation. We are going to explain exactly how to calculate subcooling in much the same manner as we explained superheat calculation with R-22, R-410A, and R-134A examples here. In this article, you will similarly get 3 key resources that will explain everything to know about … Read more
Calculating superheat in HVAC is super easy. We only need 2 temperature measurements and a minimal amount of math. We are going to show you exactly how to calculate superheat. To help you out, we have prepared these 3 valuable resources: Superheat Formula. This is a very simple equation anybody can use to calculate superheat … Read more
Let’s learn exactly how to measure subcooling. Measuring subcooling follows a very similar procedure as measuring superheat (detailed here) but with important differences. We are still going to need 3 key tools; a manifold gauge (red high side part), a clamp-on thermometer, and the easiest subtraction math. Subcooling is measured at the high side liquid … Read more
Measuring superheat is not all that difficult. All you need are a manifold gauge, a clamp-on thermometer, and a bit of math. We will show you exactly how to measure the superheat for any air conditioner (central air conditioner, split system ACs unit, etc.). We are going to include a step-by-step way of how to … Read more
Superheat is one of the most commonly used terms in HVAC. We use quite a lot of superheat and subcooling calculations as the No. 1 air conditioner diagnostic tool. It is only appropriate that we adequately define what superheat and what subcooling are. Example: You will very often see an HVAC technician with a manifold … Read more