- 1). Turn on your air conditioning system using the control box. Allow the system to run for at least 30 minutes before moving on to the superheating process.
- 2). Locate your AC pump. It is generally located outside of the home. Inspect the pump closely. Notice that there are two refrigerant hoses connected to the pump. The liquid line hose is smaller and attached near the bottom. The vapor line hose is larger and connected to the top.
- 3). Connect the blue hose of the compound pressure gauge to the valve on the vapor line hose. Connect the red house to the valve on the liquid line hose.
- 4). Open the valve on the blue hose. Monitor the blue pressure gauge to get your system’s saturated temperature reading. Write down this temperature reading on a sheet of paper.
- 5). Inspect the liquid line hose for an attached metallic tube. This is the thermostatic expansion valve, or TXV.
- 6). Apply a thermometer to the sensing bulb of the TXV. Record the temperature from the sensing bulb on the sheet of paper along with the saturated temperature. Subtract the saturated temperature from the temperature given from the sensing bulb. The difference is the superheat measurement.
- 7). Compare the superheat temperature to the recommended temperature of your system. For most systems, this measurement should be approximately 10 degrees.
- 8). Adjust the superheat temperature of your system by turning the adjusting knob on the TXV. Turn the adjusting knob towards the closed position to increase the superheat temperature. Turn the adjusting knob towards the open position to decrease the superheat temperature.
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