can you 'recondition' an old A/C drier?

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pishta

pishta

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Drier is full of desiccant. Desiccant can be dried in an oven...can you bring an old drier back to life by cooking it? LEts say the factory drier is not made anymore and your after stock appearance, or your just a miser.
 
pishta said:
Drier is full of desiccant. Desiccant can be dried in an oven...can you bring an old drier back to life by cooking it? LEts say the factory drier is not made anymore and your after stock appearance, or your just a miser.
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What's it look like? My original one on my 70 Swinger got replaced with an identical one from the John Deere store.
 
What I understand, the answer is No. They have a bag that holds the desiccant and after they get so much moisture the bag falls apart (rots) and the desiccant goes through the system and plugs the filter, gets in the evap and condenser. I had one the guy fixed himself and left the system open for sometime and after I charged it it quite working, the desiccant was all through the system.
 
Be pretty hard to dry it out in an almost closed container. Probably would need a vacuum bake if even possible for reasons stated above.
 
something like this....turns out you can get a replacement but for the cost of cooking it.....? If the answer is the bag rots and lets the beads go, then Ill go with that. They say the bagged desiccant can be cooked at 245F for 24 hours and then put into a tupperware to prevent it from soaking up the ambient humidity. I deal with desiccant powders and bags during work. Get the free silica sand on your hands and they dry out to the point of cracking. Not good to inhale either.
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If you put a vacuum on it, 29" or so that will boil the moisture out, no need to heat it.
 
found this
 

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Can do*. I harvested a refrigerator pump and put a screw on manifold fitting on the inlet. It'll pull the needle to the 27.5" on an A/C gauge. If the desiccant is 'out of the bag' I should be seeing some of it in the pump exhaust?

* >>> 27.5" is only 104F so I cannot boil the water out with a vacuum unless I get it under 28" and I may not be able to do that with my rig. Gauge is very small resolution at that pressure. :-( <<<<
 
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There are companies that will cut it open and replace the desiccant and weld them back up. By the way desiccant for R134 is different than R12. Some applications you can't buy a replacement dryer.
 
The problem, pishta, is that if the dessicant DOES disintegrate, it might circulate and plug/ damage the system. I've thought about sawing the bottom off, clean it out, and then weld/ braze it back together.
 
You could always get a condenser off like a 2010 Ford Ranger. They have an integral accumulator drier that takes replaceable cartridges.
 
Most of the a bodies are the same except for the cutoff switch I think. I think I only paid $20-25
 
My Toyota 4-runner has a dessicant bag in the condenser that is replaceable. You could run one of these condensers and gut the original dryer.
 
what year? The drier tube is built into the condenser?
 
2005. There is an allen plug on one end and there is a replaceable dessicant bag that goes in it.
 
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