Ritchie Engineering Company, a leader in service tools for the HVACR professional and manufacturer of Yellow Jacket, has developed the first refrigerant gauge set to measure some common retrofit refrigerants, as well as a solar-powered digital refrigerant gauge set to measure eight common refrigerants.

 

Under the Montreal Protocol, the production of HCFC refrigerants must be completely ceased by 2020, with a 75% reduction occurring by 2010. With this deadline looming, many owners of commercial refrigeration systems are opting to retrofit this equipment with non-ozone depleting HFC refrigerants, such as R-417A, R-422A and R-422D. And since each refrigerant is pressurized differently, accurately monitoring these new HFC refrigerants has become extremely difficult.

 

This is why Yellow Jacket is the first to offer a set of large 3-1/8” red and blue dry manifold gauges specifically calibrated for monitoring these refrigerant alternatives. These 1% accuracy (Class 1) gauges with a front recalibrating screw are available individually or on the Yellow Jacket Titan 4-Valve Test and Charging Manifold. The company is also offering a set of red and blue solar/light powered LCD digital manifold gauges with PSI °F, PSI °C, bar °C and MPa °C. The low side gauge has a pressure scale of 30 inHg VAC to 350 psig and the high side gauge has a pressure scale of 0 to 800 psig. According to the company’s press release, they are housed in red and blue ABS plastic cases and are available individually or on the Yellow Jacket Titan 4-Valve Test and Charging Manifold.