Header banner
Revain logoHome Page
John Hall photo
1 Level
1329 Review
51 Karma

Review on Robinair 18560 Refrigeration Remover Lnstaller by John Hall

Revainrating 3 out of 5

Good if you like fishing but not as easy to use as a similar brand C&D

I had to replace two valve cores on my home air conditioner. I bought an old C&D Valve heat exchanger at a local flea market and noticed that when I tried to use it there was a leak around the shaft on the back. So I went with this Robinair because it looked like a C&D and was made out of solid brass. After I bought the Robinair, I found that I could buy a replacement rod with a leaking C&D cartridge I had, so I decided to buy this replacement rod assembly to see if that would fix the C&D leak . Both arrived. at the same time the replacement rod/cartridge fixed the leak at C&D where I decided to try both of these valve core heat exchangers. One for each valve core to be replaced. I first tried C&D and the job was very quick and easy. Robinair's next step was to replace another valve core. I had a hard time getting the Robinair to sit on the valve core so I could unscrew the core from the valve. These two tools looked a lot like me and I couldn't understand why I was having such a hard time getting Robinair to work as well as C&D. So I took the tool off my AC and compared it to the C&D and noticed that the rod inside the Robinair just wasn't as centered as it was in the C&D. Also, I noticed that as I moved the handle attached to the Robinair stem it wobbled from side to side with the C&D perfectly centered and not wobbling. This off-center and wobbling stem was what gave me grief because I could easily grab the valve core with a tool. I was finally able to get the Robinair to snag the core after wiggling the handle during continuous rotation while feeling like I was blindly catching the valve core with a tool. I was able to replace the valve core with a Robinair and overall the quality seems good and solid. However, swinging the bar made the job much more difficult compared to the similar C&D design. I decided to make a short video to show this difference in rod swing. In the video I move the handle on the back of the instrument where the rod is attached to show the difference in the amount of sway in the Robinair compared to the C&D which had almost no sway. This difference in wobble seems to make things difficult. It's a good tool, but I definitely prefer C&D as it makes things a lot easier.

Pros
  • Sturdy construction
Cons
  • The list will go on.