Vacuum pump with oil drip shutoff

A vacuum pump assembly for evacuating an air conditioning and refrigeration system to a pressure substantially below ambient atmospheric pressure, said vacuum pump comprising:

• a vacuum pump having a housing with an interior bore and an oil inlet passage and an oil outlet passage through the housing in respective fluid communication with the bore of the housing;
• a removable oil container having a port;
• an oil inlet line supplying oil from the oil container to the vacuum pump;
• an oil drain line returning oil from the vacuum pump to the oil container;
• and
• a valve assembly having:
• (a) an oil inlet valve actuated by a first magnet to control the flow of oil from the oil container through the oil inlet line;
• (b) an oil drain valve controlling the flow of oil through the oil drain line into the oil container;
• (c) an adapter for removably attaching the port of the oil container to the valve assembly;
• (d) a bellows compressed by attachment of the oil container to the adapter thereby opening the oil drain valve;
• said bellows expanding when the oil container is removed from the adapter to close the oil drain valve;
• and
• (e) a second magnet moving with the bellows and controlling the position of the first magnet to open the oil inlet valve when the oil container is attached to the adapter and to close the oil inlet valve when the oil container is removed from the adapter.

A vacuum pump assembly for evacuating an air conditioning and refrigeration system to a pressure substantially below ambient atmospheric pressure, said vacuum pump comprising:

• a vacuum pump having a housing with an interior bore and an oil inlet passage and an oil outlet passage through the housing in respective fluid communication with the bore of the housing;
• a removable oil container having a port;
• an oil inlet line supplying oil from the oil container to the vacuum pump;
• an oil drain line returning oil from the vacuum pump to the oil container;
• and
• a valve assembly having:
• (a) an oil inlet valve actuated by a first magnet to control the flow of oil from the oil container through the oil inlet line;
• (b) an oil drain valve having:
• (i) an annular inner valve member surrounding the oil inlet valve;
• and
• (ii) an annular outer valve member surrounding the inner valve member and separated by an oil drain channel controlling the flow of oil through the oil drain line into the oil container;
• (c) an adapter for removable insertion into the port of the oil container to attach the valve assembly to the oil container, wherein insertion of the adapter into the port of the oil container compresses the valve assembly and removal of the oil container from the adapter causes the valve assembly to expand;
• (d) a bellows compressed by attachment of the oil container to the adapter, and expanding downward when the oil container is removed from the adapter;
• and
• (e) a second magnet moving with the bellows and controlling the position of the first magnet;
• wherein said outer valve member of the oil drain valve moves downward to close the oil drain channel when the oil container is detached from the adapter and the bellows expands, and moves upward to open the oil drain channel when the oil container is attached to the adapter and the bellows is compressed;
• and
• wherein said second magnet moves the first magnet downward to close the oil inlet valve when the oil container is removed from the adapter and the bellows expands, and moves the first magnet upward to open the oil inlet valve when the oil container is attached to the adapter and the bellows is compressed.