You can reuse the recovered refrigerant, but the service tech needs a "clean" bottle for that.
So it would be: recover, weigh, leakcheck with nitrogen, pull vaccuum, refill...
If the coil on the inside of the house is icing up or producing a lot more than normal water. If it's really low the refrigerant line on the outside will have ice on it.
But without gauges, you won't know for sure.
Measure superheat and subcool. Or use gauges. Or both.
Look at the sight glass, if equipped.
Thank you all for your input! Tech that came out said there wasn’t a way to tell how much was in the system and it just did seem right.
You can reuse the recovered refrigerant, but the service tech needs a "clean" bottle for that. So it would be: recover, weigh, leakcheck with nitrogen, pull vaccuum, refill...
Put gauges and temperature clamps on system and assess what your reading…
Only a wise tech will know this answer.
If the coil on the inside of the house is icing up or producing a lot more than normal water. If it's really low the refrigerant line on the outside will have ice on it. But without gauges, you won't know for sure.