Much like subcooling, understanding and calculating superheat can be somewhat difficult for newbie technicians. Superheat is probably the most talked about, yet most misunderstood technical term used by service technicians in the field, noted John Tomczyk, author and professor emeritus, Ferris State University, Big Rapids, Michigan.
“Superheat is a measured value,” Tomczyk said. “It is the difference between two temperatures. Superheat is measured as the difference between the actual temperature of refrigerant vapor at a certain point and the saturation temperature of the refrigerant. It’s not complicated, but for a beginning tech, it might be.”