Sanyo R404A Freezer Rotary Compressor C-3RHV359L4AAL: Specifications, Performance and Selection Guide

By AUTHOR_NAME, AUTHOR_JOB_TITLE, Qishanr Technologies Co., Limited | Published: YYYY-MM-DD | Last updated: 2026-09-23

Summary. The Sanyo C-3RHV359L4AAL is a single-phase, fixed-speed, horizontal hermetic rotary compressor with 35.9 cm3 displacement, rated at 2340 W cooling capacity and 2160 W input for a COP of 1.08 W/W. It is a low back pressure R404A machine with liquid injection cooling, built for commercial freezing duty.

Key facts at a glance

What is the Sanyo C-3RHV359L4AAL?

The Sanyo C-3RHV359L4AAL is a hermetic rotary compressor built by AVIC Electromechanical (Shenyang) Sanyo Refrigeration Equipment in Shenyang, China, and it belongs to the low back pressure family the maker catalogues for commercial freezing rather than for air conditioning. Its single cylinder displaces 35.9 cm3 per revolution, it runs on a single-phase 220 to 240 V 50 Hz supply, and it is a horizontal machine with liquid injection cooling. The whole family sits inside the Sanyo rotary compressor range on this site, which is the group page the site keeps for the brand inside the wider rotary compressor category.

The model deserves its own technical page for one reason above all others: it is one of very few compressors in this class for which the maker publishes a full per-model specification sheet rather than only a row in a catalogue. That sheet carries the model number 802 S81 15, is dated 24 January 2019, and is signed by the Shenyang factory. It gives a three-voltage rated performance table, a nineteen-row operating standard, mechanical acceptance limits and an outline drawing. Everything numeric on this page that concerns the target model comes from that sheet or from the maker's 2024 catalogue, and each table below names which of the two it used.

Three qualifications belong at the top rather than in a footnote. The first is origin. This exact model string has no page of any kind on this site, neither a product page nor an article page, so no figure below is a page reading from this site. The second is hosting. The maker's own domain, avicsanyo.com, did not respond when checked, so both the specification sheet and the catalogue are hosted on third-party distributor domains; the links are given in the sources list and the hosting is stated wherever it matters. The third is refrigerant. R404A has a hundred-year global warming potential of 3,922, which places this compressor squarely inside the European rules that restrict both the placing on the market and the servicing of equipment using it. That is treated as a selection constraint in its own section below, not as a footnote.

What does the model code C-3RHV359L4AAL mean?

The manufacturer publishes the identification key in its own catalogue, so the string can be decoded rather than guessed. Read left to right, the code splits into seven blocks:

Two of those blocks are routinely misread, and both are worth settling before the rest of the page is used.

The first is the letter V. The maker publishes two nomenclature keys. Under the second key the letters H and V stand for Horizental Type and Vertical Type, and a reader who applies that key to this string will conclude that the compressor is vertical. Under the first key, which is the key that governs this family, V sits in the power-form position and means 220-240 V, 50 Hz, single phase. Three pieces of evidence settle it. The catalogue group heading that contains this exact row reads R404a 220V~240V-1PH-50HZ, which matches the power-form definition word for word. The same catalogue family contains a 380 V three-phase version carrying the letter P in the same position, C-3RP359L4AAL, which is only explicable if that position encodes the power form. And the page footnote on the catalogue spread reads H:Horizentel Type V:Vertical Type, which tells the reader that the orientation of this row is carried by the H, not by the V. The compressor is horizontal.

The second is the displacement block. The key prints the example as 48.6 cm3 for the digits 486, so 359 reads as 35.9 cm3 and not as 359 cm3. The manufacturer's own specification sheet confirms 35.9 cm3 independently, as does the catalogue row and the distributor page.

The trailing AAL is not decodable from either key. Both keys stop before this position, and neither the specification sheet nor the catalogue defines it. The same suffix appears on many rows in the family, including C-3RHV322L4AAL, C-3RHV463L4AAL and C-3RP359L4AAL, so it is a family-level marker rather than a one-off. It should be confirmed with the supplier rather than inferred, and no meaning is asserted for it here.

The specification sheet adds one more layer: it notes that the nameplate carries four printed positions, where A is the refrigerant type, B the compressor model number, C the compressor code number and D the power form. For this code those read R404A, 802 S81 15, C-3RHV359L4AAL and V respectively.

What are the rated performance figures across the three voltages?

The manufacturer's specification sheet gives rated performance at three supply voltages rather than one, which is unusual and useful, because a 220 V nameplate rating alone does not tell a buyer what the same compressor will do on a 240 V supply.

Basis: manufacturer datasheet, rated performance table.

Three things about this table need to be said plainly, because each of them is regularly lost when the figures are copied elsewhere.

Capacity is stated with a lower tolerance of 90 per cent, and input and current with an upper tolerance of 110 per cent. The sheet prints those tolerances in the column headers. A figure of 2340 W therefore describes the nominal point and not a guaranteed floor, and a buyer sizing a system against it should treat the 90 per cent value, 2106 W, as the figure the matched system has to accommodate.

The COP values are marked on the sheet as reference values, and they are printed inside brackets for that reason. They are arithmetic consequences of the capacity and input columns, computed at 2340 divided by 2160, 2350 divided by 2200 and 2350 divided by 2270, which resolve to 1.083, 1.068 and 1.035. That is worth stating because it means the COP column carries no independent measurement. Any specification document that presents 1.08 as a measured or guaranteed efficiency has upgraded a derived reference figure into something the source does not claim.

The third point is what these numbers are not. They are not the same thing as the 1700 W rated output that appears elsewhere on the same sheet. That figure is the motor output, the mechanical power delivered at the shaft, and it is a different quantity from the 2160 W electrical input and from the 2340 W cooling capacity. The three sit in one system on the same sheet, and substituting one for another produces a compressor that is either over-specified or undersized. The arithmetic that ties them together is the electrical efficiency, 1700 divided by 2160, which is 0.787.

At what test condition are those ratings measured?

A cooling capacity figure without its test condition is not comparable with anything, so the condition is given here rather than buried in a table note. The manufacturer defines four standard test conditions in the 2024 catalogue, and the specification sheet for this model prints the full condition on the rated performance table itself, which identifies which one applies.

Basis: 2024 catalogue, test condition table.

This model is rated on TEST 4. The specification sheet prints the condition directly on the rated performance table as condensing 54.4 deg C (130 deg F), evaporating -23.3 deg C (-10 deg F), liquid entering the expansion valve 18.3 deg C (65 deg F), return gas 32.2 deg C (90 deg F) and ambient 32.2 deg C (90 deg F), with the cooling method given as liquid injection. The distributor page for the same code prints Tev -23.3 deg C and Tco 54.4 deg C, which is the same point.

Two disclosures belong with this table. The first is a reading limit. The catalogue's test condition table extracts from the PDF with its row labels and its value rows offset from each other, so which label belongs to which row of numbers cannot be settled from the text alone. The values used above therefore follow the specification sheet, which labels every line explicitly, and the catalogue is used only to establish that four conditions are defined and that the temperature set for TEST 4 is 54.4, -23.3, 32.2, 18.3 and 32.2.

The second is an arithmetic cross-check that supports the reading. If the return gas temperature is 32.2 deg C and the evaporating temperature is -23.3 deg C, the superheat is 55.5 K. The distributor page for this code prints SH 55.2 deg C. Those two agree to within the rounding of the underlying data, which is independent support for treating 32.2 deg C as the return gas value rather than the liquid value.

A practical consequence follows from the condition itself. TEST 4 fixes the evaporating temperature at -23.3 deg C, which is a commercial freezing point, and it fixes the ambient at 32.2 deg C. A system that will see a 43 deg C plant room, or that will pull down to -35 deg C, is outside the rated point in both directions, and its real capacity will not be the 2340 W printed in the table. The application standard in the next section gives the envelope within which the compressor is allowed to operate at all, and that envelope is much wider than the single rated point.

What is the full technical specification?

Three of these rows are worth a sentence each.

The 1700 W rated output against a 35.9 cm3 displacement on a single-phase supply identifies the machine as a moderately rated single-cylinder unit rather than a high-output one. For comparison, the same catalogue table lists a 46.3 cm3 row in the same family at 3 HP, and the 35.9 cm3 row is filed at 2.5 HP. Buyers who need more capacity from the same footprint should expect to step up in displacement rather than expect a higher rating from the same displacement at the same voltage.

The winding resistances are given with a five per cent tolerance, which matters for service work. A winding reading taken with a general-purpose meter and compared against 0.777 ohm will usually fall inside the tolerance band even when the winding is damaged, so these values are for confirming a diagnosis and not for making one. The three values also let a technician confirm which terminal pair is being measured, since C(T)-R, C(T)-S and R-S are distinctly different resistances rather than near-equal ones.

Internal overload protection means the protector sits inside the shell and is not replaceable in the field. That is a maintenance-planning fact rather than a performance fact, and it distinguishes this machine from models that use an external protector a technician can swap.

One parameter is deliberately absent. The specification sheet prints the weight including oil as an empty field, and the catalogue row has no weight column, so no weight figure appears here. A buyer who needs it for shipping or for a mounting design has to request it.

What are the performance features?

The manufacturer states four performance features for this compressor family in its 2024 catalogue. They are given here as the manufacturer states them, with the model-specific evidence alongside.

Gas injection technology. The catalogue says this feature allows a wider evaporating temperature range, quoting the example that between -40 deg C and +10 deg C there will be no excessively high discharge temperature and no deterioration of the oil, which it gives as the basis of high operational reliability. On this model the feature is present in the code and in the sheet: the L block in C-3RHV359L4AAL is the liquid injection marker, the datasheet lists the cooling method as LI-IN, and the datasheet adds a dedicated 6.5 mm inner diameter liquid injection tube that the naturally cooled variants in the same table do not have. The application standard also sets a discharge gas limit of 105 deg C with an absolute limit of 125 deg C, measured about 50 mm from the discharge end, which is the constraint this technology exists to hold.

Low vibration and low noise. The catalogue credits a pump sound reduction technology and a whole-body vibration pulsation reduction technology. The datasheet gives the acceptance figures: 60 dB(A) maximum noise, and 220 micrometres maximum vibration in both the horizontal and the circumferential direction. Those are acceptance limits rather than measured values, and the distributor page for the same code prints a sound level of 61 dB, one decibel above the datasheet maximum. The two are reported here as they stand rather than reconciled.

Unique ultra-precision machining. The catalogue ties this to matching the basic dimensional design and the volume ratio to the application, and gives higher performance and greater durability as the result. It is a manufacturing claim rather than a measurable parameter, and no figure is attached to it here.

Reliable oil return structure. The catalogue describes oil being pumped through the upper oil pipe by the pressure difference between the high and low sides, then lubricating the moving mechanism and settling at the bottom, which produces a stable oil level, a small discharge oil volume and very little oil carried into the refrigerant pipeline. On this model the structural consequences are in the sheet: a minimum oil level of 10 mm above the upper end of the oil pickup pipe, a recommended oil-to-refrigerant weight ratio of at least 0.25 at an oil density of 0.94 kg/L, and an instruction that refrigerant must be charged from the condenser outlet and never directly into the compressor.

One caveat applies to the whole block. The catalogue's shared marketing copy for this site of the catalogue describes the family as scroll compressors in one place and states that the range includes inverter part-load efficiency technology, while the product line itself is fixed speed and rotary. Those two statements are not consistent with the technical pages of the same catalogue, which print rotary compressors and the word FIXED, and they are recorded here as catalogue copy rather than as product facts.

What are the design and operating limits?

The specification sheet devotes a full nineteen-row table to the operating standard for this compressor, headed as applying to R404A, LBP, fixed speed, horizontal orientation with liquid injection. It is the single most useful section of the document, because it converts a rated point into an allowable envelope.

The same sheet carries a parallel nineteen-row standard headed for R448A, and the difference between the two is concentrated in one row: the compression ratio limit falls from 19 to 16, with the R404A figure of 19 retained as the absolute limit. Everything else in the structure is the same. For a buyer planning a refrigerant transition, that single row is the practical decision point, because a system designed to run at a compression ratio above 16 on R448A is outside the maker's standard even though the compressor itself is declared for both refrigerants.

Four instructions in the sheet's usage notes are worth isolating, because each of them describes a failure mode rather than a preference. Refrigerant must be charged from the condenser outlet, and never directly into the compressor. The compressor must not be energised while the system is under vacuum. It must not be run in reverse rotation. And the crankcase heater is rated 240 V at 28 W, so it is not switched off with the compressor on a 220 V supply unless the control circuit is built for that.

What are the application scenarios?

This compressor is for commercial refrigeration at low back pressure, and the specification sheet's own envelope defines which of those applications are inside the design point and which are not.

Applications that fit:

• Commercial freezers and frozen storage cabinets. The rated point is at -23.3 deg C evaporating, which is a standard commercial freezing duty, and the envelope extends to -45 deg C.
• Reach-in and chest freezer cabinets in retail and food service. The 2.5 HP class with 2340 W at the rated point suits single-cabinet duty, and the single-phase 220 to 240 V supply means no three-phase installation is needed.
• Ice makers and ice machines. Listed in the same equipment class as the commercial refrigerating appliances the relevant safety standard covers, and the low back pressure class suits the low evaporating temperatures those machines run at.
• Blast chillers and blast freezers. The envelope covers the pull-down temperatures these units need, subject to the discharge gas limit of 105 deg C, which is precisely the constraint liquid injection exists to hold.
• Display and storage cabinets in supermarkets and convenience stores. The horizontal mounting envelope of A 374.3, B 404.3, C 178.0 and D 158.0 mm suits cabinet packaging.
• Small condensing units and cold rooms. The piping allowance in the 1500 to 2400 W band is 50 m of length and 20 m of drop, which covers a split condensing unit at a normal separation distance. Smaller condensing units at the other end of the family range are also available, and the smallest page in the family, the C-RHN75E4A, covers the 13.3 cm3 end for buyers who need less capacity.

Applications that do not fit, and why:

• Medium and high back pressure duty. The code's application block is L, low back pressure, and the datasheet's application field reads Low Back Pressure. The same catalogue spread lists separate HBP and MBP families, and the C-RHN110E4A sits at the top of the pressure range in the same physical size class.
• Blast freezing below the envelope floor. Below -45 deg C evaporating the compressor is outside its own standard, so a two-stage or cascade arrangement is required rather than a larger single machine.
• High ambient plant rooms. The two-phase limit and the 100 deg C shell bottom limit bound the condensing side. The rated point is at 32.2 deg C ambient, and the condensing ceiling of +60 deg C, or 2.83 MPa(G), is the outer boundary.
• Variable speed duty. The sheet heads the standard for FIXED operation and the rated frequency is 50 Hz. There is no inverter in this code, and the speed range of 198 to 264 rev/s is the operating band around synchronous speed rather than a control range.

The wider context for this class of equipment is set out in the UNEP and FAO report on sustainable food cold chains, which put food loss at 14 per cent of production, food waste at 17 per cent, the number of people who cannot afford a healthy diet at around 3 billion, and the loss of food production attributable to the lack of effective refrigeration at 12 per cent, with the cold chain responsible for 4 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. That is the market case for reliable low temperature equipment, and it is also, read the other way round, the case for equipment whose refrigerant does not have to be replaced before the cabinet wears out. A comparable article on this site covering a freezer compressor from another brand is the freezer compressor article on this site, which approaches the same duty from the reciprocating side.

How does the C-3RHV359L4AAL compare with the rest of the family?

The most useful comparison is against the rows printed on the same catalogue page as the target model, because those rows share a group heading and therefore share a power supply and a refrigerant declaration. They do not, however, share a stated test condition, and that limit is explained immediately after the table.

Basis: 2024 catalogue, rows printed on the same spread under the group heading R404a 220V~240V-1PH-50HZ.

Four observations follow from this table, and each of them is a real selection question.

The C-6RHV and C-RHV rows and the C-3RHV rows have different envelopes. The 9.2 cm3 to 16.1 cm3 group sits in a 269.5 mm or 285.3 mm overall length with a 153 mm or 158 mm height, while the C-3RHV group extends to a 374.3 mm overall length. Stepping up in capacity inside this family means stepping up in mounting envelope, not just in pipe size.

The displacement to capacity relationship is not linear. Going from 32.2 cm3 to 35.9 cm3 is a 11.5 per cent increase in displacement and a 17 per cent increase in rated capacity, and going from 35.9 cm3 to 46.3 cm3 is a 29 per cent increase in displacement for a 28 per cent increase in capacity. The step from the 2 HP row to the 2.5 HP row is the better value per unit of displacement, which is why that row exists at all.

Going down the range improves COP. The 9.2 cm3 row reaches 1.00 and the 16.1 cm3 row reaches 1.17, while the 35.9 cm3 row reaches 1.08. Small low back pressure compressors in this family are more efficient per watt than large ones, which is the ordinary consequence of a fixed clearance volume being a larger fraction of a smaller swept volume. A buyer choosing between one large compressor and two small ones is trading COP against part-load behaviour and against envelope, not simply buying capacity.

The 35.9 cm3 row is the largest row in this family that the maker files at 2.5 HP. That matters for anyone replacing a failed unit by class rather than by part number, because the same 2.5 HP class also contains rows at other displacements in other catalogue groups. The check is the displacement block in the code, not the class.

A note on how the rated capacity column was read. The catalogue's refrigeration spreads do not print a test mode column, unlike its air conditioning spreads. Each row carries a series of capacities across a set of evaporating temperatures, and the figure quoted above is the fifth column of that series in every row. That column was identified by dividing each row's fifth-column capacity by its power input and checking the result against the printed COP: the target row gives 2340 divided by 2160 equals 1.083 against a printed 1.08, the 32.2 cm3 row gives 2000 divided by 1980 equals 1.010 against 1.01, and the 46.3 cm3 row gives 2990 divided by 2670 equals 1.120 against 1.12. Seven further rows in the family were checked the same way and agreed, and one row, C-RHN110E5A, did not, which is why no figure from that row appears anywhere on this page.

The limitation that follows is this: because the spreads carry no test mode column, the capacities above are quoted as printed rather than as like-for-like ratings, and they should not be read as a controlled comparison. The target model's own rated point is confirmed independently of the catalogue by the manufacturer's per-model specification sheet, which states 2340 W at the TEST 4 condition. Two pages on this site cover the neighbours at each end of the 35.9 cm3 row, the C-3RH322L4AAL product page one step below and the C-3RH463L4AAL product page one step above, and both of those are the naturally cooled, non-injection variants at the same two displacements.

How does the 35.9 cm3 displacement split across the family?

Four rows in the maker's catalogue share the 35.9 cm3 displacement, and between them they demonstrate that displacement, cooling method and power form are three independent selection axes rather than one.

Basis: 2024 catalogue rows, drawn from four different group headings. Displacement 35.9 cm3 for the last row is taken from this site's product page, not from the catalogue.

The table has to be read with two disclosures attached, because without them it invites a wrong conclusion.

The capacity figures for the two 60 Hz rows are higher than the target row, 2808 W against 2340 W, at the same COP of 1.08. That difference should not be attributed to the cooling method on the strength of this table, because the catalogue does not print a test mode on these spreads and the rows sit under different group headings with different frequencies. The honest reading is that the naturally cooled 60 Hz variants are published at a higher capacity point than the liquid injected 50 Hz variant, and that establishing whether the difference is caused by injection, by frequency or by the rating point requires performance curves rather than a catalogue row.

The last row illustrates a separate point. The 380 V three-phase build of the same displacement has a larger envelope, 404.5 mm rather than 374.3 mm in the first dimension, and a lower published COP of 1.06. Capacity and power for that row cannot be read reliably because the catalogue spread interleaves two columns of text when it is extracted, so they are marked as not readable rather than estimated. The COP, the dimensions and the connection sizes are legible, and those are given. For a buyer who needs the three-phase build, the C-3RP359L4AAL product page is the page on this site to start from, and its published COP of 1.08 differs from the catalogue's 1.06, which is a site-level discrepancy recorded here rather than resolved.

The vertical builds at the same two displacements sit outside this table because they change the envelope more than they change anything else. A buyer comparing a horizontal build against a vertical one at 32.2 cm3 can see the trade on the C-3R322L4AAL page against the horizontal 32.2 cm3 row above, and at 46.3 cm3 on the C-3R463L4AAL page. Both vertical rows carry a longer overall dimension than their horizontal counterparts, 414.3 mm against 374.3 mm in the catalogue, at the same height.

How does R404A regulation affect a purchase decision?

This is the section that decides whether the compressor can be used at all in a given market, and it should be read before the capacity tables rather than after them. R404A is a high global warming potential refrigerant, and the European Union has legislated against it twice over: once against placing equipment that contains it on the market, and once against servicing equipment that already contains it.

The substance first. The German Environment Agency's published global warming potential table gives R-404A a hundred-year GWP of 3,922 in the AR4 column, 3,943 in the AR5 column and 3,922 in the column aligned to the current F-gas regulation. For scale, the same table gives R-407C as 1,774 and R-410A as 2,088 in the AR4 column. R404A sits at roughly twice the GWP of the refrigerants that replaced it in most new commercial refrigeration.

The market restriction is in Annex IV of Regulation (EU) 2024/573, which has applied since 11 March 2024 and which repealed the earlier Regulation (EU) 517/2014. Two of its entries bear directly on equipment built around this compressor:

Basis: Regulation (EU) 2024/573, Annex IV, as read from the published text.

The servicing restriction is in Article 13(3), and it is the sharper of the two because it bites on installed equipment rather than on new sales. Its second sentence reads: "From 1 January 2025, the use of fluorinated greenhouse gases, with a global warming potential of 2 500 or more, for the maintenance or servicing of any refrigeration equipment shall be prohibited." R404A has a GWP of 3,922, which is above that threshold, and the prohibition is not limited by charge size after that date. A cabinet containing R404A can therefore be placed in service in some markets and still become progressively harder to maintain, because topping up the charge with virgin R404A is what the article prohibits. Reclaimed refrigerant and the repair of already installed equipment are handled separately in the regulation, and Article 11(1) exempts the parts needed for the repair and servicing of equipment already in use, so a buyer's position depends on their servicing plan as much as on the purchase.

Two further provisions shape the practical options. Article 22(3) prohibits the export from the European Union, from 12 March 2025, of Annex IV equipment containing fluorinated gases with a GWP of 1,000 or more. Article 5(1) exempts hermetically sealed equipment from leak checking provided it is labelled, and Article 2(9) defines hermetically sealed equipment as equipment whose fluorinated gas containing parts are made tight at manufacture by welding, brazing or a similar permanent connection, with capped valves or service ports permitted and joints with a tested leakage rate below 3 grams per year. This compressor is built into a hermetic assembly, so the leak check exemption is the normal case rather than the exception.

The maker's own answer to the regulatory position is visible in the catalogue. The group heading that contains this row names R448A, R449A, R454C and R455A as alternates for the same hardware, and the specification sheet declares the refrigerant as R404A together with R448A. The sheet also carries a parallel nineteen-row operating standard for R448A, and the single material difference between the two standards is the compression ratio ceiling, which falls from 19 on R404A to 16 on R448A with 19 retained as the absolute limit. Performance curves for R448A at this exact code exist and are linked in the sources; they are not reproduced here because the numbers were not verified for this page.

What this means for a buyer is concrete. For a new installation inside the European Union, a self-contained commercial freezer using R404A is on the wrong side of Annex IV item (3) or item (4), and the practical alternatives are either a lower GWP refrigerant in the same compressor family, which is what the catalogue's alternate list points to, or equipment outside the self-contained definition. For servicing equipment already in the field, Article 13(3) has applied since 1 January 2025 to equipment of any charge size containing a refrigerant at GWP 2,500 or above. For markets outside the European Union, R404A remains widely used and the regulation above does not apply; the relevant question there is the servicing supply chain, and a buyer in those markets should establish whether reclaimed or virgin R404A will still be available over the life of the cabinet.

It is worth adding that the cold chain context makes this a system-level question rather than a component-level one. The UNEP and FAO report on sustainable food cold chains, published in November 2022, records that an estimated 14 per cent of food produced for human consumption is lost and 17 per cent is wasted, that the lack of effective refrigeration caused the loss of 12 per cent of total food production in 2017, and that the food cold chain is responsible for 4 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. A refrigerant decision that shortens a cabinet's serviceable life does not reduce emissions; it tends to increase them, because the emissions embodied in early replacement are counted on the same ledger.

Which standards apply?

Three standards and one regulation govern the electrical safety and refrigerant handling around a compressor of this kind, and it is worth being precise about which one applies to the compressor itself and which applies to the equipment it is built into.

The division of labour between the first two is the point most often misunderstood. IEC 60335-2-89 covers the appliance, and its own scope explicitly excludes motor-compressors, which it assigns to IEC 60335-2-34. So a compressor supplier declaring compliance with 60335-2-89 is describing the wrong document for the compressor itself. The same scope also excludes domestic refrigerating appliances, industrial refrigerating systems, commercial dispensing and vending appliances, commercial ice cream appliances, cold temperature rooms and multiple refrigerated chambers served by a remote motor-compressor, so equipment types that look adjacent to commercial freezing are covered elsewhere.

Two further details matter for planning. IEC 60335-2-89:2019 has three corrigenda on record, from 2019, 2021 and 2023, all still valid, and Edition 4.0 is already at the ACDV stage with a forecast date of 31 March 2027, so equipment designed today will very likely be assessed against a new edition during its production life. And the third edition cancels and replaces the second edition together with its two amendments, which means designs certified against the older edition are not automatically compliant with the current one.

No certification is claimed for this model on this page. A certificate exists at company level for a different product family, the direct current brushless air conditioning compressor range, and it does not cover the rotary refrigeration family that this model belongs to. It is mentioned here only so that a reader who finds it does not mistake it for a certificate for this code.

What should you check before ordering?

Nine checks, in the order in which they change the answer.

1. Confirm the power form against the site supply. The V block means 220 to 240 V, 50 Hz, single phase. A 380 V three-phase site needs the P form, which is a different compressor, and the same displacement in the 380 V three-phase build is the one to compare against if that is the case.
2. Confirm the application class is low back pressure. L means LBP. If the duty is medium or high back pressure, this is the wrong family regardless of displacement.
3. Confirm the evaporating and condensing points fall inside the envelope. The allowed range is minus 45 to minus 5 deg C evaporating and plus 30 to plus 60 deg C condensing, with a compression ratio ceiling of 19. Confirm the ratio against the R448A standard of 16 if a refrigerant change is planned.
4. Confirm the discharge gas and winding temperatures are controllable. Discharge gas has to stay at or below 105 deg C, with 125 deg C as the absolute limit, and winding temperature at or below 115 deg C. These are the limits that liquid injection exists to hold, and they are also the reason not to substitute a naturally cooled variant into a low temperature duty without recalculating.
5. Confirm the actual capacity at your own condition, not at TEST 4. The rated 2340 W is at minus 23.3 deg C evaporating and 32.2 deg C ambient. A plant room hotter than that, or a pull-down target colder than that, will not deliver it.
6. Confirm the refrigerant position for the destination market. For the European Union, check Annex IV item (3) or item (4) for the equipment type and Article 13(3) for servicing, and establish whether the R448A route is planned. This check can disqualify the compressor for a market before any of the thermal checks matter.
7. Confirm the envelope and the mounting orientation. The horizontal build is 374.3 by 404.3 mm in its two largest dimensions with a 178.0 mm height, and the compressor permits an inclination of no more than 5 degrees.
8. Confirm oil and piping details. The oil is FV68S or equivalent at 900 ml, the minimum oil level is 10 mm above the upper end of the oil pickup pipe, and the piping allowance in the 1500 to 2400 W band is 50 m of length with a 20 m drop. This site lists stocked refrigeration oils if the specified oil has to be sourced alongside the compressor.
9. Confirm the connection sizes and the electrical accessories. Suction is 12.8 mm inner diameter, discharge 9.6 mm, and liquid injection 6.5 mm. The relay is HLR3800-4G3D, with a 60 uF 330 VAC starting capacitor and a 40 uF 450 VAC running capacitor, and a 240 V 28 W crankcase heater.

Technical documents for this model are not held on this site: the Qishanr download page carries three manufacturer documents, none of them for this brand, so the specification sheet and the catalogue are linked to their own hosts in the sources instead. For background on how this site is positioned in the supply chain, see About Qishanr Technologies.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a product page for the C-3RHV359L4AAL on this site?

No. This site carries 59 Sanyo rotary compressor product pages and this code is not among them, and there is no article page for it either. The nearest pages are the 32.2 cm3 and 46.3 cm3 horizontal siblings and the 35.9 cm3 three-phase build, all linked above, and the brand level index is this site's Sanyo group page. Every technical figure on this page is therefore taken from the manufacturer's own documents rather than from a page reading.

Can this compressor be used in the European Union?

It depends on the equipment and on the date, and the two questions are separate. For new equipment, Annex IV of Regulation (EU) 2024/573 has prohibited self-contained commercial refrigerators and freezers using HFCs at GWP 150 or more since 1 January 2022, and has prohibited any self-contained refrigeration equipment other than chillers containing fluorinated gases at GWP 150 or more since 1 January 2025. For equipment already installed, Article 13(3) has prohibited the use of fluorinated gases at GWP 2,500 or more for the maintenance or servicing of any refrigeration equipment since 1 January 2025. Since R404A is at GWP 3,922, a buyer planning European deployment should plan around a lower GWP refrigerant, which the manufacturer lists for the same hardware, rather than around R404A.

Where can I actually read the source documents?

The specification sheet for this code is the manufacturer's per-model specification sheet carrying the model number 802 S81 15 and dated 24 January 2019. The 2024 catalogue is linked in the sources below. Both are hosted on distributor domains rather than on the manufacturer's own domain, because that domain did not respond when checked. The hosting is stated so that a reader knows the documents are authentic manufacturer issues held by a distributor, and not distributor-authored substitutes.

What is the rated capacity at -25 deg C evaporating?

The distributor page for this code publishes a capacity of 2340 W at an evaporating temperature of minus 25 deg C and a condensing temperature of 54.4 deg C, which is the same 2340 W as the rated figure at TEST 4. The manufacturer's own documents used here state the rated point at minus 23.3 deg C, and they do not print a separate value for minus 25 deg C. Since the two conditions are close, a small difference between them would be expected rather than surprising, and a system design that needs the value at minus 25 deg C precisely should obtain a performance curve rather than interpolate between two catalogue figures.

Why does the code start with C-3R and not C-3RH?

The C-3R block is the series, and the letters that follow it are read position by position under the manufacturer's first nomenclature key. In this code the position immediately after the series is the power form, which is V for 220 to 240 V single phase, and the H that follows it is the application class marker for high back pressure in the key. The orientation marker in this family is the H that appears after the application class, which the catalogue page footnote defines as Horizental Type, with V meaning Vertical Type. A code in the same family such as C-3R322L4AAL has no power form letter in that position at all, which is why the strings look inconsistent until the key is applied.

Does the compressor require liquid injection at low temperature?

The unit as coded is a liquid injection machine: the L block in the code is the injection marker, the datasheet lists the cooling method as LI-IN, and the compressor has a dedicated 6.5 mm liquid injection tube that the naturally cooled variants in the same catalogue table do not have. The manufacturer's stated purpose for the technology is to keep the discharge temperature down and the oil stable across the minus 40 to plus 10 deg C band. The discharge gas limit of 105 deg C with an absolute limit of 125 deg C is the constraint it addresses, so a system built around this compressor has to include the injection circuit rather than treat it as optional.

Is this a variable speed compressor?

No. The specification sheet heads its operating standard for FIXED operation and gives a rated frequency of 50 Hz, and the catalogue places the row inside its fixed speed low and medium back pressure section. The 198 to 264 rev/s figure is the permitted operating speed band, not a control range. A project that needs capacity modulation should look at the manufacturer's inverter families, which are coded with B for alternating current inverter or Z for direct current inverter in the position this code uses for V.

Sources

1. AVIC Electromechanical (Shenyang) Sanyo Refrigeration Equipment Co., Ltd. *Specification of Hermetic Rotary Compressor*, model C-3RHV359L4AAL, model number 802 S81 15, 24 January 2019. Hosted by a distributor: C-3RHV359L4AAL R404A LI specification sheet.
2. AVIC EM SANYO. *Rotary Compressor Product Catalog* 2024. Hosted by a distributor: AVIC EM SANYO 2024 catalogue.
3. AVIC Electromechanical (Shenyang) Sanyo Refrigeration Equipment Co., Ltd. *C-3RHV359L4AAL R448A LI Performance*. R448A performance curves for the same compressor.
4. Distributor product record for this code, including cross-checked capacity, COP, displacement and oil charge, and the working envelope: the distributor product page for this code.
5. Distributor brand page, used only for the company description where it differs from the manufacturer's own figures: the distributor AVIC page.
6. Regulation (EU) 2024/573 of the European Parliament and of the Council on fluorinated greenhouse gases, applicable since 11 March 2024: Regulation (EU) 2024/573.
7. German Environment Agency global warming potential table, AR4, AR5 and F-gas regulation columns: the German Environment Agency GWP table, and the agency's explanatory page, the agency's F-gas regulation page.
8. IEC 60335-2-89:2019, commercial refrigerating appliances and ice-makers: IEC 60335-2-89:2019.
9. IEC 60335-2-34:2024, sealed motor-compressors: IEC 60335-2-34:2024.
10. IEC 60335-2-40:2022, electrical heat pumps, air conditioners and dehumidifiers: IEC 60335-2-40:2022.
11. ISO 5149-1:2014, refrigerating systems and heat pumps, safety and environmental requirements: ISO 5149-1:2014.
12. UNEP and FAO. 2022. *Sustainable food cold chains: Opportunities, challenges and the way forward*. Nairobi, UNEP and Rome, FAO. UNEP and FAO, Sustainable food cold chains; full text the report PDF on FAO's server, DOI 10.4060/cc0923en.
13. Product pages on this site used for comparison, each of which carries a different displacement, power form or cooling method from the target model: C-3RH322L4AAL page, C-3RH463L4AAL page, C-3RP359L4AAL page, the 32.2 cm3 vertical page, the 46.3 cm3 vertical page, the 13.3 cm3 page and the 22.0 cm3 page.
14. Brand and index pages on this site: Sanyo rotary compressor group page, rotary compressor catalogue page, the compressor news hub and the freezer compressor article on this site.