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Home Air Conditioner Furnace Freon Leak Detection Electronic

By Unknown
The Price of Freon has gone up 500% or more in the last few years. Freon leak detection is not normally a big deal. It is a big  deal if you keep adding Freon to your air conditioner every year. Freon is the  lifeblood of your home air conditioner. It provides the cooling for the compressor  in the outdoor air conditioning unit and it provides the heat transfer in the  evaporator coil in your home (the indoor cooling coil). Freon also carries the  oil through the system lubricating the internal components of your air  conditioning system.
  • No Freon – Means No Cooling in Your Home
  • No Freon – Means No Lubricating Oil in the Compressor
  • No Freon – Means the Compressor Will Over heat

Those are just some of the reasons to find any Freon leaks  and fix those Freon leaks. The price of Freon keeps going up and it is expected  to continue to rise. Since R22 Freon in no longer manufactured in the United  States and it is not allowed to be imported there is a shortage every year. All  Freon R22 is recycled. The EPA is predicting a 25,000,000 pound shortage of the  Freon R22.There are Several Methods of Freon
  • Leak Detection Electronic Freon Leak Detection
  • Visual Freon Leak Detection
  • Pressurization Freon Leak Detection

Fluorescent Dye Freon Leak Detection Electronic Leak Detection

This usually just involves usually a high tech digital  sniffer that hunts for the chlorine that is released when the Freon leaks out.  Going over every part of the system, every joint and every weld can find many  leaks, but this method leaves a lot to be desired. It is labor intensive and  you can receive false positives for Freon leaking.

Visual Freon Leak Detection

This is merely using your eyes and looking for the tell tale  signs of Freon leakage. Freon contains oil and when that oil leaks out it makes  a mess. Once an oil leak is witnessed we used a soap bubble solution to  visually indentify the presence of Freon gas escaping. This does work and it is  the simplest low tech way of finding large Freon leaks. It will not find the  small Freon leaks. Most Freon leaks are small. Pressurization

Freon Leak Detection

This is an old fashion component replacement method of  finding a leak. I think it really is just designed to replace system components  rather than identify and repair a Freon leak. This involves cutting the system  apart and pressurizing each component, the line set, the evaporator coil and  the conditioning unit to the same pressures and then waiting a couple of weeks.  Upon return that portion of the system that is lower pressure is the component that  is leaking and it can be replaced.

This type of Freon Leak Detection is very  time consuming. You can except to pay upwards of $500 just for Freon leak  detection and then the component replacement and reassembly of the system. The  minimum this repair is going to cost you is at least $1,500, hardly a bargain. Freon Leak Detection Using the Dye Method

Simple and straight forward. Your air conditioner isn’t  cooling because it is low on Freon. We inject a dye into the system with the Freon  while charging your system and testing it. The dye is inexpensive and when we  are done with our service cal you have a working system.

Read Next: Home Air Conditioner Furnace Freon Leak Detection and Freon Charging

Once the system goes  low again, probably next year, we come back out and go over the system with a  very high intensity ultra violet light using a very specific frequency of ultra  violet. Caution….those little handheld ultra violet lights will not work as  they are the wrong frequency. Minutes into the service call we can usually  pinpoint the Freon leak point and visually confirm this with you.
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