Do you have a heating and air system that has a leak? We're going to talk about that in this video, but before we do, my name is Josh I host the HVAC guide for homeowners YouTube channel and before we go any further, hit that subscribe button for more heating and air tips to help you save money and avoid some of the problems that we see homeowners face out there. But let's dive into it. Do you have a refrigerant leak of some kind in your system? What are your options? Let's talk about this: A lot of customers. When they're going through this, they are at the mercy of the Heating and Air contractor and a lot of contractors may look at the issue and decide how they're going to move forward based on the scenario.

What I mean by that is the contractor might say hey, I've got a system that's under warranty or not under warranty I've got a system that's super old or not super old I've got a system that has a refrigerant that is now obsolete or I don't and a lot of these will play a role in these scenarios. I Can tell you at my company at Griffin Air, we will a lot of times give the homeowner multiple options and allow the homeowner to make that decision. But depending on how that scenario plays out, in some cases, there's only one solution. One of those being if the system is under warranty, the manufacturers will sometimes get a vote in all this and what I mean by that is if they're going to have a warranty on that system that's not voided, well, then they say, well, you can't do certain things and we'll talk about what some of those things are in a moment.

But if it's under warranty, a lot of cases, they're going to say hey, we need to find that leak. Why is the system leaking refrigerant And once you find it, it is either repairable or a certain part needs to be replaced if it's the culprit, if it's the reason you're leaking that refrigerant. For example, if either the indoor or outdoor coils are leaking, in a lot of cases, the manufacturer will just provide a new coil. They don't want that necessarily to be repaired.

or I can speak from the country tractor's point of view. we don't always want to repair it right. Give me a new coil. Let's do this thing right.

I'm not going to get in there, try to repair a coil that is leaking. We're going to slap a new coil in there, pull a good vacuum, and do all the things we're supposed to do to make sure the coil is installed properly, and make sure the homeowner ideally has a permanent fix. Now, aside from doing a leak finding repair, what are some of your other options? Another option might be adding dye to that system. So if the contractor is having a hard time finding the leak, for example, maybe it's not a real big leak.

Maybe they took their sniffer device around or they did a pressure test or whatever reason, they just simply can't find the leak. I've seen that happen where systems don't necessarily leak so much in the summertime, but then come winter time it seems to all leak out or a lot of it leak out because the pressures are different in certain parts of that system based on the refrigerant cycle. But in that scenario where you are just simply not being able to find the leak, the contractor just can't can't find it. In a lot of cases they can add dye to that system.

It's a die that once it does start to leak some of that refrigerant again, the dye would be in there and it would show up. A lot of cases we use a specific type of light like a UV light and we'll shine around in there and find that fluorescent colored dye and maybe it's in the coil. So you shine your light up in there and you say boom, there's that leak, you'll the die will show it to you and I feel like when it first came out a lot of the guys hated dye. Some still do.

The guy that I learned under hated it. He would always just raise heck when he would you know, got that stuff on his hands or on his gauges and he hated when guys would add dye to the system. But here we are years later and I really think it's become more of the norm. We're seeing more guys use dye.

It allows you to pinpoint that leak. and the other thing is that a lot of times if you do a sniffer or a pressure test that you wouldn't pick up and that is if the system were to have multiple leaks, Dye would show you that. So A lot of times guys will you know they'll do a pressure test or they'll put their sniffer and they'll find the leak and they'll repair that. Not realizing there's actually other issues in that system, the die will show you that if you get in there and you shine your light around you might say oh, there's a leak here Oh, here's a leak over here at a braised joint and so on and be able to get a good permanent fix.

I Honestly have become a fan of dye over the years. There's been times where I feel like there were leaks that maybe were a little peskier to find and adding that dye to the system. we were able to take care of that customer and get them a good permanent fix for years to come. Another fix that we see folks offer and this would be in a case that is not under warranty and that is products that we call leak Seal.

Things like that where the system is leaking refrigerant, the product ideally would operate sort of like fix a flat for a tire. You would add it to the system and it would circulate in there. Find the leak and then stop that leak. There are products out there that are leak seal type products that have gotten a bad reputation.

not necessarily because the product itself is bad, but in the end, it can cause issues. and that is if that system has any sort of moisture or atmosphere. Maybe the installer wasn't very good and they have contaminants and things in that system that shouldn't be there. Well, then that product can also react with that and start to Gunk things up.

It can ruin metering devices, it can make compressors fail and so on. So it's something that we try to stray from. There are instances where we might have a homeowner that says Hey I want to use it I just need a temporary fix I'm just trying to buy some time. Maybe they're selling the house good or bad.

it's their prerogative. I'm not saying that it's a good thing that they want to add that leak seal in there just because they're getting rid of the house and they don't want to purchase a new system or whatever. but in scenarios that we have a homeowner that they're just trying to buy a little more time. Maybe they're planning on replacing this system, but they don't have the money quite yet for the investment.

They'll go ahead. And do you know, leaksio or whatever? Just something as a temporary fix for the time being and we'll put that in there In that case. We haven't done it in a while here at Griffin Air, but I Remember years ago I Feel like the dye is almost kind of replaced the leak seal for us because in cases where we might have done leak seal years ago now we do the dye. We want to find that leak and make a good permanent fix.

but there's different thought processes behind this. Other heating and air guys might say they do it a different way for their reasons. The biggest thing here is refrigerant is not getting any cheaper. We've seen over the years companies go from charging five or ten dollars a pound for refrigerant when I got in this industry where now we see guys charging over a hundred dollars per pound for the same refrigerants and part of that is refrigerant when we're purchasing, it has not gotten any cheaper and there's other overhead costs that guys will account for when they're quoting that price of the refrigerant and so on.

I Think the main thing here that I want to point out as we're wrapping up this video is: I Think the days of a charging go are maybe not ending? I Think there are still instances where you might do a charging go, one of those being it's only a little low. The system's kind of newer, maybe the installer installed it in a time of year where they couldn't necessarily do a proper sub cool measurement and now we've got a hot day and we can do it right and so on. Maybe I might do a charging go in that point. So that way we know that it's right from that point forward.

But years ago, that was the thing guys would just constantly do. Charging goes and move on to their next call. and they were just making a few hundred bucks here. A few hundred bucks there.

Those days haven't completely ended, but I do think those days are limited compared to the years past. The last one would be: You know if you have a system that you've had multiple issues and it's not under warranty anymore and it's getting sort of older, you don't want to continue to put investments in there, then maybe there are, you might consider replacing the system. That said, what are your thoughts I'd love to hear them, please comment Down Below Have you had an issue in the past that you wish you would have done something different? You wish you would have maybe had dye added to that system, or maybe done it a different way than you did Love to hear about that comment down below. Thanks for watching Hit that subscribe button.

We'll see you next time.