"Bubba" wrote in message
...


First things first. Its not Puron. Puron is not a refrigerant. Its a
"trade name" for Carrier's ****. Its R-410a.

I'm not an HVAC professional, I did not know the industry standard
designation.

Next, your tech is a lazy dip (unless you specifically told him not to
look for the leak?). Anytime refrigerant is added, you should suspect
a leak and the customer should be advised accordingly. Then, he has
done his job. You can then tell him, "no leak check, just fill-er-up"
or you can tell him, "Yes please. I'd like you to look for the leak".
Then he can quote you a fee for the leak check. After the leak is
found, he can then quote you a repair/replacement fee.

The previous tech did suggest there was a leak, but suggested it was small
and unless I was willing to pay a fee not covered by my maintenance
agreement, he said it was cheaper and easier to get it filled for nothing
about 4 times in its service life than to spend a lot of money sealing it.
He also didn't do leak detection, it would have been a seperate appointmnet.

Made sense at the time until it leaked again.

Look for the leak in the buried soffit last. You'll almost never find
a leak there unless you know you put a screw or nail through it?

The space the lines run in was an old garage finished off into a basement
not long after the new AC was installed -- years ago, I think a nail/screw
would have been noticed right away.

By the way, constantly recharging a system is very hard on it,
especially the compressor. After you've spent a grand or 2 on a
compressor replacement you'll stop recharging that system.

Is it the charging or the running low that's the problem? Charging doesn't
appear to take long and system doesn't make a different noise or appear
strained when it happens.

Look at the indoor coil and if it has to be cut, chopped, ripped outta
there then someone didnt do their job in using an access panel for it.

Perhaps there's some sheetmetal gimmick to open up the coil area, but it
doesn't look that way.

Wish I would have had your quite direct advice before I had it installed.