On Thu, 27 Jul 2006 21:04:13 -0500, "Howard Beale"
wrote:

"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.

I already knew that.

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.

As far as I practice, leaks, freon and a leaking system is not part of
a maintenance visit. My maintenance agreement visits are performed on
working systems. Systems with problems (leaks, etc.) are charged for
accordingly. The customer does of course recieve their priority
discount on these additional services.
Filled for free 4 times? Interesting concept. I pay for my
refrigerant. My customers pay for it too.
If my service tech told me he doesnt do or could not do a simple leak
detection service I would find a new service tech or company.


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.

Not necessarily. Ive found mighty strange things in my time as the
others here have.

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.

Running a system improperly charged is very hard on a system.
Overheating, coil icing etc are all variables that strain a system. It
WILL reduce the life of your system.
A compressor definately makes a different sound running properly as
opposed to one that is running low on refrigerant or in a vacuum. You
just dont listen to compressors all day long like we do to notice the
diff.

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.

No gimmick. Its called Tin Snips preferably handled by someone without
a hatchet license. Open it up, install a pretty custom split door for
future access and "away you go".

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

Wish I had a couple million bucks and several large breasted, long
legged, blonde haired, naked, horny women at my "beck and call".
Bubba