"wgd" wrote in message
.net...
My townhouse has the original York Champion heat pump from 1983. For
many years I used the local company which installed it for service.
They were pretty good until about 6 years ago when they were bought by
another company. Now I have little or no confidence in the people they
send.

The last time I had service the guy noticed a leak in a pipe leading to
the inside unit. It is in an upstairs utility room. It had been about
18 months since the last service. The leak was obvious because over
time it penetrated the pipe insulation. See picture below.

http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n...-pump-leak.jpg

The service guy had been busy trying to sell me a new heat pump. That's
all they want to do. My two closest neighbors in this section still
have their original York heat pumps. They were just good units.

"Wow, a leak! This is almost as good as a new unit sale!", thinks the
service guy. And he quotes me a repair price of about $1000 to fix it!

The repair would require extracting the freon to a recovery unit.
Cutting out and replacing the joint (or repair existing joint). Then
replacing the freon. Apparently this would be about a 2 hr. procedure
for someone who knew what they were doing.

I told him no. I thought the price was excessive plus I wouldn't trust
anyone this company has sent in the last few years to perform a repair
like this.

I got a recommendation from a neighbor for an HVAC tech they use who
was recommended to them by another neighbor. I'll probably use him in
the future. But I still want to avoid an expensive repair if possible.

Here's my $4 solution for your consideration - plumbing epoxy putty.
This stuff here from Home Depot.

http://www.pcepoxy.com/puttyepoxies/pcplumbing.asp

I would clean the pipe joint with alcohol then apply the putty to each
side of the joint to seal it.

Do you think this a viable repair method? I would really appreciate
your opinions since this newsgroup gives such great advice.

PS: If you would like to read something from an HVAC service guy who is
willing to admit exactly what happens in heat pump servicing (which is
almost as bad as appliance repair) you might want to check out the link
below.

http://toad.net/~jsmeenen/heatpump.html

A 1983 heat pump is the equivalent of a 94 year old person. If it is still
living, it is one of the exceptional ones.

Figure it like this. (And I speak from experience.) You can throw money
down the toilet on this unit, or just get a new one. The higher SEER
ratings on the new one will save you a lot on energy costs. You won't be
paying someone to come out and fix various things on this one. It's all the
same age ........ compressor ......... fan motors ......... capacitors
........ etc, etc, etc. You fix this one week, and that the next week.

As with any 94 year old, you need to pull the plug sometime, uncomfortable
as it is. Or just keep paying for a quality of life or service that doesn't
amount to much.

Steve