TROUBLESHOOTING HEAT PUMPS SYSTEMS…REFRIGERANT LEAK DETECTION DEVICES

No doubt, my most frustrating service issue has been locating refrigerant leaks. And I’ll be the first to admit it was due to my own ignorance, from simply not doing a little research. I started out with a cold sensor technology electronic detector, bought a second cold sensor electronic detector and eventually concluded electronic detectors were pretty much worthless, at least for my desires and needs.

Next , I let someone talk me into the ultrasonic detector method. I never found the first leak using it. In fact, I couldn’t find a leak in my truck tire with the thing…so much for ultrasonics.

When I discovered the fluorescent dyes, I thought my leak search headaches were over. And to a certain extent, locating some leaks did prove to be much easier. So long as the black light would shine on the leak area, and it was reasonably dark around the suspect area, and the dye was actually coming out of the leak, I was in pretty good shape. But then there’s the waiting period between injecting the dye, and actually seeing it exit the puncture…and the mess…and all the paraphernalia required to actually locate a leak…

At some point I walked into my favorite wholesale house and told the manager, “Today is the day I buy my last leak detector…if it doesn’t do what I need it to do, I’m just gonna’ slit my wrists, and let my wife collect the insurance…” I bought another electronic detector with heated sensor technology…I had done a little research. That turned out to be one of the finer moments in my service career. It worked so well and was so reliable, I didn’t believe it for a while. But once I finally gained some confidence with the tool, my leak search issues were mostly a thing of the past. I can find most leaks now about as fast as I can access the equipment…especially those pesky indoor coils. Add to the detector’s capabilities my knowing where to look, and my batting average is close to 1000. The biggest problem I’ve had recently was a 410A leak that didn’t want to sniff out well.

Before I get too many people overly irritated with my conclusions, let’s back up a minute or two and pay some due respect to the aforementioned devices and methods. I’m sure there is some useful purpose for electronic detectors that use cold sensor technology. I just don’t believe it’s the residential sector. They will indeed detect refrigerant…but they also detect other stuff, so you never know for sure if the alarm is refrigerant or some other unknown something.

The ultrasonics are revered by some folks, who claim good success in finding leaks. I’m not gonna’ call those same folks liars.

The dyes are absolutely an option for some situations. If for whatever reasons you need to pinpoint the location of a leak, that’s the way to go, unless you want to try the bubble solutions.

But for me, most of the time, I just want to know if a coil is leaking, or an accumulator, or a service valve, or a liquid line filter or whatever. If the coil is leaking, I’ll replace the coil…if the accumulator is leaking, I’ll replace the accumulator.

Most of the repairable leak sources are visible via oil deposits. The electronic detector will usually get you in the general vicinity, and the oil, along with some bubble solution will show you the target.

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