Derek Cole explains how refrigerant leaks damage air conditioners and heat pumps. Rising energy bills and abnormal temperature readings signal a problem. Simply refilling refrigerant without finding the leak is illegal under EPA rules and wastes money. Diagnose by checking temperatures first, then attach gauges only if readings are out of spec.
A huge issue, especially in the summertime here in Southeast North Carolina, but if you have a heat pump anyway, it can, you know, be an issue in the winter as well. How to deal with refrigerant leaking from your HVAC systems. Um, there are times your system, air conditioner, heat pump, can experience some problems., can experience a leak. Uh, refrigerant keeps your AC or heat pump functioning correctly, and any leakage can significantly affect your system's efficiency, increase energy bills, or damage the equipment. Signs of refrigerant leak. What are the signs? The first sign is an increase in your energy bill. Your system is now having to operate harder than before because it is leaking refrigerant. I kind of like to relate this to the body and, and your blood. If you're low in blood in your body, first of all, you know, you're not feeling great. Your body's having to overcome, say, trying, having to work harder to do the thinking activities because your blood flow is not where it needs to be. Well, your system is the same way. Your HVAC system, just like your body, is a closed system. It should not be leaking refrigerant. You should not be leaking blood. Uh, you know, you shouldn't have your arm out and blood comes out. You would you would stop and say, what's going on here? I can't stop bleeding. Um, if your HVAC system is leaking refrigerant, it's the same way. It's not going to operate at capacity because it can't, because it doesn't have what it needs to operate at capacity. Um, but how, how do, how, how do leaks happen? How does it happen? They're usually caused by damage or worn-out components in your system. Such as the coil or the compressor, or it could be the refrigerant line itself. Um, chemicals, environmental factors, all, all these things can corrode the copper or the aluminum, whatever material it is, and it can cause a leak. Now, some customers say, can you just refill my system without doing the leak search? Well, first of all, that's not a good idea. Um, again, it's like me going to the hospital and saying, look, can I get some, some more blood? I know I'm leaking, it's kind of a slow leak, um, but if I can get more blood, maybe I can make it through the summer, uh, without having to refill. Dude, that's not— that's not a good idea, man. That's not a good idea. Your body needs to be optimized. Your HVAC system needs to be optimized. Uh, you need to have the refrigerant properly in there. It needs to be sealed. We need to find the leak, fix— we'll see why it's leaking, find the leak and fix the leak and get it taken care of. Um, again, go back to your body and the blood. You're bleeding, you know you're bleeding. Why are you bleeding? How can we stop it from bleeding? Because you don't— you can't come every couple months and get a refill on blood. Again, you can't come a couple months, every couple months, get a refill on refrigerant. First of all, it's against EPA regulations, uh, they oversee their refrigerant usage in the country. It's against their regulations, but most of all, it's a bad idea. I understand things are expensive, but nothing is more expensive than your unit running inefficient and then you having to pay every year for a pound, 2 pounds, 3 pounds, however much of refrigerant, because it needs to be refilled. So stop doing that. Get the leak checked. Get the leak fixed. That's how you deal with the refrigerator leak. You don't keep putting Band-Aids on it. You don't keep putting Band-Aids on it. You have surgery, get it fixed, you get taken care of. Again, I like to put it in reference to the body because both of us The body and the HVAC system is a closed unit. It should not have this kind of problem. This is not normal. That's not good for your system. It's not good for energy bills. And if it's leaking refrigerant, it's not good for the environment. That's why the EPA regulates the refrigerant, is because it's not good to have it leak out and get into the atmosphere. So Um, a few signs of leaks there. Again, high energy bills, uh, the system is having to work harder to try to overcompensate for the refrigerant being out. Um, it's something that can easily be caught when it's present on a routine service, on a routine maintenance. Um, we don't actually I've had some customers be like, did you put gauges on my unit? We don't. We check temperatures. If the temperatures are off, then we put the gauges on it. Um, I put this into, uh, you know, putting air in your tires. You know, every time you plug into that unit to check the refrigerant, some refrigerant gets released. It just happens. So the best way to prevent that is you check temperatures— supply, return, superheat, subcooling. You check these temperatures and you check these things to make sure you're good to go, uh, before plugging in and seeing what's going on with the system, just to get a reading on it. Now, if you need to, you need to, but we're going to do everything we can not to plug in, uh, because you can always leak refrigerant out. It's very simple because, uh, like your tire has a little stem in it, uh, your system also has a little stem in it. So all it takes is a little bit of move for that thing to move for refrigerant to leak out and for you to have problems. So we try to prevent that and try not to plug in if we can, to see what the problem is. If the temperature's off, then by all means we're going to plug in and see what's going on and fix the problem. But on a routine service or just a check, we're not going to plug in unless problems are being presented or things are not correctly, uh, being presented. You know, again, you don't go to the doctor and, you know, They don't check your blood or get a blood test on you every single time unless they need to, unless they can't figure out what's going on, unless you need a blood test. You just don't go for a routine physical and say, yeah, I need blood work too. Not usually, not usually, unless you have some kind of history telling you there's a problem. Or the same way on your service, um, You know, if temperatures are off, we'll plug in. If they're not off, we're good to go. If, if you're reading the right splits and the right temperatures and the right readings, that there's no reason, uh, to do it. It's like, again, going for a physical. If you're healthy and, and you're passing all the physical tests and, uh, your blood pressure is good and everything's good to go, then I'm going to say Hey, just for the heck of it, let's get a blood test and see what's going on. Well, nothing's going on because everything's reading fine until it's not reading fine. When it's not reading fine, we do those things. Same way in HVAC, when everything's reading fine, we don't plug in. Uh, when it's not reading fine and we need to plug in, we're going to take that blood test and see what's going on.
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