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Both Suction and head pressure are low, then “You Have A leak”.

How do find a leak in my air conditioner? What are signs of a Freon leak?  We will answer these questions in this page.

You my friend have an air conditioner that is low on Freon.

Since, both the high side and the low side pressures are low then it’s a pretty easy diagnosis. (Note: anytime you find an air conditioner that is low on refrigerant, you need to find and repair the leak before adding any Freon. Not only is it illegal to add Freon to a system if you don’t fix the leak but, it is also very expensive especially. Since 2012, when the EPA restriction kicked in full gear and we stated seeing price increases as high as 300% every couple months all throughout 2012-2013.

Ok, let’s find the leak.

We always try to find the leak the easy way first, so try it the easy way, if it doesn’t work we will do it the longer way.

Leak test #1 is to just look for oil as R-22 is oil based and a leak will typically leave behind a darker or wet spot from the oil. Look for oil; look for a wet spot that maybe has dirt stuck to it.

If you can locate the leak this way great, but if you still don’t see it continue to leak test #2

Leak test #2 is to spray down all the copper lines especially all the joints, with a mixture of water and liquid dish soap. While spraying, look very close for a small air bubble. If you see the bubble, that’s your leak if you do not see the bubble, then keep looking it’s got to be somewhere.

 

If after multiple tries you still cannot find a bubble.

 

Recover all the remaining Freon out of the system as described in page 13 then come back here to page 21.

Now grab your tank of compressed nitrogen and a regulator, put them together and pressurize the air conditioning system with nitrogen up to 250 psi.

Now go through and spray the entire system down again and find that bubble, LOOK VERY CLOSE all around every joint, braze, weld, access valve or copper penetration through panels or metal and be very thorough.

After you have located the bubble or we’ll call it, the leak that needs repaired.

Release all the nitrogen from the system until it’s at 0 psi.

Use sand paper and a metal brush to completely clean around the leak. Make sure it is very clean, clean copper is easy to braze over but dirty copper will never seal.

Now we “Fix the leak”… With a set of oxygen acetylene torches and a stick of 15% silver solder heat up the leaks joint or crack. When copper is hot enough to melt the stick of solder on its own, you’re ready to start applying it all around leak. Apply the silver solder until leak is sealed. Do not try and melt the silver solder, you heat the copper until touching the solder to the pipe melts the stick of solder.

Ok now that you have sealed the leak we can vacuum and re-charge the system in page 9 now.

The leak is sealed, Let’s vacuum and charge
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