Upshaw said he single-handedly revitalized more than an estimated $40,000 worth of refrigerant-leaking equipment over the last year as a maintenance technician for Gila Enterprises of Alpine, Texas, a small real estate investment/management company with about 10 properties. Upshaw, who started with Gila in 1988 after running his own HVACR service company in Arizona, said he could have saved the company an additional $100,000 in equipment if refrigerant sealants were available throughout the 1990s.
One example is a soft-serve ice cream machine at a 26-year-old Dairy Queen in Marfa, Texas, that Gila operates as a franchisee. Upshaw's electronic leak detector indicated a leak that was virtually inaccessible and most likely located in the water-cooled condenser. Since the 15-year-old, 1-ton unit was leaking and also needed an eventual refrigerant retrofit from R-12 to an HFC refrigerant, the manufacturer recommended replacing the $30,000 unit.