Bob and Tim had just arrived at a service call, the first one for the day. The complaint was that the homeowner’s air conditioning had stopped sometime in the night and the residence was hot. After their initial checks, they suspected a low charge.
The supermarket industry realized a long time ago that it is impossible to solve environmental problems related to refrigerant leaks using a repair-based approach (i.e., with policies that focus on leak repair and record-keeping). Yet, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) main regulatory program to address harmful refrigerant emissions reflects a repair-based policy.
Some contractors have used leak-stop agents successfully for years and consider them practical and cost-effective ways to seal small, hard-to-find leaks in systems. Other contractors feel strongly that only two things belong in a system: refrigerant and oil.
Two seafood processing and cold storage companies, Ocean Gold Seafoods Inc. and Ocean Cold LLC, have agreed to cut R-22 refrigerant releases from leaking refrigeration equipment at their facilities in Westport, Washington, and pay $495,000 in penalties for environmental violations.
Verifying a diagnosis will take additional time, but this is time well spent. It will actually save time and money for both the technician and the customer by reducing the amount of callbacks and reducing the replacement of non-defective components on the job. It will also allow the technician to leave the job with peace of mind, knowing he has made a correct diagnosis.
DiversiTech Corp., a leading manufacturer and supplier of HVACR parts and accessories, announced that it has purchased Cliplight Manufacturing Co., a Toronto-based manufacturer of HVACR sealants, work lights, and battery charger products.
RectorSeal® Corp. announced that it has acquired the assets of Universal Technologies Inc., Baltimore, and its AC Leak Freeze™ brands of refrigeration and air conditioning system leak repair sealants.
What comes to mind when the topic is leak-stop additives for refrigeration systems? Do you use them at your company? A well-respected and very knowledgeable source gives some credit for today's low leak rates to good manufacturing techniques, but he also credits leak-stop additives.
Bob and Tim were on a job where one of the other technicians had been having a hard time with a persistent leak. He thought the leak was somewhere in the indoor unit, but he could not pinpoint it.
The Spectroline® VioMAX Plus (P/N VMP-400CS) telescopic, violet light leak detection lamp finds a/c leaks in tight, cramped areas not accessible to larger, bulkier lamps.