Test for ac leak?

[boyet516]

I think I might have a leak in my central air conditioning, (the outside unit)one of pipe buildup ice & its not cooling the house, is there a simple way to test where the leak might occured? can I just use liquid soap to see if any bubble in all pipe connections? thx in advance

[Jay11J]

You could use soap/water. but some times the leaks are small that you won't see the bubbles.. Since you have ice on the line, get a pro in and let them take care of it. don't run the system this way or may cause damaged inside at the furance.

[NeedSomeACHelp]

I had similar problem yesterday.

Not sure how you do this yourself, but I called out an AC tech. He used 2 methods. First he used a "sniffer" hand-held device that can detect and "alarm" when it smelled freon vapor. The device he had made a loud audible alarm beeping noise and the closer the tip of the deivce got to a leak the more rapidly the beep became. He found a VERY small pinhole leak in aluminum tubing.

Once he got close with the sniffer, he pulled out some liquid soap and sprayed it on the tubing and the pinhole became instantly noticeable--bubbles showed up IMMEDIATELY.

Bottom line---I think you may need to get a tech to come out and sniff the system. On the other hand, if you have narrowed to the approximate location, I think some dishwashing soap (watered down) and sprayed onto the location with a spray bottle will show up immediately.

[NeedSomeACHelp]

Also---see the thread "How to repair pinhole leak in aluminum tubing?" which I started yesterday. I got a lot of feedback on feasibility, risks and methods of repair for small leaks--my siutation is in ALUMINUM tubing. If your leak is in copper tubing, it may be a completely different repair situation. I get the impression that copper is much easier to repair (weld and solder) than aluminum.

[DNT1]

Aluminum tubing is typically used for heat exchange devices and is made of very thin materials to maximize heat transfer ability. Sometimes the manufacturing process can cause the aluminum to be to thin in spots and sometimes a slight scratch to the surface can lead to problems down the road and of course the worst probelm is moisture and contaminants inside the sealed system causing acid formation which will eat thru STAINLESS STEEL pipe if left in there long enough. Have your tech run a acid test on your refrigerant he may need to add a new filter drier to clean your system to prevent more problems down the road.

[mattison]

Before going through all this, have you got a clean filter and clean coil? Make sure all your return and supply vents are open?

[boyet516]

thank for the info people, I know the filter is new, but I need to chk if all the vents are open, thx again.

Mattison, when you said chk the coil if it's clean, do you mean the coil in air handler(attic) or the outside coil unit? thx in advance